The Mt Aux Sources - Amphitheatre - Tugela thread

Have a look at this scanned image of the old Slingsby maps, it may be of use to you:
www.berg.co.za/amphitheatre1.htm

If you have access to a printer, I could send you a scanned image of the Amphitheatre area from the new maps too. Just send me your email address in a PM.

You will not find maps for sale along the way, nor anywhere within the QwaQwa conservancy (entrance, Witsieshoek, Sentinel Car Park etc).

If you are in Joburg, try getting to Sandton City, Drifters should have them.

For reference, anyone looking to purchase maps online can also get them here:
www.mammothoutdoor.co.za/hiking-maps-c622.html

On sleeping options, you could descend Beacon Buttress Gully and and sleep in the nearby Sentinel Cave. Very good shelter and pretty safe.

Let us know how your trip went.

Welcome Gwakie.

If you want to spend a night out in the mountains in those parts consider sleeping in Sentinel Cave, or at the top of Beacon Buttress Gully (take water with you), or even a couple of hundred meters North of the Chain Ladders at the Elands River Falls (not too far North though cause because you soon run across two passes used by locals). If the crime bothers you do not camp in the Tugela basin. The further away from the Falls and the hut, the better. The theft problem up there has been going on for many years and it happens frequently.

Answering your last question, you can make a loop via Beacon Buttress Gully and the Chain Ladders, but the approach to these will have to be doubled back the way you came. There are passes in QwaQwa a little further North, but I wouldn't consider them for this trip.

Welcome to the forum Thomas.

Yes the car park is still operational and they do allow people up alone (last Thursday a solo Spanish hiker was rescued from the area). The hut on top is open to whoever wants to use it, and is still functional shelter, but it tends to have a lot of litter, inside and outside, and is not always the most cheerful place to sleep. Dig around on the forum for thread on the state of mountain huts - more detail there.

About Inner Tower, I've had two unsuccessful attempts at it from the escarpment, which seems comical given its grade, but its Berg climbing and the grade isn't always totally helpful in assessing a route. I had two different climbing partners on those occasions, and both were totally put off by the grassy pitch right at the start, and then the traverse on the narrow grassy ledge leading to the South East Arete and around the corner to the gully forming the Standard Route. The exposure on this grassy ledge is serious - I would not want to do it unroped and without placing gear. Even the grassy block leading to the ledge - I was kicking footholds into bits of soil and hanging on grass. Getting to the neck between Inner Tower and the escarpment is not too bad. Does involve some minor down-climbing and a traverse across a bit of unstable soil. I'll definitely go back and do it, all 3 summits and also the SE Arete which seems like a fun route, but with gear and with the right people. If you are asking me I wouldn't attempt it solo, but of course its all possible.