Gray's Pass - Ships Prow Pass Loop

I stand to be corrected on this forum but if I remember Ships Prow Pass is the longest pass in the berg and also tops out as the highest pass. Two more reasons why it can take it out of you.
Regards
Selous

Selous wrote: I stand to be corrected on this forum but if I remember Ships Prow Pass is the longest pass in the berg and also tops out as the highest pass. Two more reasons why it can take it out of you.
Regards
Selous

not to mention that bundu at the bottom in the river bed!

I love hikers and climbers... we are dumb with very short term memory! It seems we have a perverse capacity for putting ourselves through extraordinary suffering. Then we forget and go back to repeat!

I'm warming up to this Ship Prow mission. Having done Grey's 5 times I'm not sure why I never got to it yet?

My feelings about doing Ship's Prow again are the same as for doing Kili again: I'll do it again as soon as I've forgotten how bloody hard it was the first time

I do plan to do Ship's Prow again at some point. I'll have a lot more 'berg experience, much lighter kit, hopefully fitter, and I'll know what to expect.

ASL wrote: I love hikers and climbers... we are dumb with very short term memory! It seems we have a perverse capacity for putting ourselves through extraordinary suffering. Then we forget and go back to repeat!

I'm warming up to this Ship Prow mission. Having done Grey's 5 times I'm not sure why I never got to it yet?

haha, yes sounds pretty insane ... i'll happily join

Hi All

This thread reminds me of my first proper hike in the berg. I was in the capable hands of Robert Dalgleish (RobD in the VE Forum) It was May 1991. I was 19 years old.
We did a weekend hike traveling from JHB on the Friday night and arriving at the Monks Cowl Camp site at around 10Pm from JHB. We started walking at around 7:30am on the Saturday morning. (based on the sunlight on the high berg on the photo below). We went down Greys Pass on the Sunday (If my memory serves me correct) and we were back in JHB late on the Sunday Night.
Selous - Far left.



I remember RobD telling me the story on the way down about the guys who were crushed in the flash flood in Ships Prows pass while camping many years prior to 1991. I remember the boulders when I took this photo and thinking am I going to survive this. The stream section is a lot more over grown now with Chi Chi bush.

It was getting dark when we were still climbing up Ships Prow Pass as this photo shows.



It was dark probably around 7PM and we still had not topped out of Ships Prows Pass. I am not in the photo but I remember being very cold and tired.



The Sunday morning photo shows the tents pitched just below the top of Ships Prows Pass. All of us were dog tired and especially me. I climbed into my sleeping bag and fell asleep straight away. RobD still went down and fetched water, made super, hot Chocolate and woke me up and made me eat a hearty berg dinner followed by a welcome hot sugary drink. To this day I still remember that and still think that he is a true legend.



I have done Ships Prows a few times since then but it will always have my respect.

Regards
Selous

If you are looking for a longish day hike/run in that central berg area, there are many routes more suitable than Ships Prow. Gatberg/Intunja is a 10 hour day hike from Monks Campsite. If you are looking for something more strenuous, then you could try Grays Pass in one day from the campsite. In 2000 (when I was still young and stupid and Comrades fit) I managed Grays Pass in 10 hours from Champagne Castle Hotel - running shoes and light backpack with only water and energy bars. Left at 6am and got back at 4pm feeling very buggered.
It's a beautiful part of the berg - I now rather take my time and actually see the area I am hiking through

The Ship seems to provide some of the more painful (yet wonderful) memories to all. Exactly the same this side. We were mad back in the day, wanting to do long distances per day just for the challenge of it. So we set off from Injasuthi via Cataract Valley, with the intention of topping out on Ships, camp for the night, and set off the next day over Mafadi, down via Corner to Centenary Hut. Two loooong days it turned out to be. That first day up Ships Prow South nearly broke me, I am not what you would call a long distance fitness kind of guy and that sustained and ever increasing gradient all the way from the Contour path to the top had me on the ropes. With those aching muscles we then had an even longer day 2 (we eventually descended via Judges because our legs were all shot and Corner was snowed in, that only added to the misery as we had that dreaded snaking contour path section between Judges back to Centenary waiting).

I obviously love Berg hiking but this trip is not my fondest memory. That was the last hike we did like this, subsequent hikes were all broken down into more manageable days.

I have not done even 30% of passes in the Berg so can't comment with authority on which is the toughest, but from what I have done Ships Prow is the toughest.

Hey every one. Thanks so much for the many replies. I am "respectfully" much more nervous about doing this one and are considering to rather go up Grey's Pass and descending via Ships Prow or if it is too intimidating, going back the way we came. Much Appreciation for all the amazing stories and advice!