Ship’s Prow Pass

There's a clear vote for the easier route being up Grays and down Ships although we did a slight variation in the staging - overnight at KB and overnight at the bottom of Ships.

We missed the 'path' out of Ships pass valley onto the contour path - even though we were looking out for it. We didn't have a GPS track, so perhaps that helps but GPS still won't clear a path.

The Berg is losing its contour paths fast.

There is a cern on the left at the exit point, but it certainly doesn't stand out - I knew where to look and then found it. However, the first part of the "path" is very vague and we went wrong twice, even on this section I had to go down on my hands and feet (2m tall doesn't really help in this type of terrain, the shorter folks just had to walk bent over for a while). Keeping the pine tree in sight (it is the only one on the left hand slope as you decend from Ships pass) we then got onto the path and was fine. That being said the path was fairly overgrown (not underfoot but with higher plants obscuring the ground and tree branches in the way)but once you clear the protea forest section (within the first 100m or so) you are on a clear trail with easy walking. From here it is fairly quick to get back to Moncs Cowl

A few pics from our January 2016 hike, down the Ships Prow North Fork. Not my best idea of the hike. Really tough and as loose as everyone says. Not the best option.



At the top of North Fork, the loose rock & shale should have been a clue





On the way down, the Ships Prow clearly visible in the background.




Lesson learnt next time take the South Fork should anyone want the track let me know.

Can you please send me the track - would love to do this variation - did the South fork 16 months ago and the memory of how I suffered is slowly fading away

Hi Riaan,

As requested, remember we camped 1000m north of the actual pass and again at the bottom we found high ground to camp. You have to manufacture an exit to the contour path.

On the September long weekend last year ghaznavid and tonymarshall descended Ships Prow Pass (south fork), at the end of our hike which ghaz has described in detail on the thread “Didima/Monks Traverse: Going on a Witch hunt”. Here is my long overdue write up of Ships Prow Pass.

As stated in some of the previous posts, Ships Prow Pass tops out very high at 3290 m. The top of the pass is a long grass slope, which many hikers who have done Grand Traverses will be familiar with. We found a good trail at the top of the pass, visible in the photo below, which we were able to follow the whole way down the pass, until we lost it about 500 m upstream of the Contour Path.



Lower down you get into boulders and scree, still with a lot of grass, and the trail is still easily visible.



The Ships Prow, with Cathkin Mountain Pass, or Ships Prow Pass north fork, in the gully behind the prow.



“Look out ghaz, that ship is coming straight for you!” It’s around this height that the ‘ship’s prow’ which gives the landmark and pass their names is most apparent. Again I can’t help emphasizing the clear trail we were on, already a long way down the pass.



A view down the pass, to the bushy area below. The north fork gully is still a long way below the route the south fork takes. The entire pass from above the junction of the north fork is at a sustained steep gradient.



Starting to get to the infamous bush of Ships Prow Pass. We were a bit apprehensive from all the stories about this bush, but our trail we were on persisted and it wasn’t an issue at all.



A short, steep section down the ridge to the junction with the north fork, still with a clear trail. The junction of the two routes is at WGS84 S 29°06.176 E 29°20.643 2370 m (my gps coordinates).



A view back up the pass, with both forks clearly visible. We were still on the trail, and from here until we lost the trail about 500 m from the Contour Path, the trail stuck to the true left of the gully, sometimes in the stream bed, and sometimes to the left of the stream bed in the bush or grass.

The points where the trail went into and out of the stream bed were clearly marked with cairns, and quite easy to find.



Some of the bush we walked through. Even in this bush it was still easy to follow the trail, much to our relief.



The trail crossed several of these isolated heaps of boulders; islands of boulders in the bush.



A view back up the pass. It was about here that we lost the trail, but the bush downstream got thinner and the stream bed got wider and it was quite easy to move through.



A view downstream to the end of Ships Prow Pass at the Contour Path. We were walking in the stream bed here, which was very wide and braided, and quite easy to avoid getting wet and to move through the thinner bush. The two pine trees in the photos below are very useful markers. The tree in the foreground is very close to the Contour Path crossing of Ships Prow Stream, and at the tree we could easily see the Contour Path marked with cairns. The tree in the background, near the edge of the bush on the left side slope, is also close to the Contour Path and assisted us to find our way along the Contour Path once we got into the thick bush and trees. The Contour Path is visible on the grass slope on the left directly behind the pine tree in the thick bush.



A view back up the pass from the river bed just upstream of the Contour Path, with Tony on a section of the trail we had picked up again.



The bushy section of the Contour Path, which was quite clear and easy to follow, although at times it was necessary to duck down to pass underneath low branches.



Our last view of Ships Prow as we headed back to Monk’s Cowl office along the Contour Path. Note the pine tree marking the Contour Path crossing in the Ships Prow Stream bed.

Thanks Tony

I agree - Ships Prow doesn't deserve the bad reputation it gets. It is long, but not excessively steep an if you follow the trail, the overgrowth isn't really an issue.

It is hard to evaluate the grade of a pass when coming down it, but seeing as I came down Mbundini Pass as well - it is significantly easier that Mbundini Pass. I felt it deserved a 7/10 rating for difficulty at the time. Perhaps a bit harder than Fangs and Tseke, but much easier than the likes of Pins.

On a side note, the 3 highest topping out passes in the Berg (as far as I know) are:
1) KaNtuba Pass 3308m
2) Cathkin Mountain Pass 3298m
3) Ships Prow Pass 3290m

I know very few passes top out above 3200m, a few miss it narrowly (Pins, Corner etc). Off hand I am only able to think of Nhlangeni Pass (3225m). Walkers Pass is debatable as to where the top actually is (i.e. by Corn Cob Cave or above the large grass bank where it is marked on the map). Anyone know of any others offhand?

When we did it 2 years ago there was no path from the top of Ships Prow South to the point where you finally exit the riverbead and pass beneath the large pine tree on the slope above you. Glad to hear that the going is now easier 'cause fighting through all that undergrowth and protea trees was pretty tiring. We also had quite a bit of water in the river so couldn't necessarily choose the easiest route in the river bed. Definitely on my to do list later this year