Mini Hike Reports
17 Oct 2016 14:59 #70053
by ghaznavid
Replied by ghaznavid on topic Mini Hike Reports
I will do a writeup for the passes on their respective threads - but here's the story of how a hike that technically went exactly according to plan almost resulted in 2 VE members being written about on the Dragon's Wrath thread...
The goal was simple - I needed Old Man and Ape, Mike needed both of them plus Starboard. After plans changed a few times, we found ourselves at Injisuthi camp at 5:30PM. Mike's first time there, my second.
By 6 we were on the trail. Moonlight was bright enough to walk by, so the headlamps only came out as we walked through shady patches or crossed rivers. The section just after leaving the contour path for Marble Baths was difficult to figure out, but the GPS track from the downloads section made all the difference.
Around 8:15PM we reached the cave. We had assumed it was on the river, so we were both close to being out of water. We used a few drips to fill the bottle. Overall the cave was pretty shoddy - wet in most areas, not much flat space, and as I mentioned, not close to water. Not what I was expecting for such a popular cave.
On Saturday we were on the trail by 5:45. The approach to Leslies wasn't nearly as bad as we had expected, we just stuck to rock hopping till we found the trail at the base of the pass. It was slow, but not impossible.
Leslies Pass took an age to get up, the pass is incredibly scenic and worth doing - but I doubt I will do it again. We took roughly 7 hours from Marble Baths to the top - and that was with light packs.
We stopped for lunch on the river just north of Leslies (not the river behind Leslies), there was a bit of a trickle, so we didn't take a massive amount of water (we need a "cringe" smilie for this).
We went up Ape, which has an incredible view over the Injisuthi Cutback. It was very windy, but the sun was shining and all was good.
We continued along, making our way up Old Man (the escarpment peak behind Old Woman Grinding Corn) - and standing on the summit of this one meant I had completed all of Murch's non-technical khulus in KZN. Just Giants Pass Peak to go to complete my own KZN non-technical Khulu list (watch this space - hike planned for 2 weeks time).
It began to spit a bit while we were on Old Man, so we put our raincoats on, and got off the summit as quickly as possible - mostly concerned about the lightning.
The sun briefly returned, but the skies looked ominous. We had to make a call on Starboard, and one could argue in retrospect that it was the wrong call (or conversely the fact that we both got home safely, perhaps it was the right call). Anyway - we traversed around the monster of a khulu, slowly gaining height. We dropped our packs at 3200m to walk up the last 60m. I should have noticed this, but Mike had taken his raincoat off, and wasn't carrying it up the peak - and yes, you are justified in being very critical of me for that, that was very poor and if you consider what was about to come, I don't even want to think of what could have happened.
We got to the top as the heavens opened. We raced to our packs and Mike quickly got his jacket on - fortunately his clothes were just a bit damp, nothing more.
We sat behind a rock that was shielding us from the wind - the wind was so strong that we were completely out of the rain, even though we had nothing above us. I knew we couldn't sit here forever, it was just past 4PM and we needed to get to Nkosasana Cave.
We waited for the rain to stop, and then decided to go for it, but as we hit 3100m on the slopes of Bothlolong, the heavens opened once more. There was a bit of shelter from the wind due to the peak, but it was enough to get you from barely being able to stand up in the wind, to just being able to stand up. We both had trail shoes on and neither had waterproof pants - and the wind kept taking our splash covers off.
I managed to find the shortcut traverse into Ships Prow, which saved a few minutes, but I knew the top of the pass, and the subsequent section before dropping down into the Nkosasana Valley would be horrible.
To slightly paraphrase what Churchill said - if you're going through hell, it is best to keep going. The wind at the top of the pass was insane, the rain included a bit of hail. It felt like little knives cutting into your face. My hands, legs and face were completely numb, and I knew fully well, if I sat down, I would probably never stand up again.
As we dropped into the Nkosasana Valley, we picked up the pace. The wind slowly died as we dropped down, and by 1km from the cave, the rain had stopped. My legs felt like they were on fire as they woke up - for those who have never run with legs that have gone dead, it is the strangest feeling ever, and I would not have thought that one actually can do this - but apparently you can.
When we hit the cave, we both rushed to get into our sleeping bags. Unfortunately Mike was about to learn a valuable lesson about why you should always keep your sleeping bag in a plastic packet.
Nonetheless, we had survived and were in our sleeping bags at 6:30, with only our dry clothes on, everything else set out on the rocks around the cave (dry clothes amounted to one item each). We had both been out of water for 4h30 by now, and neither of us would be heading down to the river any time soon. Mike had supper while I sat and shivered in my -7C bag. I knew I was not ok, and I equally knew that there was very little I could do about it, aside from waiting for my body to warm up.
At first, Mike had been mostly fine, but the wet sleeping bag was not helping. Fortunately his -7C bag (we both had MHW -7C bags, he was using my old Pinole, and I had my Lamina 20) was synthetic and after some time he did begin to get warm again.
At 2:40AM, after having not wanted to get out of my sleeping bag, but knowing that my headache was due to dehydration, I finally put my wet clothes on - actually they were mostly dry courtesy of the gale blowing past the entrance to the cave - and took a walk down to the river to fill our bottles. I didn't take my headlamp or GPS, just trusting that I would find my way by moonlight. Probably not my smartest move, but no one is really thinking straight at 2:40AM, after not having anything to drink for over 10 hours and having narrowly missed hypothermia!
Sunday would be a long day, so at 4:30, my alarm went off. I was able to get ready quite quickly, but Mike took an age to get ready, so we only set off at 5:40.
The walk to the top of Cathkin Mountain Pass was slow, and the wind was howling - not the 60-80km/h of the day before, but easily 50km/h. The sun hit us by the top of the pass, and within an hour of being on the pass, we had swung from memories of almost-hypothermia to sweating in a single layer of clothing.
Cathkin Mountain Pass doesn't deserve its reputation, but should not be attempted by anyone who is not properly experienced or in poor weather. If you can handle the likes of Nguza Pass, this is only slightly dodgier. There are plenty of rocks that one could easily disturb, resulting in a few tons of rock falling on ones head - so caution is required. We did also notice a few rocks falling from the cliffs above at one point - so this is not a pass to be taken lightly. It is hard to properly convey what I am trying to say - but in summary, if you know what you are doing, this is actually quite a nice pass. If you aren't very careful on this pass, you could well make life difficult for the rescue team seeing as your body will be under a few tons of rock. But the pass isn't technical or difficult, just very steep. I guess it gets rock status (as opposed to Rock or ROCK) because of the boulder hopping - but there is no scrambling on the pass at all.
From the base of the pass to the base of Ships Prow Pass was longer than anticipated, close to 1km. The trail down from Ships Prow has become very badly overgrown since I did the pass with Tony last year, so we ended up hopping down the rocks of the riverbed.
The turnoff for the contour path is completely blocked by vegetation, and we had to use a GPS to figure out where the contour path even went, once we finally found it. In places we even had to crawl - and I am not exaggerating when I say that.
We actually composed our own parody of the Bear Song by Green Jelly for this section of the pass:
If you don't know the Bear Song, the above probably makes no sense...
We must have lost a good hour or so to overgrowth. And then the contour path leading towards Shada Ridge is possibly the worst trail design anywhere on the contour path - often zig-zagging when a traverse to hold altitude could have been done, or climbing to a stream crossing and dropping down on the other side. Basic trail design errors that add distance and difficulty for no benefit.
We reached the turnoff for Shada Ridge at 1:45PM. We had asked permission to pay for our permits on Sunday afternoon, but were realising that our odds of reaching the camp before they close at 4PM was getting lower - the map showed 10.5km remaining, and we had to drop over 500m vertically in that time. Game on!
Shada Ridge has some exceptional views, and is a ridge I would recommend using - although it isn't very helpful for escarpment hiking.
We made good time along this ridge, but reaching the top of Van Heyningen's Pass around 3PM, we knew we were basically out of the game already.
We made good time down the Small Berg pass (which is quite scenic), and found a trail that isn't marked on the map, but did have a concrete sign point down it marked "camp", so it must be official. It was significantly shorter than the map route, and at 3:51PM, we were at the offices paying for our permits. Talk about cutting it fine! The trail came out behind the chalets, and is marked by a massive engraved rock.
I haven't loaded the GPS track onto my computer yet, but our distance was about 60km in 46 hours - so not terribly fast, but I think we did alright. And we did hit all our goals, including the "getting home safely" one that always tops the priority list. Overall a good weekend out.
Ps. if you want to do both Ships Prow and Cathkin Mountain Pass, consider heading up Grays, down Cathkin Mountain Pass and up Ships Prow Pass - it will save you a lot of pain and suffering
The passes are actually great routes, it is the bottom bit that kills you...
Photos relating to the passes will be posted on the pass specific threads.
The goal was simple - I needed Old Man and Ape, Mike needed both of them plus Starboard. After plans changed a few times, we found ourselves at Injisuthi camp at 5:30PM. Mike's first time there, my second.
By 6 we were on the trail. Moonlight was bright enough to walk by, so the headlamps only came out as we walked through shady patches or crossed rivers. The section just after leaving the contour path for Marble Baths was difficult to figure out, but the GPS track from the downloads section made all the difference.
Around 8:15PM we reached the cave. We had assumed it was on the river, so we were both close to being out of water. We used a few drips to fill the bottle. Overall the cave was pretty shoddy - wet in most areas, not much flat space, and as I mentioned, not close to water. Not what I was expecting for such a popular cave.
On Saturday we were on the trail by 5:45. The approach to Leslies wasn't nearly as bad as we had expected, we just stuck to rock hopping till we found the trail at the base of the pass. It was slow, but not impossible.
Leslies Pass took an age to get up, the pass is incredibly scenic and worth doing - but I doubt I will do it again. We took roughly 7 hours from Marble Baths to the top - and that was with light packs.
We stopped for lunch on the river just north of Leslies (not the river behind Leslies), there was a bit of a trickle, so we didn't take a massive amount of water (we need a "cringe" smilie for this).
We went up Ape, which has an incredible view over the Injisuthi Cutback. It was very windy, but the sun was shining and all was good.
We continued along, making our way up Old Man (the escarpment peak behind Old Woman Grinding Corn) - and standing on the summit of this one meant I had completed all of Murch's non-technical khulus in KZN. Just Giants Pass Peak to go to complete my own KZN non-technical Khulu list (watch this space - hike planned for 2 weeks time).
It began to spit a bit while we were on Old Man, so we put our raincoats on, and got off the summit as quickly as possible - mostly concerned about the lightning.
The sun briefly returned, but the skies looked ominous. We had to make a call on Starboard, and one could argue in retrospect that it was the wrong call (or conversely the fact that we both got home safely, perhaps it was the right call). Anyway - we traversed around the monster of a khulu, slowly gaining height. We dropped our packs at 3200m to walk up the last 60m. I should have noticed this, but Mike had taken his raincoat off, and wasn't carrying it up the peak - and yes, you are justified in being very critical of me for that, that was very poor and if you consider what was about to come, I don't even want to think of what could have happened.
We got to the top as the heavens opened. We raced to our packs and Mike quickly got his jacket on - fortunately his clothes were just a bit damp, nothing more.
We sat behind a rock that was shielding us from the wind - the wind was so strong that we were completely out of the rain, even though we had nothing above us. I knew we couldn't sit here forever, it was just past 4PM and we needed to get to Nkosasana Cave.
We waited for the rain to stop, and then decided to go for it, but as we hit 3100m on the slopes of Bothlolong, the heavens opened once more. There was a bit of shelter from the wind due to the peak, but it was enough to get you from barely being able to stand up in the wind, to just being able to stand up. We both had trail shoes on and neither had waterproof pants - and the wind kept taking our splash covers off.
I managed to find the shortcut traverse into Ships Prow, which saved a few minutes, but I knew the top of the pass, and the subsequent section before dropping down into the Nkosasana Valley would be horrible.
To slightly paraphrase what Churchill said - if you're going through hell, it is best to keep going. The wind at the top of the pass was insane, the rain included a bit of hail. It felt like little knives cutting into your face. My hands, legs and face were completely numb, and I knew fully well, if I sat down, I would probably never stand up again.
As we dropped into the Nkosasana Valley, we picked up the pace. The wind slowly died as we dropped down, and by 1km from the cave, the rain had stopped. My legs felt like they were on fire as they woke up - for those who have never run with legs that have gone dead, it is the strangest feeling ever, and I would not have thought that one actually can do this - but apparently you can.
When we hit the cave, we both rushed to get into our sleeping bags. Unfortunately Mike was about to learn a valuable lesson about why you should always keep your sleeping bag in a plastic packet.
Nonetheless, we had survived and were in our sleeping bags at 6:30, with only our dry clothes on, everything else set out on the rocks around the cave (dry clothes amounted to one item each). We had both been out of water for 4h30 by now, and neither of us would be heading down to the river any time soon. Mike had supper while I sat and shivered in my -7C bag. I knew I was not ok, and I equally knew that there was very little I could do about it, aside from waiting for my body to warm up.
At first, Mike had been mostly fine, but the wet sleeping bag was not helping. Fortunately his -7C bag (we both had MHW -7C bags, he was using my old Pinole, and I had my Lamina 20) was synthetic and after some time he did begin to get warm again.
At 2:40AM, after having not wanted to get out of my sleeping bag, but knowing that my headache was due to dehydration, I finally put my wet clothes on - actually they were mostly dry courtesy of the gale blowing past the entrance to the cave - and took a walk down to the river to fill our bottles. I didn't take my headlamp or GPS, just trusting that I would find my way by moonlight. Probably not my smartest move, but no one is really thinking straight at 2:40AM, after not having anything to drink for over 10 hours and having narrowly missed hypothermia!
Sunday would be a long day, so at 4:30, my alarm went off. I was able to get ready quite quickly, but Mike took an age to get ready, so we only set off at 5:40.
The walk to the top of Cathkin Mountain Pass was slow, and the wind was howling - not the 60-80km/h of the day before, but easily 50km/h. The sun hit us by the top of the pass, and within an hour of being on the pass, we had swung from memories of almost-hypothermia to sweating in a single layer of clothing.
Cathkin Mountain Pass doesn't deserve its reputation, but should not be attempted by anyone who is not properly experienced or in poor weather. If you can handle the likes of Nguza Pass, this is only slightly dodgier. There are plenty of rocks that one could easily disturb, resulting in a few tons of rock falling on ones head - so caution is required. We did also notice a few rocks falling from the cliffs above at one point - so this is not a pass to be taken lightly. It is hard to properly convey what I am trying to say - but in summary, if you know what you are doing, this is actually quite a nice pass. If you aren't very careful on this pass, you could well make life difficult for the rescue team seeing as your body will be under a few tons of rock. But the pass isn't technical or difficult, just very steep. I guess it gets rock status (as opposed to Rock or ROCK) because of the boulder hopping - but there is no scrambling on the pass at all.
From the base of the pass to the base of Ships Prow Pass was longer than anticipated, close to 1km. The trail down from Ships Prow has become very badly overgrown since I did the pass with Tony last year, so we ended up hopping down the rocks of the riverbed.
The turnoff for the contour path is completely blocked by vegetation, and we had to use a GPS to figure out where the contour path even went, once we finally found it. In places we even had to crawl - and I am not exaggerating when I say that.
We actually composed our own parody of the Bear Song by Green Jelly for this section of the pass:
The hikers went over the Ape to see what they would see [hey]
The other side of the Ape was all that they could see
So they went over Starboard to see what they could see [hey]
The other side of Starboard was all that they could see
You hiker, you hiker
Can't you plainly see [hey]
It's nothing but an overgrown Ships Prow Pass gully [ho]
Many a mile I've travelled
Three thousand miles or so
But I never saw a trail as overgrown as this before
[somebody give that trail a haircut]
If you don't know the Bear Song, the above probably makes no sense...
We must have lost a good hour or so to overgrowth. And then the contour path leading towards Shada Ridge is possibly the worst trail design anywhere on the contour path - often zig-zagging when a traverse to hold altitude could have been done, or climbing to a stream crossing and dropping down on the other side. Basic trail design errors that add distance and difficulty for no benefit.
We reached the turnoff for Shada Ridge at 1:45PM. We had asked permission to pay for our permits on Sunday afternoon, but were realising that our odds of reaching the camp before they close at 4PM was getting lower - the map showed 10.5km remaining, and we had to drop over 500m vertically in that time. Game on!
Shada Ridge has some exceptional views, and is a ridge I would recommend using - although it isn't very helpful for escarpment hiking.
We made good time along this ridge, but reaching the top of Van Heyningen's Pass around 3PM, we knew we were basically out of the game already.
We made good time down the Small Berg pass (which is quite scenic), and found a trail that isn't marked on the map, but did have a concrete sign point down it marked "camp", so it must be official. It was significantly shorter than the map route, and at 3:51PM, we were at the offices paying for our permits. Talk about cutting it fine! The trail came out behind the chalets, and is marked by a massive engraved rock.
I haven't loaded the GPS track onto my computer yet, but our distance was about 60km in 46 hours - so not terribly fast, but I think we did alright. And we did hit all our goals, including the "getting home safely" one that always tops the priority list. Overall a good weekend out.
Ps. if you want to do both Ships Prow and Cathkin Mountain Pass, consider heading up Grays, down Cathkin Mountain Pass and up Ships Prow Pass - it will save you a lot of pain and suffering
The passes are actually great routes, it is the bottom bit that kills you...Photos relating to the passes will be posted on the pass specific threads.
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15 Nov 2016 13:21 #70213
by Stijn
Replied by Stijn on topic Mini Hike Reports
On the weekend of 12 & 13 November, 8 of us did the classic Mnweni/Rockeries loop, with a night at Ledger's Cave on the Saturday. We had planned to hike in to Five Star Cave on Friday night but due to the generally miserable weather that night, decided to only leave in the morning when the forecast was better and take on quite a long day from the MCC straight up to the escarpment instead.
The weather on the first day was glorious, and with light packs, we made good progress - lunch and a dip in the pool at the bottom of Mnweni Pass and then snug in the cave later that afternoon. The Berg was beautifully green and the rivers were full but not too challenging to cross. Just a low wade required every now and then. My friend Kevin was contracting at a mine in Lesotho, so had hiked in from the Letseng Diamond Mine to meet us at the cave - a distance of about 25km and apparently a fantastic high-ridge traverse. There was a strong wind howling through the cave, which luckily died down as the night may have been pretty arctic otherwise!
I think this was my 10th visit to Ledger's Cave and once again, we awoke to that wonderful sunrise-over-a-sea-of-clouds view. The clouds rose and we descended the top part of Rockeries Pass in the mist. As usual, it got pretty hot again by the time we were slogging out the last gravel road section and the ice cold beers were much-appreciated by the time we got there!
The weather on the first day was glorious, and with light packs, we made good progress - lunch and a dip in the pool at the bottom of Mnweni Pass and then snug in the cave later that afternoon. The Berg was beautifully green and the rivers were full but not too challenging to cross. Just a low wade required every now and then. My friend Kevin was contracting at a mine in Lesotho, so had hiked in from the Letseng Diamond Mine to meet us at the cave - a distance of about 25km and apparently a fantastic high-ridge traverse. There was a strong wind howling through the cave, which luckily died down as the night may have been pretty arctic otherwise!
I think this was my 10th visit to Ledger's Cave and once again, we awoke to that wonderful sunrise-over-a-sea-of-clouds view. The clouds rose and we descended the top part of Rockeries Pass in the mist. As usual, it got pretty hot again by the time we were slogging out the last gravel road section and the ice cold beers were much-appreciated by the time we got there!
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