Snow Watch 2017

I spent the day in the snow around Rhino Peak this morning - the snow started surprisingly low down in the pass, around 2200m as I was heading up the pass, but by the time I came down it had melted a fair bit was was only above 2500m, and only on the south facing slopes by then

Were you involved in the rescue Carl?

I believe some inadequately equipped foreign hikers were rescued from the snow on the summit near Lotheni Pass.

This was how Tsepeng Pass looked on Saturday:


I was hiking with Papa Dragon and Smurfatefrog, who had been doubtful that we could ascend before we even started on the pass and were some 200 - 300 vertical metres behind me. I thought I was scouting the feasibility of the gully, having left my pack on the slopes before the gully; they thought I was going for it alone. Progress was fairly easy after I entered the gully, with exposed rocks making for easy purchase:


But then I reached this impasse:


The snow on the righthand bank was thigh- to waist-deep, which was impossible to move through. I barely managed to scramble up with the help of the rocks on the right and probably wouldn't have been able to with a pack. In the better exposed photo below it appears that some light buck used the same bank earlier:


The view into the gully from above this bank:


To the right was the bank pictured below, which probably would have been manageable for a more experience hiker. But behind me was a big drop, and I was already feeling uncomfortable (the photos do not convey how steep these slopes are):


A pic of the slope leading into the gully:


So, not knowing what obstacles lay ahead, even if I were able to make it up the slope, I decided to turn back and join the others. We walked down Hidden Valley and spent the night in Secret Cave.