Cathedral Peak (Drakensberg) May 2007

We arrived in Bergville just before 21:00 and booked into the caravan park. We asked the park owner about snow on the mountains and she confirmed that the Berg did have snow earlier the week. This made us optimistic about getting snow on Cathedral peak. At the tennis court we packed out and set up for the night.

Day 1 (26 May): The alarm went off at 05:30 but it was cold and we were so cozy in our sleeping bags that we slept in ‘till 06:00. During a quick breakfast I registered -4.8 degrees as a minimum during the night – we were sure it would be considerably colder in the high Berg. We left before 7am and arrived at Cathedral peak before 8am. We signed in, paid and then heard from the rangers that there was no snow except on top of the escarpment and that we should expect Bell cave to be dry. Consequently I changed my plans and decided to sleep in Sherman cave instead of Bell, and then do Cathedral immediately, and return to Sherman’s for the night. We parked the car and I left in shorts and T-shirt despite it being chilly. By the time we reached the path leading up towards the trout dam I was warmed up and we were setting a good pace. With so much to do for the day we pushed hard and soon reached the path leading to Barker’s Chalet. With the split going to Cathedral not being indicated I missed the split and carried on, eventually arriving at a cave that I didn’t recognize at all. It was a decent cave to sleep in so we left our bags and pulled on daypacks for the long haul to the top. However, when we walked right to the end of the trail I realized that we walked to Barker’s Chalet cave instead of Sherman’s. We retraced our steps and got onto the right trail. Pushing hard, we overtook one lone guy on his way to Orange Peel Gap. Just past Sherman’s cave, where the path ramps onto the Little Berg plateau, we filled our water bottles at the stream and started up the ridge leading to Orange Peel Gap. We progressed well and as we exited the gully onto Orange Peel Gap we reached another party of 3 guys, also on their way up. After a brief rest we carried on, eventually reaching nasty bit leading up to Bugger gully. Its here that our pace diminished significantly as we discovered that we’ve probably pushed a little hard so far – we’ve already climbed 1000m and the effects of altitude were starting to tell. My legs were jelly when we reached the bottom of Bugger gully but we’ve come to the bottom of Cathedral Peak and I wasn’t going to turn around. We ate lunch here as we watched one other group as well as the 3 guys we met earlier starting slowly up the standard route. We didn’t break for lunch long as we still had to return all the way down. As we got to the first rock band, one of the group of 3 guys wasn’t prepared to scramble through the rock band and proceeded to wait for the others. We overtook the group and scrambled on, making good progress despite being knackered. We reached the chain ladder, scrambled up the grass slope and reached the last rock scramble to the top. As we climbed to the top the group we saw ascending earlier came down and went past us. We reached the summit at 13:10 and celebrated. The remaining two guys came up soon after and we took photos of each other with the Mnweni peaks in the background. At 13:20 we left the summit, eager to get down before sunset. With Gordon going well at his own pace, we quickly got off the peak and descended the gully fast. We overtook the one group at the top of Orange Peel gap and as I ran out of water where we rested just below the gap, I decided to make a beeline for the stream above Sherman’s cave. On my way I overtook the lone guy again and got to the stream very quickly. I drank lots of water and waited for Gordon who arrived about 15 minutes later. The last bit was completed at a very sedate pace and we arrived back at our packs at 16:10 – 2 hours 50 minutes from the top of Cathedral peak. We decided to rather sleep in Barker’s Chalet than the annex so before we got really cold we walked the 100m and set up camp. We got dressed warmly early on and waited for the cold to arrive during a very good dinner of bacon, pasta and cheese. However, it never dropped below 5 degrees during the night.

Day 2 (27 May): With a very tough day behind us and a very short walk-out, we slept in and only got out of bed by 7am. We had breakfast and took our time packing up. Still, we were up and going by 07:50. It was a glorious morning and if it wasn’t for the still very sore and stiff legs it would’ve been a very pleasant walk-out. We were back at the car before 09:00, signed out, had a hot shower and drove back.

Mike's pass to Old Fire Lookout - Cathedral Peak (Drakensberg) Jun 2005

I picked Gordon up at his home and drove through to Bergville. There wasn’t anybody at the campsite’s office so we left R50 and a message that we were sleeping at the tennis courts. We read a little before bed but were trying to get up early so we went to bed just before 10pm. During the night temperature dropped to -2 degrees and I was optimistic about some really cold weather up on top.

Day 1 (11 June): We got up at 05:30 and were on the road before 6am. Just after 7am we arrived at Cathedral Peak and signed in. We left the car at the bottom of Mike’s pass and started hiking up, very hopeful in getting a lift to the top. After about an hour’s walk we started to realize that we were not going to get a lift. There were just no cars on their way up! There was one long section we could have skipped by taking a steep shortcut, but the hope of hitching a ride and the steepness of the path kept us on the road. We stopped once to take a quick breather but only sat down for a while once we reached the top of Mike’s pass. It was just before 10am when we started the slog up to the Old Fire Lookout. We made good time around the first few hills; the veld was burnt all around us and the path was as clear as daylight. Then the steep ridge to the hut began. Having already walked up Mike’s pass, the effect began to show and we slowed down considerably. Because I expected there to be water at the hut neither of us packed a lot of water. We had a few bites to eat before we got to the hut. Arriving at the hut just before 2pm, we were shocked to find the water tank in two pieces on the ground and the roof of the hut falling apart. The lack of water was appalling. With my feet packing up over the last 2km I wasn’t really in a state to go any further – we had already decided that we were not going to push for the top. But now without water, I had to rely on Gordon to take the Drom bag and go look for water. He left at immediately. I rested my feet and had a short snooze before a family from Qumbagana showed up at the hut. The kids poked around the hut and they all had a good lookout before going down again. Gordon got back at 15:30 having found some seepage water not too far up the path. He managed to collect a good 8 litres – more than enough for us. We started with food at 5pm and had a very nice dinner with mince, bacon, tomato and onion relish with some rice. After dinner we took pictures of a beautiful sunset and went to bed. The wind blew all night. Although we didn’t get any unwanted visitors, we barely slept with some very strong winds trying to take the hut off the mountain.

Day 2 (12 June): We got up early having grown quite tired of trying to sleep with gale force winds raping the hut. The temperature dropped to a low of 4.9 degrees only – very disappointing. We had a quick breakfast and left down the path. We made good time and was soon at the top of Mike’s pass. We were hoping to catch a lift down but once again, nothing came along. We decided to go down the shortcut this time and were able to skip a good 3km of the pass. The shortcut was steep and very loose in places but at least we saved a lot of time. We were down again just before 10am. After a good shower we signed out and left for home.

It was a rather disappointing hike. Although we managed to climb just over a 1000m in the day, we didn’t reach the top of Organ Pipes and the expected cold never came. But we also learned that we shouldn’t bank on water at the hut again.