It was on a photographic hike in the Mnweni area some years ago that I first heard about a possible route up to Ledges Cave via the ridge opposite Shepherds Cave. So when we heard that it had been successfully summited, it became an item on my ‘to do’ list.
We planned the hike over the Easter weekend and as the trip grew closer, we watched the weather forecasts anxiously. Our Easter hike last year was dominated by wet cold conditions - surely with Easter falling later this year, we would be in for sunny, settled weather? Unfortunately the forecast was for rain, and quite a lot of it at that, especially towards the latter part of the weekend. We would take our chances in the hope that it would not be too bad.
We enjoyed hot sunny weather on the first day and the team consisted of old friends with many years of shared hiking experiences - myself, Richard, Stephan, Christine, Thora, Tony, Farouk, Darrell, Rinaldo and Gert-Jan. We set up our tents across the river from Shepherds Cave and after admiring the spectacular moonlight bathing the peaks around us, settled in for an early night.
We wanted an early start and were ready to leave just after 7.00am. After the rosy skies of sunset, it all changed very quickly with the clouds rolling in accompanied by gusts of wind and squalls of rain could be seen high up on the escarpment. Things were not looking encouraging. However, we pressed on and by the time we had walked to the side gully from where we would start the ascent of the ridge, conditions changed again and it now looked more promising. We continued up the undulating ridge, easy enough walking on grassy slopes although steep in places and never ending. We were rewarded by spectacular views all around and it was awesome to see the sights from this angle. As we got closer to the top we needed to find the best place to traverse in to the gully and eventually did so. The wind became a lot stronger at this point and we were nearly blown off our feet when we crossed over and down into the scree gully below. From here it was two hours of scrambling ever upwards, nothing technical although the scree was loose and care had to be taken. We reached the crux which involved a spiny column of rock that needed to be climbed to get through the gap. The other alternative was a steep grassy scramble to the left of it. Tony elected to scramble up the rocky ridge and then advised the rest of us to rather take the other route, as it was quite exposed and tricky. Even with the grass it was very steep and more vertical than it looked from afar! It did have grassy handholds and places for your feet so could be tackled fairly easily. I am not sure how easy this would be though in icy, snowy conditions.
From here it was more steep grassy slopes until the upper cliff band was reached and it was here that it started raining. We traversed left along the grassy ledge that leads in to Ledges Cave and stopped for a lunch break. By the time we climbed up the gully to the escarpment, the weather had changed for the worse with the rain coming down harder and an icy wind accompanying it. We trudged towards the Mnweni pass as the intention was to tent in the Hanging Valleys before descending Manxome Pass the following day. However, with the worsening conditions setting in we made a call to stop and put up tents. We had heavy rain during the night and the next morning we decided to go down Rockeries and out. A good call in the end as the rain and mist we experienced on our descent would have meant we saw nothing of Manxome - a pass that deserves to be seen in fine weather.
But thanks to the mountain weather gods for allowing us just enough time to experience clear conditions for Ledges Cave pass. The views are highly recommended!
We planned the hike over the Easter weekend and as the trip grew closer, we watched the weather forecasts anxiously. Our Easter hike last year was dominated by wet cold conditions - surely with Easter falling later this year, we would be in for sunny, settled weather? Unfortunately the forecast was for rain, and quite a lot of it at that, especially towards the latter part of the weekend. We would take our chances in the hope that it would not be too bad.
We enjoyed hot sunny weather on the first day and the team consisted of old friends with many years of shared hiking experiences - myself, Richard, Stephan, Christine, Thora, Tony, Farouk, Darrell, Rinaldo and Gert-Jan. We set up our tents across the river from Shepherds Cave and after admiring the spectacular moonlight bathing the peaks around us, settled in for an early night.
We wanted an early start and were ready to leave just after 7.00am. After the rosy skies of sunset, it all changed very quickly with the clouds rolling in accompanied by gusts of wind and squalls of rain could be seen high up on the escarpment. Things were not looking encouraging. However, we pressed on and by the time we had walked to the side gully from where we would start the ascent of the ridge, conditions changed again and it now looked more promising. We continued up the undulating ridge, easy enough walking on grassy slopes although steep in places and never ending. We were rewarded by spectacular views all around and it was awesome to see the sights from this angle. As we got closer to the top we needed to find the best place to traverse in to the gully and eventually did so. The wind became a lot stronger at this point and we were nearly blown off our feet when we crossed over and down into the scree gully below. From here it was two hours of scrambling ever upwards, nothing technical although the scree was loose and care had to be taken. We reached the crux which involved a spiny column of rock that needed to be climbed to get through the gap. The other alternative was a steep grassy scramble to the left of it. Tony elected to scramble up the rocky ridge and then advised the rest of us to rather take the other route, as it was quite exposed and tricky. Even with the grass it was very steep and more vertical than it looked from afar! It did have grassy handholds and places for your feet so could be tackled fairly easily. I am not sure how easy this would be though in icy, snowy conditions.
From here it was more steep grassy slopes until the upper cliff band was reached and it was here that it started raining. We traversed left along the grassy ledge that leads in to Ledges Cave and stopped for a lunch break. By the time we climbed up the gully to the escarpment, the weather had changed for the worse with the rain coming down harder and an icy wind accompanying it. We trudged towards the Mnweni pass as the intention was to tent in the Hanging Valleys before descending Manxome Pass the following day. However, with the worsening conditions setting in we made a call to stop and put up tents. We had heavy rain during the night and the next morning we decided to go down Rockeries and out. A good call in the end as the rain and mist we experienced on our descent would have meant we saw nothing of Manxome - a pass that deserves to be seen in fine weather.
But thanks to the mountain weather gods for allowing us just enough time to experience clear conditions for Ledges Cave pass. The views are highly recommended!
