DRAKENSBERG SAFETY

Quathlamba

“A mass of Spears. Named thus by the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg, Mountains of the Dragon, a name given by the Voortrekkers. Evocative names, both equally applicable to South Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.”

“Listen to the streams as they gurgle from their cradles and you will hear the story of the mountains. You will hear fascinating tales if only you listen! Lie next to a stream and listen to the song of the mountains. The smiling faces of the flowers, dancing in the wind. Venture into the remote valleys or stand on a peak at sunrise or sunset, after snow has fallen, and you will hear a song that you will never forget - the Song of the High Mountain". (DA Dodds)

DRAKENSBERG WILDERNESS PHOTOS © WILLEM PELSER

“OUT OF THIS NETTLE DANGER,

WE PLUck THIS FLOWER,

SAFETY”

SHAKESPEARE

DRAKENSBERG SAFETY

The Drakensberg has rich gifts to offer all who come to its soaring peaks and quiet valleys, but too often the bright anticipation of the morning had ended in needless sorrow and regret.

Offered here is what I hope will be useful advice to the aspirant hiker in avoiding these dangers.

   The Drakensberg continues to increase in popularity as a place for healthy recreation, place of escape from the tensions and turmoil of modern life, and as a place for spiritual refreshment. More and more people are coming to the Berg. Because of this, more and more accidents happen.

   Ninety per cent of these accidents should never occur. They are caused by sheer carelessness and ignorance. The Drakensberg is a place of matchless beauty and grandeur. It has rich gifts for the hiker who comes with humility and respect. But for the casual tripper who could not care less, for the man who goes blithely but mindlessly on his way, heedless of the advice of those who know, it can be a killer. We need to create a greater awareness of the possible hazards, and how to cope with them.

  What can we do to avoid these totally unnecessarily accidents?

   First of all, plan your journey well beforehand. Get hold of one of the many excellent maps that are available. Study your map well before your trip and plan your route carefully.

   Secondly, make sure you are equipped adequately for the trip you have planned. Clothing and food supplies are largely a matter of personal taste, but there are often certain essentials that must never be forgotten. Remember at all times to have plenty of warm clothing with you. Even on the hottest summer day blizzard conditions can blow up with startling suddenness. If you are on a summit trip take two sleeping bags with you, even in summer. Wind in cold weather can be a killer: make sure you have a windbreaker jacket with you. You will often get wet while on the march. Make sure you have a change of clothing for when you reach your night’s camping spot. Shorts are better for climbing than longs, but you must have something to change into at night. Track suits are excellent for this purpose. Strong leather boots are better than shoes and “takkies”. To avoid blisters wear two pairs of socks, the inner thin, and the outer thick knitted, with some talc powder between the two pairs.

   Food, even more than clothing, is a matter of personal choice, but make sure that what you select is light in weight. There are so many types of food on the market that this should prove no problem. There is no point in carrying heavy tins of meat when a few packs of soup powder will do the job just as well.

   One very important point: always carry more food than you actually require. This need not be anything elaborate: a few extra slabs of chocolate, extra oatmeal – enough to keep body and soul together for a few days in an emergency.

   Always remember to fill in the Mountain Rescue Register at your point of entry into the Drakensberg, and to sign off when you return or where you exit. THIS IS ESSENTIAL. These registers are available at all entry points. Complete the register in full, especially the exact route you intend to take. This information is essential for the rescue team in case you have an accident or get lost. Much valuable time and effort can be wasted as a result of insufficient or incorrect information. The party, for instance, who died in Ship’s Prow Pass in 1981, had filled in their route simply as “walk up Cathkin”, which was both incorrect and meaningless. If there is a likelihood of you deviating from your planned route, you should say so. Even if you are going only for a short walk in the Little Berg, an afternoon’s stroll; always tell someone where you are going.

   Summit trips to the inexperienced are particularly hazardous. It is wise to embark on these gradually. Don’t make your first trip to the summit a ten-day hike! Make your first trip a single-day one, and learn what the summit is like. At Cathedral Peak and Giant’s Castle it is possible to reach the summit and return in a day. Then go up and spend one night on the summit. See how you like sleeping out at 3 050 meters. It may not be your cup of tea! After that is the time to plan for longer trips.

   It is wise to familiarize yourself with the various passes leading up to, and down from the summit. The main escarpment is nothing less than a gigantic sheer wall of rock, sometimes 305 meters high. But in the 100 kilometers from Mont-Aux-Sources to Giant’s Castle there are only 12 to 15 well-known passes breaching this rock wall, and it is wise to know where they are. If you are caught in heavy snow on the summit you may want to get down quickly, and your only hope will be one of these passes.

   This brings us to the next point. If you are on the summit and the weather does show signs of breaking, it is best to get down as quickly as possible, especially if you have little experience of snow conditions. Sometimes, after days of snow, the passes become choked with snow and ice and it is impossible to get down.

   The mist comes down, and you are lost. What do you do?

   On no account start stumbling around blindly in the mist. You will soon lose all sense of direction and could easily be lost for days. It is best to stay put until the mist rises. Sometimes, however, the mist can last for days, especially on the summit. Your food is running out: what do you do? If you are in the Little Berg, there should be no problem, especially if you are on a path. Keep to this path. But if you are really caught out, away from a path, and the mist persists, simply follow the nearest stream downwards. All streams in the Little Berg flow roughly from west to east, and will lead eventually either to below the mist belt or to a habitation of some sort.

   If you are caught on the summit in the mist, it is a little more difficult, for here there are no paths and the mist can persist for many days, especially in summer. It is still best to stay put, to sit it out, for it can be dangerous to start walking about in mist near the edge of the escarpment.

   Make a special study of Drakensberg weather. Learn to interpret the cloud formations, the winds, and the signs that accompany a change in the weather.               Remember that Drakensberg weather can change dramatically within a few minutes.

   Although stressed here is the necessity for caution and experience in tackling the wonder-world of the Drakensberg, do not misunderstood. There is another side to the coin.

   Man has a deep-seated, built-in urge to test himself against the hazards of life, to pit himself against the elements, and it would be a sad day if the Drakensberg were ever made totally safe. It is the very element of danger that gives hiking and mountaineering its peculiar mystique. Man needs to know that deep satisfaction of discovering the limits of his abilities, of being able to stare, unblinking, into the face of danger, and to know that it was good. There is a risk that overemphasis of the hazards may become counter-productive, and may frighten people off who would become better men and women through having had to face danger and still remain unshaken.

“IT MUST BE A POOR LIFE THAT ACHIEVES FREEDOM FROM FEAR, BUT IT IS A CHARACTERISTIC OF WISDOM NOT TO DO DESPERATE THINGS”

Perhaps that is just it. What is needed is a balanced viewpoint. Let us take all due precautions, but at the same time recognize the need for the challenge of high and perilous adventure. You will find it in the Drakensberg.

We as hikers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

 

           

Acknowledgements

Extract from the book – Dragon’s Wrath – J Byrom & RO Pearce

Photos:  ©W Pelser

Compiled by:  Willem Pelser

GIANT’S CASTLE - DRAKENSBERG

Quathlamba

“A mass of Spears. Named thus by the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg, Mountains of the Dragon, a name given by the Voortrekkers. Evocative names, both equally applicable to South Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.”

“Listen to the streams as they gurgle from their cradles and you will hear the story of the mountains. You will hear fascinating tales if only you listen! Lie next to a stream and listen to the song of the mountains. The smiling faces of the flowers, dancing in the wind. Venture into the remote valleys or stand on a peak at sunrise or sunset, after snow has fallen, and you will hear a song that you will never forget - the Song of the High Mountain".

DRAKENSBERG WILDERNESS PHOTOS © WILLEM PELSER

“THE VIEW WAS OF A TRIANGULAR PEAK, SOME TWO THOUSAND FEET ABOVE US, STANDING IN A CLOUDLESS SKY.”

CALIBAN. ON SIGHTING GIANT’S CASTLE, 1912

GIANT’S CASTLE

DRAKENSBERG

  On a clear day you can see, from a hilltop in Mooi River (a small farming town in the shadow of the Drakensberg), the Giant’s Castle massif dominating the skyline some seventy kilometers to the west. The image resembles a huge figure lying on its back, staring into the sky, peaceful, silent, and contemplative. The Castle itself, which forms the Giant’s head, has three high points, the middle or ‘nose’ being the main summit. This point rises to 3 314 meters, unusually high for a peak set away from the main escarpment wall.

     Known to the Zulu people as Bhulihawu, ‘the place of the field thrasher’, or Phosihawu, meaning ‘the shield finger’, the peak is the largest example of a singular mass in the Drakensberg, extending away from the range in an easterly direction for more than three kilometers. The more superstitious called it Ntabayikonjwa, ‘the mountain to which you must not point’, for fear it will retaliate with bouts of violent weather. Owing to its size, the peak’s ability to manipulate the forces of nature on occasion is quite feasible.

When looking up from in its immediate valleys, Giant’s Castle’s main summit takes on a spectacular pyramidal shape, with two sweeping ridges descending to the southeast and north, like great arms embracing the valley below. Many of the earlier climbing routes are found in this area, and a beautifully placed mountain hut waits in the valley, providing a good base from which to start most of the Castle’s technical climbs.

THE PLACE OF VULTURES

   Around to the right of this valley extends the mighty north wall. In 1997, one of the most ambitious Drakensberg routes was completed on this enormous precipice. The climb, following an extremely thin weakness, boasts some of the finest and most committing climbing in the Drakensberg range to date, testament to the high level of mountaineering that can be achieved in the area. The route was named after the Bearded Vultures or Lammergeier (meaning lamb grabber’), that grace the peak’s surrounding skies.

   As early as 1941 the peak had been considered as a mountaineering objective, when a climber pioneered a route up the treacherous looking Eastern Gully.

   Despite this early interest, face-climbing proper only began when climbers completed what is now considered a classic line up the north face in 1950. The opening of Schole’s Route fired a new interest in the peak as mountaineering and climbing sanctuary. The establishment of a second route on the north wall in 1971, veering right from the start of Schole’s Route, reasserted the peak’s importance as one of the range’s most challenging mountaineering summits. With routes like Lammergeier and more recently the Land Der Gesetzlosen (‘Land of the Lawless’), the Giant’s north wall is fast becoming a big-wall test piece for southern African climbers.

     On the southern slopes, winter mountaineering and ice-climbing developments add a new dimension of challenge on the Giant, offering an aspect of the sport that is often difficult to practice in Africa owing to the warm climate.

  The Giant, with its shear faces, particularly its north wall, holds numerous future climbing prospects. The peak is likely to be a focal point in African climbing in the 21^st century.

Giant’s Castle is a place of dreams, of staring at the stars by night and the blue skies with white cotton-wool clouds by day.

IT IS A PLACE UNTOUCHABLE BY MAN. IT IS A RESTING PLACE OF GIANTS.

1 – Frontal Route – First Climbed 1955

2 – Schole’s Route – First climbed 1950

3 – Colli Extendenticum – First climbed 1971

4 – South East Ridge – First Climbed 1954

5 – Lammergeier – First Climbed 1997

6 – Land Der Gesetzlosen – First Climbed 1998

We as hikers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

References and Acknowledgements

From the book – Serpent Spires – Duncan Souchon

Photos:  ©W Pelser

Compiled by:  Willem Pelser

Why Backpack and Multi-day Hiking?

Quathlamba

“A mass of Spears. Named thus by the Zulu warriors before the white man came. Today called the Drakensberg, Mountains of the Dragon. Evocative names, both equally applicable to South Africa’s mightiest mountain range with its spear-like peaks – reminiscent of the saw-toothed spine of a gigantic dragon.”

 

“Listen to the streams as they gurgle from their cradles and you will hear the story of the mountains. You will hear fascinating tales if only you listen! Lie next to a stream and listen to the song of the mountains. The smiling faces of the flowers, dancing in the wind. Venture into the remote valleys or stand on a peak at sunrise or sunset, after snow has fallen, and you will hear a song that you will never forget - the Song of the High Mountain".

DRAKENSBERG WILDERNESS PHOTOS © WILLEM PELSER

“I WAS AMAZED THAT WHAT I NEEDED TO SURVIVE COULD BE CARRIED ON MY BACK. AND, MOST SURPRISING OF ALL, THAT I COULD CARRY IT.”

CHERYL STRAYED

Why Backpack and Multi-day Hiking?

The KZN Drakensberg Mountains and Wilderness is a hiking paradise and exploration heaven. Hiking is the best way to explore this vast wilderness area. The term backpacking/hiking refers to the sport of walking with a backpack filled with everything one needs to survive a night or more in the wilderness, independent of anyone else.  Backpacking/hiking is not a competitive sport, although it forms the basis of serious mountaineering and adventure challenges.  It is more correct to refer to backpacking as a life-sport - an outdoor activity you can become good at and enjoy in any company, including that of your family and friends.

   

The main attractions of backpacking are:

   If you can walk, you can probably also backpack, although there is far more to it than just walking.  Carrying a backpack over rough, hilly country requires a considerable amount of mental fortitude and, unless you are already a seasoned athlete, it takes most people a minimum of 5 overnight hikes before they even begin to develop the mindset required for serious backpacking.

   Following on from the above, you don't have to be athletic to become a "good" backpacker.  A casual study of any group of experienced backpackers will reveal all sorts of shapes and sizes, few of which would resemble that of a typical Comrades Marathon runner, Midmar Mile swimmer or Argus Tour cyclist!  If you could see inside their heads, though, you would find the same resolute purpose of mind!

   Once you have all your equipment, backpacking is a relatively cheap pastime, the most expensive part being the cost of getting to and from the Drakensberg.  Your food need not cost you much more than what you would spend at home over the same period of time, and the current overnight cost of R55.00 per person could probably cover luxury items, cell-phone calls, and entertainment that you would indulge in if you stayed at home instead.

 

   Unless you plan to lead hikes commercially, no qualifications are required.  Many folk are happier to follow and put their trust in the leader.  Leaders must possess at least a little common sense and the ability to read a map. Do not rely on electronic navigation devices only; pack a map of the area and a compass as well.  Map-reading is an acquired skill and cannot really be taught.  Rather, you learn over a period of many years and through several mistakes which you purposely hope to avoid repeating!  It is doubtful if any leader can say he / she is 100% competent in map-reading - even the most experienced still make mistakes on occasion. Even if you are not a leader, you should take navigation seriously and try to acquire the necessary skills and experience yourself. Most leaders will welcome intelligent and informed participation in decision-making.

 

   Backpacking is a non-competitive life-sport, and one of the easiest ways to get fit.  You only compete with yourself, especially if you are one of the weaker hikers in your group.  You set yourself small, attainable goals en route, you stretch and challenge yourself little by little, and if you do this regularly - at least once a month - you will develop the mental fortitude characteristic of any serious athlete!  This is what sets a "good" backpacker apart from a novice - not his / her speed or strength - but the ability to press on despite physical fatigue, discomfort and nagging doubts about fitness.

 

   Backpacking allows you to "get away from it all". You exchange the phones, fax machine, computer, TV, VCR, DVD player, newspapers, noisy neighbor’s and crowded gyms and malls for the peace and tranquility of nature. You return to the rat-race feeling refreshed and renewed.

   While the above may describe several other sports, backpacking/hiking has some draw cards which most others don't.  These are:

The absolute beauty of a wilderness area like the KZN Drakensberg, which appeals to our romantic side.  Accompanying this is the clean, fresh mountain air and unpolluted streams.

The deep-seated need that most of us have to go where no man has gone before, to visit new territory, and explore new frontiers.  These may not be new to all men, but if they are new to you then they fulfill this need anyway!  When you do go far off the beaten track, the thought that always comes to mind is "Has any human being ever been here before?" The notion that the answer may be "No" is remarkably flattering - unless someone made a really bad decision about your route!

 

   There is a wonderful sense of self-sufficiency, tempered with a twinge of vulnerability that one experiences on long overnight hikes.  All the great explorers, the pioneers and the thousands of settlers of centuries past, would have been familiar with these emotions.  Backpacking helps perpetuate the mindset of all these people who left what was familiar and comfortable to forge a new life in a foreign land.  Perhaps backpacking will have helped keep the spirit of exploration alive for the time when mankind will make his first, tentative steps outside the solar system!

 

   Backpackers are survivors! Most experienced backpackers will agree that the best part of hiking is getting to their overnight destination. They may be physically tired, but they are satisfied with the day's work. If - through their planning and resourcefulness - they are also able to feel clean, comfortable, relaxed and at ease in their new surroundings without all the trappings of modern society, then they have the spirit of a survivor! Come war, natural disaster, or whatever crisis, these are the folk who will be numbered amongst the survivors!

 

   Whatever your reason for backpacking, it is bound to be slightly different to that of the other backpackers in your group.  For some the emphasis is on the exercise or the exploration, for others it’s the social side, and the romantic types will focus on the scenery.  But there is a little of everything for each of us!

 

   Enjoy your hiking and look after the Wilderness. Protect, Defend, and Preserve! Leave nothing but your tracks behind.

We as hikers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

References and Acknowledgements

From the book – Compiled by W Pelser

Photos:  ©W Pelser

Compiled by:  Willem Pelser