“THOSE WHO WALK ALONE ARE LIKELY TO FIND
THEMSELVES IN PLACES NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN BEFORE”
THE DRAKENSBERG
MENACE AND MYSTERY
The Drakensberg is a place of matchless beauty and grandeur, where cloud caravans wind in and out of a world with soaring peaks, and ice-clear mountain streams tell of a peace you will find nowhere else. It is the ideal place where your harassed businessman can unwind and discover once again those inward resources and assurances he thought he had lost forever.
But it is also a place of hidden menace where, for the unwary, disaster can strike in a flash of a second and where death lurks around the least expected corner. Increasingly over the years rescue squads have had to be called in to pull in a stranded climber or to bring in the body of someone who has paid the ultimate penalty.
In the early days rescues where primitive, ad-hoc affairs. Stretchers were nothing more than a couple of blankets tied to two poles, and there was no organized rescue system at all. Later new and better equipment came into use, attempts were made to enlist the use of aircraft, and the names of those who were willing to go out with rope and tackle to bring in an injured climber were listed. Today the modern, highly organized rescue system co-ordinates the potential of the Police, Army, Air Force, Parks Board, paramedical and specialist medical services, and the highly trained men of the Mountain Club of South Africa in a service able to swing into action, almost at the press of a button.
It will be many years before Klaus Schobinger forgets the tragic events of the night of 24 October 1975. He spent it alone in a small cave in the Drakensberg, barely surviving in sub-zero temperatures, not knowing that his brother-in-law lay dead in the open, only a few meters away.
The two men, Klaus Schobinger and Otto Werder, had climbed together for many years. They had recently ascended Mt Kilimanjaro, and they knew the Drakensberg well. They were both experienced mountaineers. They had planned to spend the weekend of 24 to 26 October climbing in the Cathedral Peak area.
They arrived at the reserve about midday on the Friday. Then, shouldering their packs, they set off for Organ Pipes Pass. This is an easy climb, entailing a pleasant walk up the Umhlonhlo Valley. A bit of a zigzag to the summit of the Little Berg, up past the Camel, through Windy Gap and so to the pass proper. Here the going gets a little steeper, but there are no real difficulties and it is not long before you are on the summit plateau.
All went well until the two men reached the pass proper, with the Organ Pipes, long basaltic spires stabbing the blue of the sky, on their left. Here Otto Werder ran into trouble. He developed stomach pains and cramps. He struggled on for a short while, but soon it was obvious that he needed a rest. But time was getting on. The grey hush of twilight was beginning to spread across the waiting peaks. It was decided that Schobinger should go on ahead and prepare their cave for the night while Werder followed on more slowly behind. It is one of the cardinal rules of mountaineering: never, under any circumstances, split your party if you can possibly help it. They did split. They should have known better.
It had been their plan to spend the night in Ndumeni Cave. When you reach the head of Organ Pipes Pass you have the vast Lesotho Plateau sloping gently down before you, but on your left rises a huge dome of Ndumeni Peak. In the rock faces of the dome are several small caves and one large one, known as Ndumeni Cave. The only trouble is, it is a ‘dry ‘cave. There is no water nearby. But at the base of the dome, running down into Lesotho, is a small stream, the Kakoatsan. You have to fill your water-carrying utensils at the stream before climbing up to the cave.
As Schobinger approached the stream he noticed a few ominous black clouds swirling around the peaks to the north. He started to fill his utensils, and then….. it hit him, a blizzard of unprecedented fury and intensity. There had been no warning. Suddenly there was the terrifying scream of the tortured wind, the roar of falling hail, the steel-like hiss of rain against rocks and blinding sheets of snow swirling across the plain. Experienced mountaineer that he was, he knew what this meant. He grabbed his sleeping bag, abandoned his backpack and the rest of his gear, which he knew would slow him down, and fled terrified, up the rocky slopes for the shelter of the nearest cave as fast as he could.
For the next six hours he was pinned down there, in sub-zero temperatures, with no food or water. He could not move. Survival out in that wild storm was an utter impossibility. He did not worry unduly about his companion. There was plenty of shelter on the lower slopes of the mountain, and Werder had all his kit and food with him. At midnight there came a lull in the storm and Schobinger was able to venture out. He searched around for his friend for a short while, failed to find him, and then returned to his cave for a few hours of troubled sleep.
Next morning, as soon as it was light, he set out, exhausted, cold and hungry, to find his friend. He first climbed up to Ndumeni Cave where they had originally intended spending the night. There was no sign of Werder. He then went down to the stream to retrieve his backpack, and there he found Werder. He was dead. He had obviously fallen 20 meters down a sharp incline and broke his neck.
Horrified, Schobinger set off as fast as he could for help, 14 km down the rugged Organ Pipes Pass. It must have been terrible for him to have almost died of exposure himself only to find that his brother-in-law was already dead.
There are two things we can learn from this tragic episode. Both men were mature experienced mountaineers. They had done this particular climb at least a dozen times before. They knew the area well. And yet they came to grieve and one man died.
One thing to remember is the terrible suddenness with which Drakensberg blizzards strike. This one struck without warning. Without shelter no one could have survived a night out in it.
The other is a point already made, but must repeat: never, if you can possibly help it, split a party.
We as hikers, explorers, and adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!
The End.
Safe Hiking.
