Corner Pass / Judge Pass, Mafadi, Leslie's Pass Loop

On Thursday, for the long weekend six (Sean, Cora, Alta, Theo, Issy and myself) of us set off from Injisuthi just after 9am with the aim of summitting Mafadi. We knew it would be an adventure with a cold front forecast, especially with our route of choice being to go up Corner Pass
The temperature on arrival was 4°C, with sporadic light drizzle.
The office had kindly boiled us some water to have coffee while we waited for Theo to arrive from Pretoria.
We were expecting a miserable day, but luckily the rain held off apart from a few minutes here and there of light drizzle.
We had a lunch stop at Fergy's cave, and then made our way up Heartbreak Hill to Centenary Hut.

Fergy's Cave


We settled in and were soon joined by the other two VE led groups that had mentioned they were doing Mafadi. vivo101 and team decided to tent outside, while makeyser's team stayed with us in the hut. Shortly after we collected water the rain began, and continued the entire night. I heard sleet and a few snowflakes falling in the early hours of the next morning but it quickly turned back to rain to wash away any evidence. When it cleared slightly in the morning we could see the snowline at around 2600m.


The other groups, being of 4 and 2 teamed up and headed off just before 9am in the rain, while we left 30 mins later as the rain stopped.
The plan was to go via the Northern High Approach and then make a decision when we got to the gully on whether to head up the gully or use the Around The Corner route.


The first challenge was the scramble on the NHA to get up the rock band. We arrived just as the first team had got up, so they assisted by attaching their rope to my pack while I climbed up with it on. (thanks guys!) We then used our own rope to help some of the others and pull packs up. The route wouldn't be much of a problem in the dry, but the rocks were slippery in places.
 

As we rounded the corner and began the snowy traverse into the gully we realised we were in for an adventure!
We mostly followed the first team's footsteps through the snow which was very helpful.


We caught up to them again as we reached the first waterfall, again this would be comfortable in the dry but the rocks were completely iced up which got more slippery as more people scrambled up while having the rope wrapped around them.
Theo on the way up


The final scramble awaited, again team one assisted us in getting one person up and then we slowly pulled everyone and then packs up the icy rocks. Waiting for your turn was proving particularly cold, especially at this point as the wind was blowing snow down the pass!

Theo doing the tough job of getting everyone up the final scramble


Finally some sun, and... wind


The Judge and Popple


We eventually topped out at 15:45, and were now faced with the trek up the Trojan Wall ridge in snow that varied between 20cm and 50cm deep.
Team one had taken a different line so I was tasked with creating footsteps which got extremely tiring.
Half way up the ridge we were all feeling a bit dehydrated due to most of our water freezing, stopping was not an option in an estimated -8°C with wind blowing snow into our faces every few minutes.

Daylight fading on the way up the ridge

We eventually reached Upper Injisuthi Cave at 6PM, team one had already settled in and left us the entire front area.
Groundsheets down, every bit of clothing on and into sleeping bags to warm up!
We boiled all the water we had, thankfully it only took 2 cups of hot chocolate to stop me shivering.
Snow was collected for more hot drinks and dinner, and we went off to sleep at 9pm with the temperature hovering around -15°C, occasionally the wind would pick up a little which warms the actual temperature (not the wind chill!), to about -12°C.
 

The coldest I saw was -14.9°C
 

At approx 23:30 I heard the wind, occasionally felt it as it squeezed into my sleeping bag but was not concerned, I heard people rummaging around but didn't pay much attention and nodded off again. Then I was woken up by some prodding.. "Merv, we're covered in snow". I looked down to see my sleeping bag was now half white, dusted it off and was ready to go back to sleep.
Then I looked behind me to see my pillow was white, and so was most of the cave all the way to the back! I then felt more and more snow flying into the cave!
Issy and I initially tried to use the tent fly sheet to cover us, but this lasted about 30 seconds before the fly almost got blown out of the cave.
The only choice we had was to pitch the tent, I must admit this was not the most enjoyable part of the hike.... midnight, wind chill of below -20°C... getting out of my sleeping bag was extremely difficult!
I was wearing my only 2 dry pair of socks, and without thinking got these wet standing in snow while putting up the tent. I initially tried to put the tent up without my thick gloves, but this was impossible, gloves slowed us down but were essential!
After what felt like an hour the tent was up and 3 of us crammed into my 360° Cool Mountain, which is normally a 2 person max. The other 3 in our group did the same, while the other team got away using their fly sheets at the back of the cave.
We were at least warm in the tent with all the body "heat"
Someone mentioned the time was 12:10, which meant it was Cora's birthday, so she got some impromptu birthday singing, which helped lighten the mood.


We woke to calmer weather, with the temperature hovering around -11°C. Everything that could possibly freeze, was frozen. Melting snow and boiling water was a challenge, so I settled for a tiny cup of coffee, a cold breakfast and a bottle of ice to start the day.
Theo had thought ahead and put a shot of tequila in his water bottle which kept it mostly unfrozen, so we each had some.

We again set off rather late just after 9am on our way to Injisuthi Dome and Mafadi. 
While getting up these peaks does not require a lot of altitude gain, it was still slow going in thick snow. We were very relieved to be done with ascending snow slopes after Mafadi.

Injisuthi Dome summit


Mafadi summit


Injisuthi buttresses


From here it was a long trudge through some thick snow and large sections of ice that had formed on top of the ridgeline.


Water was still an issue, so we resorted to eating bits of ice and attempting to melt bits of snow while keeping water bottles warm.
We finally descended down into the valley behind Leslies Pass and broke through some very thick ice to get much needed water.


At 14:30 we started the descent of Leslies. We descending the top 200m altitude down the middle of the gully which was quite fun through thick snow, and then got onto the path as the snow thinned out. Theo had crampons so he used the gully for a bit longer.
Leslies Pass


The original plan of both teams was to get to Marble Baths but we all ended up camping at the base of Leslies.
We had an amazingly "warm" and calm night, we were able to sit outside and have a great evening which included the bottle of wine that had been carried for Cora's birthday. Our water bottles were only partially frozen in the morning so this was a win!


We set a record by leaving at 8:15 on day 4, expecting a frustrating trek to Marble Baths, however we were pleasantly surprised to follow a decent path the entire way, arriving at Marble Baths by 9:40am, where we met up again with the other group.
A few of the group tested the icy water before we did the final trek back to the car, and then off for a well deserved burger and beer!

oh, and apparently I have frostnip in a few of my toes, likely from snow turning into ice balls and getting trapped in the mesh of my boots. Nothing serious though