Ferny Dell (4K) | Table Mountain's Toughest Hikes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- Last year, I set myself the goal of taking on Table Mountain's most extreme routes. The first hike on the list was Ferny Dell - a magical and ingenious climb up the steepest, wildest, and most stunning part of the mountain, which I had been wanting to do from the moment I first heard about it.
The begins and ends in the same way as Hiddingh-Ascension, but replaces the middle section with an almost vertical scramble through the lush vegetation which fills the narrow gulley joining Hiddingh Ravine to the pulpit. This section feels completely surreal - an endlessly green dream of a route with technicality and beauty in equal measure, in which one immediately forgets being only a short distance from the city.
Enjoyment Rating: 5/5
Difficulty Rating: 6.5/10
Challenges: amongst the longest and steepest routes on the mountain, with difficult navigation, little to no path for most of the route, some technical rock climbs, and many sections relying on loose soil and thin vegetation to keep you from some massive drops
Overall Impressions: easily my favourite Table Mountain hike! A perfectly well-rounded experience, through the wildest and most beautiful part of the mountain - a must do for hikers with a high fitness level, very good head for heights, and good preparedness for navigating the route
Music: Avi Kaplan - I Can't Lie
Bonobo - Counterpart
Contact me: @daniel_johnson_pmbpk
danjohnsonpeter@gmail.com
I remember those inclines very well lmao
I meant to go up Hiddingh ascension but accidentally took Ferny dell, with absolutely no knowledge of where the trail goes. It was terrifying.
I can imagine! Even with a route description, we still had trouble navigating every now and then. Definitely not one to go into under-prepared
Wow! Incredible video of a beautiful hike. Did you have a route tracker while doing this or just a starting point and general idea? I'm trying to do the same hike but can't find a trail on AllTrails.
Thank you! Afraid not, and to be honest it wouldn't necessarily be massively helpful, as Table Mountain routes are super vertical so it can be hard to distinguish adjacent routes from gps trackers. However, I used a combination of Tony Laurens' guidebook and a couple of blog posts, and found that was enough to avoid most of the wrong turns
@@daniel_johnson_pmbpk Awesome. Thanks so much for the reply. I ended up doing this hike this past weekend - found a trail on AllTrails. Although it doesn't mention Ferny Dell, it looked very similar to this hike. Tracker definitely wasn't too much help on this trail though as you mentioned but tonnes of cairns helped show the path. Your video was also super helpful as a general visual so thanks for that :)
Fantastic as always!
thanks! 😁
Dope trail,is it possible to solo in winter though or better to wait warmer weather?
I'd say it would actually be relatively ok in Winter. Perhaps best to do it in a more dry week, but I've actually done the upper part in a bit of rain, and we managed ok. Just requires caution of course
Wow! Awesome video! The climbing looks really fun!
Thanks Tess! So much fun 😁
Awesome vid. I'm slowly doing the same, exploring lesser know / challenging scrambles. All alone though.
I'd love to join you guys sometime 🙏🏻
Glad you enjoyed it! Always great to find more hiking types 😁 pop me a message on instagram and we can be in touch
Great stuff Dan!
Thanks Ian! One step closer to the Ntafufu video 😂
Love it
love you
How easy to find/clear to follow was the path?
Not that easy unfortunately, we got a bit lost a couple of times, and for most of it there isn't really any path (the traverse shown briefly at 1:41, for example, was a mistake). If you follow the guide in the Tony Laurens book closely though, it is definitely doable, and none of us had done it before :)
@@daniel_johnson_pmbpk awesome, thanks! It looks spectacular :)
@@willemienduplessis3401 sure thing! Yea it really is :D I highly recommend giving it a go if you feel up to it, and have a good group to go with