Window Gorge (4K) | Table Mountain's Toughest Scrambles
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ค. 2023
- Route 9 in my efforts to find Table Mountain's toughest ascent!
Window Gorge is a deep, pristine, and rarely-visited chasm between the Nursery and Fernwood buttresses on Table Mountain. It's most distinctive features are its two massive, moss-covered waterfalls (the biggest on the mountain), but it is also home to an incredible diversity of flora, and a feeling of wilderness that is unmatched anywhere else on the mountain. It's also an extremely dangerous ascent, on which several climbers have lost their lives.
Until only a short while before actually taking on this route, Window Gorge hadn't even been a climb I'd considered attempting. Tony Laurens' Table Mountain guide gives the route a DXXX grade, much higher than anything I'd attempted before, and describes the need for a rope as non-negotiable. However, upon hearing that Stuart had managed the route before, I thought it would be worth a very cautious exploration, to see if it might be manageable. In the end, despite severe exposure, technical scramble sections, and loose, rotten soil, plants and rock from start to finish, Stuart, JT and I managed the ascent. Despite its beauty, the danger was every bit as real as advertised, and I would not recommend attempting to repeat this route!
Enjoyment Rating: 5/5
Difficulty Rating: 9/10
Challenges: Window Gorge features all the challenges of Ferny Dell, ramped up to 100. The path is non-existent, and navigation is highly non-obvious, meaning that it's very easy to take a dangerous wrong turn. Unlike the strong, grippy rock of the other side of the mountain, every climb is loose and rotten, and even when thoroughly checking the holds, they are at risk of giving way at any moment. While the climbing is not as technical as some other D-grade routes, it is still tough, and the exposure is extreme. Any fall from the traverse sections or the most technical stretch of climbing would most likely be fatal.
Music: Stavroz - The Finishing
Contact me: @daniel_johnson_pmbpk (instagram)
danjohnsonpeter@gmail.com
The scary pitch at 1:44 can be bypassed with a long traverse to the North and back again. We used trad gear at this point.
At 2:30 there is a way around the left of this waterfall as well and then crossing back over.
great musical accompaniment , excellent video as usual thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome outing guys .
It really was!
my aching nerves!!!!!😱😱😱😱 so brave!!! Thanks for the video tho, as I will never attempt this myself ,but always wondered about Window Gorge....
That's been a definite goal of mine, offering a glimpse of these inaccessible places. Glad you enjoyed it!
I've done this route twice. Wild and spectacular. The amphitheatre is almost a mermaids call, if that makes any sense to you.
Wild and spectacular indeed :). A mermaid's call as in something which lures you in somewhere dangerous? In which case, that certainly holds true 😂 very beautiful, but so very treacherous
"Route" 🤣