Hiking for the faint hearted on Spring Buttress

Bruce and Marcell in the tea overhang
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Sunday 14 January 2007

After an evening of listening and watching the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5 performed at the Cape Town City hall, what could be better? (Ok with the exception of the O-word). A scramble up Spring Buttress with a visitor.

Squeezing through the Fat Lady’s Crack

Denise Hopkins, Chair of Trail's Club put Vic Warth onto me - a man of high intellect - he's purchased a copy of Adventure Walks & Scrambles in the Cape Peninsula. Vic spends part of his time in Spain and the rest of the time in Suffolk, England. He belongs to a scrambling club in Spain and was interested in doing some scrambling with me. I asked him what he would like to do and was thrilled to see that he had chosen one of my favourite routes, Spring Buttress, the others were Grotto-Cairn-Fountain traverse and Right-Face-Arrow-Face traverse, both on the front of TM which can be very hot at this time of year.

Marcelle, Bruce (from NZ), Ethnee and Ian on the traverse
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After bumping into rent-a-crowd at the start of the hike, we made our way to the Pipe Track, scrambled up the buttress and finished at about 11h00. Too early to go home, we visited the MC hut, the museum and then went in search of disas, spotting an open one at the bottom of Disa Gorge. Who should come along but five Ramblers members, under the leadership of Chairman Urs Huber. They had scrambled up left Face B and were on their way down Kasteel's Poort and the Pipe Track to their cars at Kloof Nek.

Myself and Marcelle after the traverse and before the 'serious' pitch
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Check out Vic's website and join them on a scramble if you are in Sapin:

www.costablancamountainfriends.comhttp://www.costablancamountainfriends.com/costa-blanca-mountain-scrambling.html

Sunday 14^th May 2006

The Twelve Apostle path and the Saucy Dog
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The two most off-putting things to read in a route description must be Rain Cancels and Phone the Leader. What does Rain Cancels mean anyway? If on waking you cannot see the mountain for the rain, then yes, go back to bed with a good book and a good man (or woman, depending on your preference).

I had been invited to take a group of kids up the mountain but the plans fell through and so I decided to do Spring Buttress, one of my favourite rock scrambles. Driving over Kloof Nek were the grey, forbidding Twelve Apostles and at the the meeting place was 62 year-old Vasco, “I’m not phoning people,” he muttered. “They aren’t at home and there’s an answer machine and they phone back and I’m not in.” Echoing my sentiments. So the two of us “not-so-faint-hearted” set off with our dicky medical history of heart, hernia, prostate and patella’s (you can decide who has what).

Vic and I on Spring Buttress
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We decided to do Spring Buttress anyway. At first I think Vasco was worried about me and where I was taking him, but he soon relaxed and went with the flow. I on the other hand had hiked with him once before and had no idea how he was on rock.

Having been on this route a couple of months before I was surprised out how clear the path is and how many more cairns there are – the crowds of Thursday MC hikers must have been here!

After squeezing through the Fat Lady’s Crack the sun came out as we reached the overhang and our breakfast/tea spot. Squeezing through another crack we descended to what should be the first pitch, but it seems that people have been avoiding it an environmental washaway by going straight up the mountain underneath the dark crack (A C-grade climb).

On the 'diving board' above Kasteelspoort
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The (avoided) pitch is well worth doing with the choice of either scrambling up the rock face with plenty of ‘jugs’, although 2-storey exposure, or clambering in the corner with knees-in-ears-moves. Vasco managed this ok and wasn’t put off when I pointed out the traverse going into nothingness, which he did while chattering all the way. Perched on the edge with fresh air all around me, all he could say was:

“I’m from Madeira,” stepping into nothing, “it’s all mountains there and I was climbing as I boy to cut grass for the animals.”

Does anything faze this guy, I wondered? But, knowing what was to come, I was still nervous of this ‘unknown quantity.’

On the next corner, above Three Firs and the Pipe Track, we scrambled up a narrow crack having to remove packs. I pointed out the rocky pinnacle on the skyline which was our goal, and the final serious pitch. He didn’t bat an eyelid!

The final serious pitch is tricky as there are a couple of loose rocks at the top, an awkward move and then a left-right foot step into a crack to finally climb onto a rock block – a truly exhilarating pitch (ask Ethnee, actually don’t ask Ethnee- pictured).

Having floated up here without any exertion, we enjoyed the sometimes-there-hidden-by-cloud views and a group of about eight people below on the Pipe Track.

On the slog to the chimney we noticed a pine tree above what is known as Three Firs route, and detoured to chop the blighter down.

The grand finale of this climb is a spectacular chimney, and this time no wind as we crawled through the final hole.

By this time it was only 11am so we descended Corridor Ravine and had lunch on the Pipe Track near to Slangolie. There were very few cars at Rontree, maybe because it was Mother’s Day. As a mother, I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the day and I’m sure that my 21 year-old son Craig was there with me in spirit.

Karen Watkins is author of Adventure Walks & Scrambles in the Cape Peninsula and this hike is included in her book, along with maps and buttress picture.