Up the Cascades

Cascades is a perennial summer outing on the Mountain Club’s calendar. Either members scramble up the gorge, skirting the waterfalls, or they abseil down the gorge through the waterfalls – often doing both in a single weekend. I have abseiled it before, but this was my first ascent. Paul invited some German engineering students who are following a dual degree masters at Stellenbosch, along. They were excellent and stimulating company in the evenings (we spent two nights in Kromrivier hut), but their introduction to the Cape mountains might have been on the hairy side. Recent fires have rendered the scramble slightly tricky because of loose rocks and soil. Dead vegetation makes for tenuous handholds, and the skirting of the three pinnacles featured one exposed traverse where all of us, except Paul who took the lead, opted for the safety of a rope.