I went up Vumba twice while I worked in Manica this August. The permission can be obtained on a weekday from the plant and they will send a guard with you. However you can just head up the hill and bribe the guards (or not) with cigarettes, bread, or cash. The steep trail referred to starts after the guard shack to the left. Continue up the road a few hundred meters, then veer left on a large rutted side road which is a few hundred meters then right on the next road for a 1/2K or so and the road goes left and the trail goes right. The trail is obvious. Follow this trail for about a K or less and just when it dips down into the canyon to the springs you will see a trail to the right. This is the trail to the top. Steep but easy. If you want a Class 2 with some 4 point hand holds continue on down the trail into the canyon to the water spring filter structure, then up again to a trail, turn right for about 10 meters where you find another use trail that takes you to a saddle. Then left again up the second hill, down into the next saddle, which requires a tiny bit of bushwhacking, then up again to the exposed flank of Vumba. Work your way up the flank on the slabs. About an hour or less to the top. Great mountain, but really only worth the trail hike.
mjc5677 - Aug 26, 2009 4:08 pm - Hasn't voted
August 2009I went up Vumba twice while I worked in Manica this August. The permission can be obtained on a weekday from the plant and they will send a guard with you. However you can just head up the hill and bribe the guards (or not) with cigarettes, bread, or cash. The steep trail referred to starts after the guard shack to the left. Continue up the road a few hundred meters, then veer left on a large rutted side road which is a few hundred meters then right on the next road for a 1/2K or so and the road goes left and the trail goes right. The trail is obvious. Follow this trail for about a K or less and just when it dips down into the canyon to the springs you will see a trail to the right. This is the trail to the top. Steep but easy. If you want a Class 2 with some 4 point hand holds continue on down the trail into the canyon to the water spring filter structure, then up again to a trail, turn right for about 10 meters where you find another use trail that takes you to a saddle. Then left again up the second hill, down into the next saddle, which requires a tiny bit of bushwhacking, then up again to the exposed flank of Vumba. Work your way up the flank on the slabs. About an hour or less to the top. Great mountain, but really only worth the trail hike.