Xeni Pass trip report

Xeni Pass/Bell Traverse loop in a day

For many years Didima Nature Reserve has been my personal favourite region of the Drakensberg. With the Cathedral Peak ridge, the Column and the Pyramid, the Organ Pipes and the Didima Cutback - it is truly a special area. I could list many reasons why Didima is my first choice in terms of beauty, but one small area stands head and shoulders above the rest - the cutback between Cockade Peak and the Elephant.

Having made three different trips that included Cockade Pass, its northern neighbour continued to elude me. Seeing as it stood as the only pass marked on the Geoseries Maps that I had not completed, I knew I needed to head out and bag the notorious Xeni Pass.

Marco and I left Cathedral Peak Hotel at 5:30am. After briefly having a bit of difficulty finding the correct road to walk on, we found ourselves slogging up the route to Neptune Pools in the dark. We reached the point where the trail starts winding up the hill around sunrise.

We continued up the hill, reaching the contour path around 7:15.

We stopped for a break on the contour path. Weather was perfect, but there was a lot of smoke in the air due to fires throughout the region. As we completed the contour path section and dropped to the Xeni River, we were surprised to see some snow left on the vegetation as low as 2000m.

The approach to Cockade and Xeni Pass is well known for being overgrown, although I am not entirely sure why - any number of pass approaches that are considerably worse come to mind.

The riverbed was very iced up, which made the approach a bit trickier than normal.

After reaching the Xeni/Cockade split, it was new ground for both of us. The pass starts with a series of waterfalls which are bypassed by a steep grass side slope.

Eventually an easy traverse back into the gully is reached, and you can return into the gully.

The gully includes various scrambles - some of which are fairly loose.

As you get higher, the views become more and more impressive. The cliffs of Elephant and Cockade are visible in the distance, while the mighty Leopard towers above you.

Higher up, the gully narrows, making for some dramatic views.

From the wormhole the gully gets considerably easier and is over before you know it. We took a summit selfie before dropping down to the river for some lunch. We reached the river by 1:30, so roughly 7 hours from hotel to summit.

We had made good time up, but may have overcooked it a bit - the walk to the top of the Bell Traverse took longer than expected.

The route started off about as simply as normal.The smoke in the valleys below obscured a lot of the view, but it was still its normal dramatic self. There had been a rock fall near the infamous ledge on the east slopes of the Mitre, which made the step across considerably more difficult.

Once the trail crossed over to the Bell, there was a significant amount of ice. Seeing as we had carried them all this way, we both put our crampons on.

Bell Traverse took considerably longer than planned, and we had our headlamps on shortly before Orange Peel Gap.

We were back at the hotel by 8:30, meaning that we took 15 hours to complete our 31km hike. Not express pace by any means, but also notably not the easiest route around.

Overall I rate Xeni Pass as one of the toughest passes I have done, but also one of the most worthwhile. I must stress that it should only be attempted by experienced hikers who are comfortable with heights and scrambling.

Also a big thanks to the staff of Albert's Bar at Cathedral Peak Hotel for arranging food for us after the hike!

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