Mosterthoek North Twin

A couple of months ago I wrote about my plan to climb the 2000-metre high peaks with some of my colleagues, in an attempt to raise awareness for the NGO we are part of, Educo Africa.

The NGO focuses on fostering leadership development and self-awareness, particularly in youth and youth adults, by taking them into the mountains and the deep wilderness.

So it was that we set off to climb one of the less prominent of the Western Cape’s big mountains, the Mosterthoek Twins, a double-headed 2000 metre high massif en route to Ceres. It’s the most southern peak of the Hex River Mountains, a range which runs from north to south, and includes the Matroosberg range and Milner Peak.

Mosterthoek, being the closest to the ocean, rises out from the lowlands near the coast more than 1500 metres to its lofty summits. Only one, the south twin, exceeds the magical 2000-metre mark, its northern accomplice only (only!) reaching 1954 metres.

Our plan was to tackle the north twin, before crossing over the saddle to the true highest point.

This seemed like a feasible plan until we reached the crest of the northern summit. 2008 was one of the coldest and wettest winters the Western Cape has experienced in years, so the knife-edge ridge to the top was caked in ice and snow.

We slowed our pace to carefully negotiate the last 200 metres, all the time looking across Donkerkloof, the mega gorge dropping off between the twins.

Reaching the first summit a three in the afternoon, with an icy, technical traverse into the saddle before more tricky mixed ground leading to the main summit, we resigned our fates to the exposed northern peak with its grand views of the Tulbagh Valley and the snow choked Groot Winterhoek range.

To the south Table Mountain rose above the Atlantic, while in the distance to the north the Hex extended out like a great spine of some giant bodied being. Moserthoek South, with its trig beaconed summit appearing tantalizingly close and yet realistically still very far, taunted us from across the saddle. Something to come back for…