This course was held at Giants Castle in order to guarantee good ice conditions. The 3 clients, Mario, Rietz and Gerhard had had their course postponed in 2017 due to a lack of good ice at Sani Pass. So we did the trip of 5 days. One day to hike in, 3 days to do the course and one day to hike out. Two porters were hired to help with all the gear.
Giants Castle ice was above average this year with most routes in good condition. We camped at a sheltered “Nursery Slopes ” camping area. Day 1 was spent doing basic skills on the upper amphitheatre of Makhaza icefall. This was mainly top roping and Gavin, the instructor lead a pitch called “Return to Fear”. This upper amphitheatre is all graded in ice terms between Water ice 3 and Water ice 5 or WI 3-5.
Day three of the course was the day to do the full climb of Makhaza from bottom to top. Gavin lead pitch 1 and 4, the harder ones, while Gerhard did his first two leads on ice on the intermediate pitches.
The final day was meant to be on the famous Lotheni Coulior, however, it was too warm and had running water, undercutting the ice. So instead the day was spent doing a much easier and safer route called Big Foot, Little Step (WI 2), which included more skills such as ice screw placements and V and A threads.