Right Face — Arrow Face Traverse

This route goes up the fabulous India—Venster Route, follows a spectacular traverse across the face of Table Mountain, and then descends steeply down Yellowstone Gully: not for the faint-hearted! If you were even slightly out of your comfort zone on the India—Venster scrambles, don’t proceed!

Getting there: park your car at Kloof Corner on Table Mountain Road.
GPS Co-ordinates: S 33°56.856′, E 18°24.122′
Difficulty: do not attempt without a guide: extreme exposure, scrambling, route-finding
Distance: 4km

Karen Watkins describes this route in both directions in her book “Adventure Walks and Scrambles in the Cape Peninsula”. I highly recommend doing it this way around: I don’t think it would be safe to come out of the cracks onto the ledges the other way.

Start out your route by following the instructions for the India—Venster Route. When you have passed through the scrambles, and are standing directly below the Upper Cableway Station, you are ready to make your detour onto the face of the mountain!

Looking to your left, you will notice 3 bushy ledges, or traverses, across the face of Table Mountain. You are more-or-less level with the middle one, called Africa Ledge, but will be heading down slightly to the lower one, the Right Face — Arrow Face Traverse. Drop down the trail to the path that is visible below to your left. Keep your eyes open all the way along the traverse: I saw some healthy Blister Bushes along the way! The ledge you are on becomes narrower, and just when you arrive at a point [S 33°57.462′, E 18°24.278′] where it seems to end altogether: at this point, you turn to your right and worm your way into the crack that goes into the mountain.

When you emerge at the other end, there is a tree in front of you: scramble up the 2 or 3 meters before it and go above it. Continue along the traverse again until you run out of space once more. This time you are seriously on an exposed ledge, and it really looks like there is no way to continue. However, right at the end of the ledge, a crack opens up in the mountain on your right again, and you enter a crack system larger than the first. This entrance is not visible until you are right next to it!

Once you are through the second crack [S 33°57.485′, E 18°24.311′], the trail drops down a few meters and then continues along the traverse for a distance. There is some more exposure here, and then the ledge widens out and you can take a breath again!

The first time I did this, we got a little off the track on our way down. We missed the trail dropping down into Yellowstone Gully, and ended up blazing a new trail somewhere in Union Ravine. After having done this route a second time, following in both books, I still battled at one or two points, especially at this critical point when starting your descent into Yellowstone.

The trick is: once you arrive around the corner above Yellowstone Gully, you need to drop down steeply straight away. There are cairns on the rocks as you scramble down. Do not head across Union Ravine (in the direction of Platteklip Gorge). Then when the path picks up again, you need to drop sharply down and left into Yellowstone Gully. If you reach a waterfall (a small rock face covered in black moss if dry), you have gone too far, and you need to go back up the path about ten meters.

Once you are in Yellowstone Gully proper, I am afraid it is a fairly steep, rocky descent all the way down to the Contour Path again. It can get really hot in the Gully, and there is almost no shade. Where I did find some, I stopped and hauled out my Hurricane flask of tea to cool off for a while!

The Gully takes a sharp right and ends in Union Ravine, just above a waterfall. You cross over above the waterfall and descend to the Contour Path [S 33°57.339′, E 18°24.627′] which you crossed at the start of the route. Turn left toward Kloof Nek, and enjoy the views of the city and the relatively flat trail as you make your way back to the start.

And for an alternative view of the general area, you will be in (and some footage of the upper section of the India—Venster route) check out the YouTube video of some climbers on Arrow Final.