Moltkeblick

  • Moltkeblick
  • 2479 m
  • Prominence 1339 m
  • Location: South 22.65078. East 017.17930 (GPS)
  • Difficulty: YDS class 1
  • Climbed: October 30, 2023

Information:

How to get there:
Locate the fork near the east side of Windhoek where the highway to the airport begins. This is near coordinate XX,YY. Drive a bit more than 2 kilometer. You will pass under a railroad bridge. Turn right (dirt road) at the first possible road immediately after the railroad bridge. This road serves a lodge, the entrance gate is downhill on your left when approaching the lodge. A new highway is being constructed in this area. When completed, you need to get across it somehow. Thus, this access may slightly change in the future. Ask for directions when you contact the ranch people to obtain your permit and agree on what time you will arrive there.
After passing through the ranch gate, the road is a 4WD. There are several farm roads in the area, but it is fairly clear which one to follow, as you want to get pretty close to the mountain. The trailhead parking is at location S22.63048. E17.16533, elevation about 1935 meter. There is a pretty obvious (small) local peak nearby. Even much closer you will notice a large boulder.
Route description:
Walk downhill and pass the big boulder on the left side. Next, ascend the slope ahead using obvious animal paths. Once up on the gentle slope below the local peak, follow any small trail that heads uphill towards it. You will soon locate a bigger trail that will traverse and ascend gently around on the left hand side of the peak. This trail extends to near the saddle on the upper side of this local peak. The summit is now in plain view straight ahead. Now, head gently uphill tending more left until you hit the 4WD mountain access road. Finally, just follow this road to the summit.
Comments:
I did this climb with Dave. This "bonus peak" would be the first on our continued schedule to climb 6 more ultra prominent peaks in 5 more countries.
We had a spare day. As it turned out that there were no convenient flights from Windhoek to Cape Town on Sundays. We had allocated this day to make certain that we had sufficient time for the Brandberg mountain. We quickly discovered that there was a Ribu peak very close to Windhoek, Moltkeblick. Dave did a great job in quickly finding all the relevant information for gaining access to the trailhead, located inside a private farm.
We left around 0900 and drove to the gate where we paid the entrance fee, as agreed up front. The 4WD road to the trailhead was pretty nice, but with a couple of rough and steep spots that would have stopped any regular car. The parking at the trailhead was right next to an enormous boulder having overhanging slopes all around. A difficult objective to climb.
We started at 1000, easy hike in nice terrain, mostly along a rough access road serving the technical installations on the summit. Summit at 1130. The highest point is marked by a big cairn. There is a fenced in area nearby, but luckily lower than the location of the cairn. Nice views all around. We stayed until 1145, then descended the same way, back at the car by 1300.
At the hotel in Windhoek, John was waiting to get to the airport. He could easily have taken the hotel shuttle, but somehow preferred me spending an hour driving him. At the airport, he just exited the car without saying goodbye or thanking me for the ride? I felt sorry for him, he obviously had a very bad day.

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