How to get there:
This peak is best accessed from the village named Lasho, north east of the summit.
Lasho may be accessed by two different roads, from the east starting near the town
of Wolaita Soto, or from the south-east from the village of Gasuba.
The local bus runs on the road from Soto, it is in better condition than the road
from Gasuba. Still, the rough road from Gasuba could be driven by a landcruiser with a
competent driver in 2025. Drive through Lashoto, to location N6.77493, E37.46095. At this
point, there is a smaller road that forks left. This road may also be driven by a good
4WD vehicle. Drive as high as you find reasonable and park in a location where you
do not obstruct traffic.
Route description:
Continue to follow the same road uphill. When the road turns more right, one may
continue directly uphill on the left side of a local forest, to reach the main
summit ridge. On the top, go left to locate a high point near location
N06.76318, E037.45833. Note that there is a competing high point across a shallow
saddle at the end of a ridge that extends south-west. One should walk across there
as this is also a fine view point. A track is posted on Peakbagger. Note that
this track starts from a point on the road from Gasuba where my driver
gave up.
Comments:
We were driving the road from the town of Sawla connecting north-east to Wolaita Soto.
When travelling this way, the road going from Gasuba would be much shorter, thus this
was our option. It turned out that this road was a bit rougher than expected, so driving
was pretty slow. Finally, very close to Lashoto, we had a final uphill with some
rocks. My driver, Ayu, was tired of the bad road and did not
really try to pass this point.
He only made a half-hearted attempt, killing the engine, then gave up.
I was fairly annoyed as any skilled driver should be able to get by. He kept telling
me that if I drove there "I would kill the car". Hmm, not much to do about this, but
walk from here. Thus, our hike would be quite a bit longer than it needed be. Also,
we would need to drive the same bad road back to Gasuba, rather than try the road
used by the local bus.
We started at 1230 and used about 2 hours to get to the summit.
It was quite a nice hike. I explored the competing summit, next, also
walked down to the small local hill marked on the map as being highest.
This latter point was clearly lower. Returning at a leisurely pace, we were
back at our car around 1630. We still had time to drive via Gasuba back
to Soto town, where I decided to stay at the more upscale Haile resort Wolaita.
Resources:
Images
Kapo Koisha, as seen across from near our parking.
