Lesotho · LS

Maluti Mountains

The Maluti Mountains—more commonly spelled the Maloti—are the high basalt heart of Lesotho, a rolling alpine plateau in the north of the country that carries several peaks above 3,000 metres and the single highest point in all of Southern Africa. Part of the great Drakensberg system, the range is a landscape of rounded summits, deep incised valleys and snow that can fall in any month of the year, earning Lesotho its nickname as the "Mountain Kingdom." For travellers, the Maloti are not one summit to bag but a region to explore: the vertiginous escarpment road over the Sani Pass, the wilderness trails and rock art of Sehlabathebe National Park, and the slopes of Afriski, one of southern Africa's only two ski resorts. Whether you come for a winter run on the snow or a summer hike along the plateau, the range rewards the effort with some of the wildest, least-crowded mountain scenery on the continent.