What has been reported
During 2025 the Cape Town press repeatedly reported armed robberies of hikers in Table Mountain National Park, with warnings in March, August and November. On 18 January 2026 a couple hiking The Glen trail off Upper Kloof Road was attacked by three armed men, and one of them was stabbed; SANParks confirmed the incident. The City of Cape Town said afterwards that it was reviewing mountain safety.
SANParks, which manages the national park, has deployed additional ranger units in the park. We do not print crime statistics here, because we have not been able to verify a set of figures to our standard.
Put plainly: the risk is real, it is not everywhere all the time, and it is a reason to plan the hike rather than to cancel it.
The other risk: underestimating the mountain
Table Mountain rises straight out of the city and looks close, and that makes it easy to underestimate. The Cape Town press reported three rescues in November 2025: an exhausted hiker on Platteklip Gorge in the afternoon heat, a hiker who suffered a panic attack, and a group stranded on the mountain in the dark after the cable car had closed. In December 2025 a hiker fell on Lion’s Head, and hikers who had lost their way on India Venster needed help. In February 2026 rescue teams brought down hikers stranded after a cableway closure.
What these incidents share has more to do with planning than with bad luck: the time of day, a route that asked more than expected, and a plan that relied on the cable car.
Precautions that make a difference
- Hike in daylight and start early; on sunrise and sunset hikes, go with a guide or a group.
- Keep valuables to a minimum — a phone, water and what you need for the day.
- Stay on the main routes and do not split up from your group.
- Carry more water than you think you need, especially on the sunny city face in summer.
- Plan the way down as if the cable car were closed — the wind stops it on roughly 60 to 90 days a year, according to the operator, and the descent on foot takes time. More on our hike or cable car page.
- Choose a route that matches your fitness, not your ambition. Our route comparison explains how they differ.
What a guide changes — and what it does not
A guided hike is not a guarantee, but it changes several things at once. You are not on the trail alone. The guide knows the route, including the rockier lines where hikers have lost their way, sets a pace that gets you up and down in daylight, and knows what to do when the wind closes the cable car. Reviews of the hikes on this site keep returning to that feeling: guides who make the group feel safe and who calm the nerves of first-timers.
What a guide does not change is your own fitness, and a group is only as good as its attention to the slowest walker. Three reviews across different hikes — one of them from 2020 — describe the slowest walkers getting little attention or falling behind the group. If that worries you, look at the group size on the product page and tell the guide at the start that you would like a steady pace.
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In short
Robberies have been reported on some trails, and rescue teams have repeatedly brought down hikers who underestimated the mountain. Hike in daylight, carry little, stay on the main routes and in company, plan the way down without the cable car — and consider a guide, who takes care of most of that list for you.
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