Cradle Summit at Night

I couldn't resist yesterday's snow forecast and despite it falling late in the weekend I was determined...

At 3pm I left the Dove Lake Car Park.  There was no snow on the ground yet and rain was falling very heavily.  Visibility was reasonable with the mountain outline peering through through wind blown sheets of floaty of precipitation indicating the freezing level was not far above me and descending fast.  Sure enough as soon as I turned onto the Marions Lookout Track the rain turned to heavy snow.

By the time I reached the Plateau snow was settling and a good thick cover greeted me at Kitchen Hut when I arrived at 4pm.  Encouraged by my good pace I continued onto the summit track, enjoying the snow drifts becoming deeper as I climbed.  The wind howled across my path.  At one stage a currowong hopped along the track ahead of me for quite some distance.  It must have been enjoying a repreive from the gale.

At 5:30pm I reached the summit cairn and quickly used the last traces of daylight to retrieve my torches ready for the descent.  Soon after leaving it became apparent there would be no trace of my upward journey with snow settling very heavily now.

I made a couple of navigational blunders boldly heading down the wrong gully just below the spot where the track broaches the skyline and again soon after that point.  Each time it was a race to follow my tracks back to the last post before the footrpints vanished.  In daylight the posts are obvious but by torchlight, they are a narrow and non-reflective target easily hidden behind boulders.  An additional challenge as I hunted for each post was the barrage of icy bullets being driven by the howling gale straight up the side of the mountain and into the small face slit in my jacket.  Ouch!

Back at Kitchen Hut the snow was back to a predictable horizontal rather than upward flight path and was now easily deflected by my hood.  Ploughing through fresh snow over the plateau and all the way down to Dove Lake was a sheer delight.  Knee deep drifts disintegrated before me with the slightest kick as the powder was so fine and light.  At the car it was funny to discover my jacket, mittens and backpack had all frozen solid.  The jacket held its shape when I stood it on the ground!  I've checked the Mt Read log for last night.  When I was on the mountain wind gusts were 70kph and apparent temperature -14.3.  Cool!

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Castle Crag

Last week I set my sights on Castle Crag. I’ve often looked at it from Lees Paddocks or the Overland Track and wondered about tackling it as a long day walk from Wadleys Hut. After some other commitments on Friday evening, I set out from Lake Rowallan at 9:00pm and took exactly three hours to wander in to Wadleys Hut by torchlight. As I crossed The Paddocks, the frost on the chest high grass looked like a myriad of stars twinkling in my torchlight.

In the morning, a colourful sunrise and heavy frost were a beautiful treat. At one stage, Castle Crag was bathed in its own pink spotlight while the other mountains modestly hid their heads in whispy mist. I was feeling good about my objective.

At 7:30 I reluctantly left the comforts of the hut, shouldered my pack and headed out to cross the large ‘top paddock.’ The blazed route led me through beautiful river-side forest before crossing Pinestone Creek and crossing a short stretch of tea tree and cutting grass. A distinctive bend in the river was a lovely spot for a rest as the route would shortly leave the Mersey and start climbing.

Once the route reached Kia Ora Creek, rather than cross over, I stayed on the northern bank and proceeded upstream until I reached the spectacular Kia Ora Falls. After plenty of photos and the obligatory crawl behind the curtain of falling water, I climbed out of the valley and crossed the button grass plain to join the Overland Track near the private hut at 11:00am.

Once I joined the main ‘highway’ heading south, the first group I met were 2 couples with small day packs. I wrongly assumed they were doing the Overland Track from south to north. Imagine my surprise when they told me they had just climbed up from Lees Paddocks. They had spotted my bare footprints in the frost on the deck of Wadleys Hut and must have been fairly close behind me when I turned off to go to Kia Ora Falls. They had continued up the blazed route to where it joins the Overland Track and were doing a ‘lap of Pelion East’ by heading over Pelion Gap, down the Arm River Track and back to Lees Paddocks via Reedy Lake. I loved listening to their stories of extreme day walks they had completed.

By 1pm I arrived at Du Cane Gap and paused for half an hour to do lunch and contemplate the goal which lay tantalisingly close. The description in The Abels said once the dolerite skyline was reached it would be a pleasant change from the scrub. I figured that was their way of saying the scrub is less than pleasant. They were right. There was no real easy way through. Even once I reached the dolerite it was still necessary to engage the scrub between boulders. By the time I reached the high point of Falling Mountain, the pure rock hopping felt great.

I reached the highest point on Castle Crag in exactly the two hours The Abels said it would take from Du Cane Gap. Cloud had started to envelope the Du Cane Range to the west but the views to south, east and north were stupendous. Especially eye catching was the view over the deep trench of the Mersey River in the vicinity of the waterfalls, along the face of Cathedral Mountain, to Lees Paddocks and Mount Pillinger.

The descent took 1.5 hours and, with Bert Nicholls Hut only 45 minutes down from the Gap, I figured I could afford to make tomorrow’s walk slightly longer and opt for the comfort of the hut rather than pitch the tent at Campfire Creek as originally intended.

In the morning, I set out around 7:30am again, stopped in to the base of Hartnett Falls around 9:00am, passed Kia Ora Hut at 11:00am and paused for lunch in a snow-shower on Pelion Gap at 1:00pm. In the forest near Kia Ora I met 4 Queensland gentlemen doing the Overland Track. They liked the sound of the private huts and I think there may be some conspiring going on when they get home to see if they can bring their wives back to do the track with a significant increase in the level of luxury involved. Good luck fellas. I’m sure Cradle Huts would love to see you next year.

From Pelion Gap, I was starting to tire and, while maintaining a reasonable pace, I was ready for the walk to end. I passed Pelion Hut at 3:00pm, Reedy Lake at 4:15pm and arrived at Lees Paddocks at 5:30pm. The last of my chocolate spurred me on and I finally arrived at the car at 7:30pm after spending the last couple of hours walking by torch light once again.

Reynolds Falls and Recondite Knob

I've always loved Reynolds Falls ever since spotting it in a Wilderness Society book about areas just outside the World Heritage Area. I previously visited on a through trip from the Mt Cripps area. In late March this year I had a free weekend and planned another visit to this beatiful valley.

Before starting my walk, I decided to investigate a set of falls marked on the map near Moina on Hinman Creek. They are off the stretch of road known locally as Black Jack Straight tucked in behind a block of private land. Being careful to avoid trespassing, I walked to the escarpment from a spot north of the property boundary. The falls themselves did not disappoint. The small stream plunges a good 40 metres or so over a spectacular overhanging cliff. There is also some historical interest here as the water race from Weaning Paddock Creek to Moina can be seen crossing the top of the falls.

I descended to the base of the falls from the north and discovered an old rope marking a route back up the cliff to the south. I returned to the car by following the water race south until I could safely complete my circumnavigation of the private block, returning to the road at the point where the high voltage power lines cross.

With one ripper waterfall under my belt, I arrived at Cradle Mountain Lodge, shouldered my overnight pack around 10:00am and ventured over Speeler Plains. Once I reached the end of the vehicular track I had lunch around 1pm and ditched my big pack, taking the basic day walk items with me. With 6 hours until dark I figured that would do for the 16km round trip from there. As it turned out, I was a bit optomistic.

The track was quite tricky to follow in places as I made the descent through magnificent myrtle and delegatensis forest. The falls were awe inspiring. The Vale River plunges out of a giant notch in a tall cliff with a thunderous roar. Time was against me. The 8km descent had taken 3 hours. Despite this, I couldn't drag myself away and it was 4:30pm before I commenced the 800m vertical climb back up to my overnight pack knowing full well I would be flirting with nightfall.

I didn't fancy attempting to follow the poorly defined track by torchlight so I tackled the climb with a strong sense of urgency and made it to my pack at 7:30pm using every bit of dusk to find my way back to the vehicular track by natural light. Once I had my pack, I followed the branch track up towards Back Peak where the terrain levels out and some lovely flat patches made for a good campsite.

In the morning, I set my sights on Mt Remus. I started walking half and hour before sun rise and had the joy of seeing a light mist rising over frosty ground as the sun peeked over Heap of Rocks. Once again, I had bitten off more than I could chew. Mt Remus proved to be too far away to achieve in the time available. (I had to be in Burnie for a 3pm meeting that arvo - It wasn't quite a free weekend.) However, I was happy to bag the Abel, Recondite Knob.

At 10:00am I had progressed 2km beyond the knob and reached thick scrub at the end of the very last remains of the vehicular track. From here Remus looked tantalisingly close but I made a hasty retreat back along the vehicular track which I lost in button grass before getting to Speeler Plains. I decided to shun the track and head cross country to a spot just north of Carters Tarn where I picked up the Pencil Pine Track and followed it downstream to join the Enchanted Walk, finally arriving at my car by 2:00pm.

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BBPAC17

BBPAC17 Photo Album

Mt Ossa from The Paddocks

Despite BBPAC17 being an extremely active camp, I spent most of it in an office directing traffic which was roaming by the bus load far and wide over this wonderful island.  Consequently, I got to the end of camp feeling emotionally and spiritually drained but physically I felt ready to tackle a mountain marathon.

Pine Hut Plain

Mt Ossa was my chosen goal.  I would do it as a two day walk and camp somewhere high.  For added challeng I decided to tackle it from the Lees Paddocks track making the round trip 42kms with about 1200m of climbing.

Lewis Falls

I started walking at lunch time on Monday, crossing the Mersey River suspension bridge, passing through Pine Hut Plain then taking the obligatory detours to Lewis and Oxley Falls.  On the drive in, the damage from the floods only a few days earlier was amazing.  Surprisingly, the upper Mersey catchment appeared to have escaped the worst of the rain.  The river was in strong flow but not that far above it's normal summer levels.

Oxley Falls

As I arrived at The Paddocks and passed Lees Hut, rain set in making the lush fern growth annoyingly damp as I climbed the poorly defined track to Reedy Lake.  Once I climbed above the rain forest the ferns were replaced by equally annoying wet scratchy scrub.  The silver lining to this cloud was the stunningly beautiful fields of scoparia in full flower.

Dean Bluff and Mersey River from The Paddocks

At Lake Ayr, the Arm River Track felt like a super highway.  By 4pm I quietly scooted past Pelion Hut without pausing.  Overland Track walkers would mostly be inside socialising and discussing just how painful the climb in and out of Frog Flats had been.

 Richea Scoparia at Pelion Gap

A bit later, I arrived at Pelion Gap.  The rain had gone but it was replaced by a howling wind with gusts strong enough to make it almost impossible to stand.  At one point I was caught off guard and had no choice but to accept an ignominious dumping onto the boardwalk.

Pelion East from my camp site

I looked at my phone and remembered the promise I made to my family that I would ensure that I stayed high enough to get phone signal.  Unfortunately, Mt Pelion East was just robbing me of a line-of-sight connection with Mt Claude so I shouldered the pack and headed up Mt Doris.  A buzz in my pocket confirmed I could meet my committment as I climbed onto a shelf on the north-eastern side of this diminutive peak.

Packing and gearing up under the tent fly before braving the pre-dawn elements

Earlier in the day I had visions of camping on the summit.  It was only 6pm with plenty of daylight at my disposal but (a) my legs were saying call it a day and (b) I suspect the wind would make a summit camp darn near impossible.  A pretty tarn on the shelf kept me company as I battled to pitch the tent.  Just when I thought I had the fly in place, a huge gust caught it causing the elastic to fling my pegs away in all directions.  after 20 minutes of peg hunting I changed tack and managed to get the tent erect and extremely well anchored.

The highest rock in Tassie 

It was an uneasy night's sleep with all the emotion of camp still running around in my head.  At 3:30am it was clear I couldn't sleep any more so I fixed breakky, packed up the tent and returned to the track by torchlight.  Sunrise on top of Tassie was my new goal!

Sunrise self portrait on top of Tasmania at the summit of Mt Ossa

As my tiny pool of light made its way around Doris' southern flank I was delighted by how much the sunrise was starting to have an impact even at 4:30am.  By 5:00am I was on the main boulder field below the climbing gulley and it was light enough to proceed without the headlamp.

Summit pool on Ossa plateau

At 6:00am I stood atop the summit obelisk looking at the subtle glow from a sunrise which was happening somewhere beyond the cloud which was settled all around me.  Thankfully the howling gales of the evening had given way to a more forgiving breeze.  Without anyone to share the experience with I did not linger long, returning to my pack at 7:30am.

The sun bursting through with Doris, Pelion East and Dean Bluff lining up to mark my route home

From 8:30am I passed a steady stream of Overland Track walkers as they departed Pelion Hut.  By the time I arrived at 9:00am there was only one solitary camper who was yet to get underway.  After crossing Douglas Creek I looked back over my shoulder with a certain degree of satisfaction that Ossa's head was still enveloped in cloud.  However it was lifting so I also smiled to myself that other walkers climbing at a more sensible hour were almost certain to have a good view for their summit moments.

Richea scoparia in flower on Mt Doris shelf

Growing eagerness to return home to family made me ignore the early warning signs of blisters as I powered past Lake Ayr and Reedy Lake.  The damage was done by the time I pounded down the steep slopes toward the Mersey River below.  Soon after 12:30 I bundled myself into the car and back out to my waiting family.