Archive for the ‘Overland Track’ Category

The Overland Track – Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair – a nice slow trip

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Spring hiking in Tasmania? Will there be snow or just rain?

Hiking the Overland Track from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair?

A leisurely bushwalk on a World Heritage "Top 10 Hikes in the World"

We have just returned from a seven day, six night trip on the Overland Track in Tasmania. There were four of us in the party with the plan to take our time and enjoy any good spring weather we might get along the way. With typical Tasmanian weather variability we were blessed with some great sunny days and also snow, sleet and rain in various forms. All this was expected and we were well prepared for any conditions.

Why hike the Overland Track again you may ask? Because we LOVE it!

In this post we will just make a few comments and observations about the trip, as there are many other posts on Our Hiking Blog about hiking the Overland Track. Check out the links to them at the bottom of the page.

Heading up the Horse Track as an alternative to the big grunt up Marions. Perfect for someone with barthmophobia. It is still a bit of a "climb" but over a longer distance. Every time we do it it seems to get harder....

We were hoping for snow, in fact a lot of snow! It had snowed heavily a couple of weeks before and while there was some on the Cradle Plateau it was very slushy and soft. Above is Sue heading across the Horse "Track" towards the intersection with the Overland Track proper (where it intersects just before Kitchen Hut)


We had planned to take snow shoes (Yowies) but Frank ended up the only person carrying them as the snow was patchy and not forecast for the duration of the trip. They were OK in this section but because the snow was so soft and slushy they broke through to ground several times and it was quite difficult to get them out of the snow.

Heading across to Kitchen Hut (with Cradle Mountain in the background). The snow was particularly soft here as there was a lot of water running across the ground (under the snow)


The Overland Track was easy to find in the snow. We had fantastic weather on day one.

We left the Ronney Creek car park (the official start of the Overland Track) at 1pm. Slow as ever, and hindered by the snow, we reached Waterfall valley Hut at 7pm. Sunset (above from just before the Barn Bluff turnoff) was at 6:07 so we had quite a bit of walking with headlights in the dark.

Cooking dinner at Windemere Hut we were surprised to be the only party in the hut that night. We were lucky enough to get ABC radio reception here and were able to listen to the AFL football and hear our team win the game and make the Grand Final. We also had Pelion and Kia Ora huts to ourselves which was surprising (but nice for a change, we have been at Pelion Hut when it was at it's capacity of 60 people)

Of seven days hiking, we had two totally fine days. The rest was a variety of "weather". Pictured above is John heading down the track. Tasmania has had a significant amount of winter and spring rain and the track was quite wet in places.

At Pelion Gap and the Mt Ossa turnoff. That evening we discovered we had red faces from sunburn! Colin had left Pelion Hut early hoping to climb Mt Ossa. When he arrived it was covered in cloud and after waiting an hour decided to head on to Kia Ora. As he says, no use climbing a mountain if you can't see the view. We arrive in sunshine and a cloud free Ossa!

Sue heading down Pelion Gap towards Kia Ora Hut. Nice bit of snow here but not enough for snow shoes.

It was a "bit chilly" on a couple of days. Pictured above is Frank feeling the cold.

We had never been into Ferguson Falls (which are between Kia Ora and Bert Nichols Hut) and were lucky to have chosen a great time of the year as it was PUMPING! We could not believe the roar of the water nor the sheer volume coming over the waterfall. It was a great side trip.

Above is a great view of the Acropolis from Bert Nichols Hut. The new hut is an interesting addition to the Overland Track. There is a very long, funny and interesting post on Bushwalk Tasmania about the Hut development. (some people love it, others hate it- we can see both sides)

We completed the walk at Echo Point Hut as the jetty at Narcissus was under a metre of water due to the high level of Lake St Clair.

In conclusion, a few reflections on this walk may be useful for anyone planning a spring bushwalk on the Overland Track.
- the snow was wet and really soft. Travel time was slow and snow shoes unhelpful
- temperatures were never below freezing so the tracks were slushy and wet rather than icy as we had in our Winter Overland Track
- We took it easy and just went from hut to hut. It made for a very relaxing trip, leaving late (between 9 and 10 am) each day and arriving into the Hut most days between 2 and 4 pm. It was a great way to "do" the track.
- We saw 22 people in total for the whole seven days (and saw no one for 3 of the days). If you are experienced, well prepared and not too ambitious it may be a good time of the year to hike the Overland Track without the seasonal "crowds"
- we allowed 7 nights and 8 days in case the weather held us up (or if we wanted a side trip). Snow is very common in September and there had been a large dump two weeks before our trip.
- we ended coming out "early" and had a night at the Derwent Bridge Hotel. It was great and we really enjoyed the food and hospitality.

Related Posts
How to hike the Overland Track - our eBook on getting the trip done - 2009/10 update
Backpacking the Overland Track - a view from the States
Planning food for a multiday hike
Various Overland Track posts

Posted in Adventure Travel, Bushwalking, Cradle Mountain, Overland Track, Tasmania, australia, backpacking, eBook | Comments Off

Overland Track – Winter hike – a photographers paradise

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
There are photographs of the Tasmanian Wilderness and then there are beautiful images.

Pieces of art that reflect the beauty of the area and tell a story that excites you and makes you want to be there!
Ice on duck boarding - Dave Noble

In this post, we highlight a TINY part of a fantastic photographic essay of a recent hike across the Overland Track in Tasmania by Dave Noble (and party). The walk from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair covers about 85km of some spectacular wilderness in the heart of Tasmania. It is usually undertaken over five nights but in this case the trip was planned for 10 days to allow for side trips and photography.

The glow of a coal stove - Kia Ora Hut - The Overland Track - Dave Noble

Frank has enormous respect for Dave Noble who has been hiking in Tasmania (and many other places) since the early 1970's. He has achieved many feats that are the envy of less adventurous bushwalkers. These include extensive multi-day hikes in the South West National Park in Tasmania in the mid 1970's and then a multitude of fantastic trips in various places across Australia.

Close up with reflection - Overland Track - Dave Noble

We encourage you to visit Dave's site and read the full trip report and check out the terrific images of this winter hike: The Reserve in Winter - A Walk Along Tasmania's Overland Track - July 2009

Related Posts:
Overland Track - Winter in Tasmania - some lessons
The Overland Track eBook - information post
Overland Track eBook reviews
The Overland Track solo - Sue's trip report

Additional Information
Overland Track 2008 - Great trip report by Matthias
Bushwalk Tasmania - the resource for Tasmanian Bushwalking

All photographs are used with the kind permission of Dave Noble

Posted in Adventure Travel, Cradle Mountain, Overland Track, South Coast Track Tasmania, digital photography | Comments Off

Cradle Mountain adventure – a short story

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Adventure around Cradle Mountain?
Fact or fiction?
A day hike around Cradle Mountain with a twist (or two)?

Then this story is for you!

Frank stumbled across a very enjoyable blog today titled American in Oz. He reads a lot of blog posts about Tasmania and especially the Cradle Mountain area in Australia's most southern state, Tasmania. These post are a great source of inspiration and fun when he is stuck in his "real life".

This post , Tracks Less Travelled, a Tasmanian short story , really got his attention and the beautiful word craft and surprises in the story had him captivated.

Another fantastic image by Tasadam, Definitive Cradle Mountain - This picture is from a set titled The Overland Track - Tasmania - well worth a look at all his great photographs.

The following are some exerts from the story by annielaural:

" At the same time that she was fearful of stepping off the planked trail, she wished she had the courage to head off cross-country, to snake up the face of Marian’s Lookout, to beat Chris to the top. The competition between them never failed to engage her "

" Nueva’s was far more moderate in grade, longer with twelve hundred year old King Billy and Pencil Pines growing close to the water. Pandani towered over her head in the protection of the Ballroom Forest and Cutting Grass and Sassafras, growing far too close to the track, waited to wound. Daydreaming here was out of the question."

" It was still early afternoon. She had three more hours of daylight. A night in the dark on the trail was not appealing. She had plenty of clothes if she kept moving, but she didn’t have enough cold weather gear to spend the night out here, especially if it rained, and it was bound to rain as the temperatures cooled down "


To read the whole story (and it is a lot different to what you would normally read here), go to the full post on "American in Oz" , Tracks Less Travelled - a Tasmanian short story

We hope you enjoy it.

Related Posts:
The Overland Track - Planning the walk from Overseas
Hiking the Overland Track - a view from the States
Cradle Mountain local walk and Cradle Mountain Lodge

Posted in Adventure Travel, Bushwalking, Cradle Mountain, Overland Track, Tasmania | Comments Off

Overland Track – Tasmania in Winter – some lessons

Sunday, June 14th, 2009
The Overland Track in Tasmania is a fantastic 6 days hiking experience. It is isolated, can throw up tough conditions and challenge you both physically and mentally. In fact, unless you are adequately prepared for bitterly cold and mind numbing conditions in winter, you risk serious problems (and the possibility of death) No joking.

Walking the Overland Track in winter needs thorough planning, excellent gear and experience in tough Tasmanian conditions.

In this post we are shamelessly plugging our Hiking the Overland Track eBook, not as a way to make us rich, but as a good resource to help you plan your trip and reduce the risks to a managable level.

Why the plug?

We have just finished reading Aaron White's blog Aaron's Assonant Advertures In Australia and want to share some of his posts with potential Overland Track hikers. We highly recommend reading Aaron's Overland Track posts to get the full story.

We really enjoyed Aaron's writing style and story telling ability - it is great read.

This first post : Overland Track Chronicles - Rugging up sets the scene for his recent winter trip.
Sue and Frank - hiking in Tasmania - winter - can't be too bad, we are smiling!

As reasonably experienced Tasmania hikers, reading his story immediately created warning bells in our minds, so we decided to post some snippets of his experiences and make a few comments about them so others who attempt the Overland Track in winter can be better prepared.


So read on, snippets from Aarons posts about a "hearty native Minnesotan" hiking the Overland Track in early winter. (with our comments below):

Buying Gear:
Without hesitation, he led me to a corner that was a forest of hangers with only rainjackets. "It rains a lot in Tasmania, so you'll need a good shell layer. This jacket here is 100% rain and wind proof. Feel it. Real gortex."
Mmmm gortex. I felt the smooth, yet rubbery sleeve and subtley turned the affixed price tag to my direction. $800.
"So will this keep me warm as well?" I asked.
"Oh no, sir!" The definity of his answer jabbed a hole right through what was left of my not-ignorant face. "This is just a shell layer. You'll need a good fleece jacket, coat, and of course (chuckle) thermals. I mean you at least have thermals right?"

Read this post: Best Hiking Clothes for a multiday hike in Tasmania - the layering principal

I found a cheap rain jacket for sale at a random Sydney shop for $40. In Launceston, I bought my stove, fleece coat, fleece gloves, tent and some wool socks at the local K-mart. I wasn't a Super Backpacker Man, but I think I was alright.

In the Overland Track eBook we go into detail about gear selection, what you need to take and what is not required.

Planning:
That night though, I didn't sleep, not even for a minute. I tossed, turned and froze to death under my pile of blankets in the heated Tasmanian room. Launceston isn't even in the mountains. I already knew my light summer sleeping bag would not be enough, even when fully clothed. I thought of my gear, my garbage bag gaiters, my lack of sleeping mat. Why did I buy potatoes?

I rolled out of bed at 5:59, yelling at my 6:00 alarm to wake up. I saw that it was the morning of May 13th (duhn duhn duh!!!!). I repacked my bag, cut back on some of the food, tossed out my potatoes. I removed the one pair of comfort clothing I saved for my first night off the mountain and cut back on a few other odds and ends. The bag was still too heavy, but it was at least manageable.

Read this post: Hiking gear what are the basics to get started

I still wasn't content. I threw on my hiking boots and headed to the 24hour Kmart for a camping mat. Freezing to death from no ground insulation was not the way I wanted to kick it. I walked a half block before I hit another obstacle to my coming hike: my ankles were in intense pain.

Three hours later, I arrived and Cradle Mountain National Park, ready to go, pain or not. I caved in a bought some actual rain pants at the inflated middle-of-nowhere price of $60

Many hikers leave on a sunny day, unprepared, without raingear or warm clothing and die when trapped in a snowstorm. I was undertaking it in mid-May, when you don't have to pay the $150 fee, but have to deal with less desirable weather and very short days.

Hiking during the non fee paying season is Ok if you are experienced and prepared. There is minimal support from Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service and less people around to help get you out of trouble.

Sue, heading off into the Walls of Jerusalum in December (the first month of the Australian summer)

The Overland Track:

"Continue on? Isn't this the hut?"
Kitchen Hut in better weather - May 08- note the second level door and shovel for access during heavy snow and also leon in jean shorts - they got wet the first 10 minutes and stayed wet for the rest of the trip (wrapped up in the bottom of his pack)

"Oh no, this is just Kitchen Hut, an emergency shelter. The first overnight hut is another two hours further on."
That put me at just more than halfway done with the day. I was already exhausted: my back hurt, my ankles hurt, and one layer of face had been not so carefully removed by unhindered, blowing precipitation. There was thankfully only 30 minutes left on the open mountain face.

I collapsed upon opening the door. I just wasn't in enough shape for this first day of climbing, but a good nights sleep would hopefully give me the strength for the next. The hut was quite nice, with wooden bunks to sleep 25 and a gas heater to dry off all of our gear.

Even with a rain jacket, rain pants, fleece coat, hooded sweatshirt, t-shirt, and jeans, I was soaked all the way down to my thermals. I had a backpack cover over my water resistant backpack, but this proved useless: everything in my pack was wet. That day, even the super backpackers, with their $1000 dollar backpacks and special waterproof covers learned the lesson that "waterproof" is a myth.

Read this post by Matthias at Matt Worldwide: Preparing for a 10 day hike in South West Tasmania

Do not take cotton clothes such as jeans or track pants, once wet they will NOT DRY .

The second morning - leaving Waterfall Valley Hut
I jumped out of the creek, gave it the finger, and stomped through the pouring rain back to the hut and threw my fifty pound pack in the corner.

"I'm done! It's cold, rainy, everything is wet, it's too f**king foggy to see anything, and there is a f**king knee deep creek right at the start of this horrible day. Now, I'm going to have to walk with wet feet for the next 25km. I paid $1000 to do this piece of s#$t walk and it has been nothing but one... big...f**king...disappointment. I'm not putting up with this. I'm going back. That's it. F%$k this s*&t!"

The others at the hut were not really expecting such a tirade, especially minutes into the second day of the hike. Everyone, just kept on eating the breakfast in uncomfortable silence, until a young German woman finally asked the one question on everyones' mind. "Is there any way around this knee deep creek?"

"No!"
Five minutes later, I had my socks wrung out, I had my clothes put back on and was ready to move on.

Arriving Windemere Hut
I removed my completely wet gear and went into my backpack for my dry change of clothing. Even after repacking everything in garbage bags, my clothes were still damp. The left me with no dry clothes and the temperature was quickly dropping.

Within minutes, I was shivering uncontrollably and started feeling a bit faint. I could tell I was showing the early symptoms of hypothermia. I threw on my fleece coat even though it was wet. That is one thing I love about polar fleece, it is the amazing fabric that maintains warmth, even when wet.

Lightweight plastic garbage bags are not waterproof - they perforate easily and you gear will get wet. You need to double bag critical gear inside a pack liner (pack covers will not keep your pack contents dry!)

The previous night, Brian (a guy Aaron met on the Track) had slept in a tent in the rain, instead of the hut. Everything he owned, including sleeping back was soaked. His body was not forgiving him for the prior two days' punishment. He was cramping, worn-down, cold. Instead of pushing on that day, he decided to rest another day. This was an option I chose to wave, despite the inconceivably worse weather that day.

Since I was not going forward, I wanted to head back and see all the various side trails along the way I had passed up. - At this point Aaron decided to return to the Cradle Mountain end of the walk and not risk worse weather conditions that were forecast - a wise move.

I awoke in the middle of the night with the startling discovery that the Socks Paradox was in fact a myth. Once I donned my fifth pair of socks, wrapped my feet in a sweater, put the bottom of my sleeping bag in a canvas shopping bag, I was able to make my feet merely cold. It was a long, blustery night. The wind tested the structural integrity of the cabin.

I wasn't the only person who had a cold night. A young British bloke spent the night with merely a blanket. His one pair of socks was soaked from the previous day's walk. The sneakers he brought were still wet and he had no rain coat. The temperature was below freezing that day. Despite this, he pushed on. This is how people die.

The End- back at the Cradle Mountain Area
I was in my element, until I reached the top of the mountain.
Suddenly, I found myself in North Dakota mid-blizzard or maybe on top of mountain mid-blizzard, same difference. I pushed forward through knee-deep snow, which was good, because it stabilized me from being toppled by the wind. I was glad it was only a couple of miles back to Kitchen Hut.

Inside the Kitchen Hut, I found an Aussie family from Brisbane, with a twelve year old child. They started the previous day, but got trapped from the excessive winds. I was actually quite glad to see them safe and alive; other hikers the previous night had told me of this family.
They decided to head back to the park with me, so we headed out into the blizzard. At first it wasn't too bad, but after fifteen meters, the wind came back with a vengeance, the strongest I've faced on the trail. Being from Queensland, the boy had never seen snow before, now he was stuck in Antartica. They wisely turned back.

Many thanks to Aaron White for his great insights and honest appraisal of his Overland Track experience. Remember, you can read Aaron's eight posts on his blog, Aaron's Assonant Adventures in Australia.


Related Posts
The Overland Track eBook - information post
Overland Track eBook reviews
The Overland Track solo - Sue's trip report

Additional Information
Overland Track 2008 - Great trip report by Matthias
Bushwalk Tasmania - the resource for Tasmanian Bushwalking

Posted in Adventure Travel, Cradle Mountain, Overland Track, Tasmania, advice, eBook | Comments Off

Win a free trip to Tasmania and hike the Overland Track

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Hike the Overland Track free?
Win a trip to Australia and a free trip on the Overland Track with Cradle Mountain Huts?

We stumbled across this opportunity today for anyone who owns a pair of Blundstone Boots (an Aussie icon in work footwear)

Towards Barn Bluff - Overland Track- Tasmania

Head off to the Blundstone Canada  web site and check out the competition they are running to win a FREE trip from Canada to Tasmania. Included is a guided walk across the Overland Track with Cradle Huts. (worth around $A2500)

This is the blurb off the website:

The Cradle Mountain Huts Walk an all inclusive experience for two people 5 nights - 6 days

The Cradle Mountain Huts six-day walk follows the iconic Overland Track through Tasmania's World Heritage Area. This 40 mile journey offers a rare privilege - one of the world's great walks through an ancient and richly varied landscape is normally accessible only to the hardy - for at the end of each day hikers sleep in private, environmentally-sensitive cabins. 
There are hot showers. 
Food and wine can feature almost as much as the mountains, rainforests and indigenous wildlife. The huts have been designed to complement their sensitive surroundings. Each hut contains twin share accommodation, toilets, heating, full kitchen facilities and a living/dining area. The guides on this unhurried journey share their knowledge of the landscape, the flora and the fauna, to ensure a rich and informative journey.

The competition runs until the 30th June, so get in quick.

We love our Blundstone boots and had a pair each for years. They are are great Aussie icon...

Related Posts:

Hiking the Overland Track e-Book

Release of the Overland Track book

Various Overland Track posts

Posted in Adventure Travel, Bushwalking, Cradle Mountain, Overland Track, australia, gear | Comments Off