2004/03 Tasmania loop - Cradle Mountain climb |
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Sunday March 14th
I was on the first shuttle bus up to Dove Lake on a fine morning with no wind. The mountain tops were obscured by cloud but it seemed likely to burn off later. I had to sign the book declaring where I intended to hike, and I signed up for a somewhat ambitious route over Marion’s Lookout, up Cradle Mountain, down and back across the Face Track to the other side of the lake, and then over Hansons Peak back to the start. 
There were some perfect reflections in the lakes as I hiked up to Lilla Lake, round the Wombat Pool, and up the chain to Marion’s Lookout again. From there I joined the Overland Track for a few miles, and turned off onto the Face Track and up towards the foot of Cradle Mountain.
The weather had cleared to a perfect day and I could see the track going straight up the mountain face, so that’s where I headed, not even noticing that there 
weren’t any trail markers amongst the rocks. It began with very steep scree (small sliding rocks) or talus and gradually turned into massive boulders that I had to climb. When I got to the saddle I could see down into the valley behind the mountain and across to Lake Rodway. The pinnacles and spires turned out to be massive columns of crystallized lava.
I unloaded my pack and cameras and climbed what seemed to be the tallest of these (very cautiously!) and found that there were other pinnacles that were higher than mine. It also occurred to me that there was no one else in sight, and maybe I was on the wrong bit of the mountain!
Somewhat reluctantly I climbed and slid back down my trail (see picture to the left) and realized that the people now coming up the trail were all veering to the south
, so I made my way across to join them and headed up the real trail. This one had no scree but it involved climbing the same kind of boulders.
If you look at the picture on the right you can see the scale of boulders to hikers. Not challenging from a technical climbing point of view but slow going if you want your knees to last. I made it up to 
the saddle again after a long climb and started to climb the proper pinnacle, but there were a couple of people that looked to be stuck on the climb and 
were being helped down by friends. I was already running out of time and energy so I didn’t climb it.
As I started to climb down the waist clip on my pack’s belt shot off into space. The waist clip is very important as it puts the weight of the pack onto your hips rather than your shoulders. It fell into a gap in the rocks, but amazingly I could still see it way below me. This was my third bit of luck on the trip. Early that morning I had retraced my steps as I thought I’d left a piece of camera equipment behind. I hadn’t, but there on the trail was my watch that I hadn’t even noticed was missing. Shortly afterwards I had to duck down to get under a branch, just as I met two people on the trail. The lady called me “Is this your pole?” The branch had snagged my trekking pole out of my pack and I hadn’t noticed. Now, I was able to chimney down the gap to retrieve my waist clip.
My luck didn’t hold though. With all that climbing my knees were getting wobbly 
and I was looking forward to a nice easy descent across the Face Track, but it was very rough, requiring lots of climbing up and down. Scenically, it was spectacular, with some very different views of the familiar mountains, but I was getting very tired.
I still had to laugh though at the “improvements” that were being made to the trail. Obviously money was running short and they were only upgrading the pieces that were damaged. So I’d struggle up a near vertical section of trail only to find that there was a neat little wooden step helping me over one little rock.
To get back I still had to climb up and over Hansons Peak. At the mountain top there was a couple having a picnic, with basket, tablecloth, and bottle of wine. I asked “How is the trail from here on?” They said “We climbed up from the lake. We’re looking forward to an easy walk down”. Within a few yards of this conversation, the trail ended at the top of a cliff and I had to grab a chain and climb down the cliff face. Just for giggles, the last section of the chain was missing. I don’t know how they did with their picnic basket.
I
whacked my camera on the way down and changed its settings, so all my pictures from then on were drastically overexposed, including this last one in this sequence, which shows both Hansons Peak and the curve of Cradle Mountain. Hikes like this are tough on the body, but this one was very rewarding with its unique plant life and scenery. I took nearly 200 pictures, and it’s been hard to whittle that down to a few for this letter.
I was about two hours late to my rendezvous with Sandie, and, as the ranger’s office was closing at 5, she had started the process of reporting me missing. Luckily I staggered off the shuttle just in time to stop the process. I got a talking-to.