Mt Olympus to Mt Enys - 25th April 2004

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary:tramp No. 46

Mt Olympus to Mt Enys 25th April 2004

This was a slightly insane trip with the CTC with the original intention of a moderate days walk up to Mt Olympus and onto Cheeseman and back to the car. A foggy day on the Planes but a stunning day on the Cragiburns, we had conqured Olympus by 11:30am and bagged Cheesman by 1:00PM. Some fool uttered the comment that we could possibly get all the way to Enys and that they hadn't been to Enys. The group took this on as a challenge with Uncle Roddus tagging along at the rare, not wanting to be the one to pike out, set off a brisk pace. Izard wizzed by and then Cloudsley and finally we made Enys with Uncle Roddus the last to arrive at each peak and so not getting much of a rest. We then backtracked along the ridge from Enys and dropped down the scree that we had come down the on the earlier trip up Enys and Uncle Roddus(who loves a good scree) was the first one to the bottom and we got back to the cars by 6:00PM. Approx 23KM traveled with an estimated height gain of  around 2300M. A don't have the start time, but depending on what time they left town we may have got away on the climb to Olympus just after 9:00am, but in light of the original tramping route, I would have thought that the the usual start time would have been sufficient and therefore it would be unlikely we would have been on track quite so early, so the travel time, all up, is probably somewhere between 8 and 9 hours. Not the longest day I have done, but certainly the hardest.

I Cannot find any photos from this trip probably due to the fact that there was no time to take any.

Steepface Hill - 17th April 2004

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No.45

Steepface Hill 17 April 2004

Just the three of us did this CTC trip to Steepface hill which is on the true right of the Rakia River, just south of Black Hill, which I had also done recently, and just north of Mt Hutt. We left the car at Hutt stream on a mild day with a bit of high cloud. Headed up Hutt stream and then ascended to point 1574 where we had a short break and admired the views. The wind, although not too strong, was a bit cold, so we headed on quickly north to Steepface itself at 1876. After Lunch, we headed along the spur to point 1488 before trying to find a scree that would take us directly down to the road. Unfortunately, we didn't sidle left enough around the face of the hill and didn't find that scree and so ended up having to crash our way through the matagari at the bottom of the hill. A good climb of about 1500M and around 10KM traveled.

The view down Hutt Stream to the Rakia River.

The back view from point 1574

Pit stop at point 1574 with out destination in the background.

View of Rakia River, Peak hill, Mt Oakden and a bit of Lake Coleridge.

Mt Binser - 12 April 2004

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary:Tramp No. 44

Mt Binser - 12th April 2004

The last time I tried this trip, one of the cars broke down and so we were late getting started and we ran out of time to get to the summit. My friend Bryce and myself decided to tackle this hill on this fine day and there was a bit of snow awaiting us on the tops. Got started about 10:15AM and headed up the track to the Binser Saddle.

From the saddle we headed south for a short easy bush bash before the nice steep climb up to point 1753, where we enjoyed lunch. The snow was soft, so didn't need crampons, but the wind was cold, so we had to rug up. Carried on along the sharp ridge in the snow to the next point to the South-east, then a bit of a dip before cresting Binser itself at 1860M. The views were magnificent. Made the summit around 3:00PM. From the summit, we dropped directly down the spur from the top heading west and dropping straight down to the road and then a tiring 4KM slog back to the car along the road. A day of  just over 1300M height gain and about 16KM.

One of the Views

Just a nice touch of snow.

More of the views.

Still climbing.

Bryce on the Tops.

A nice day.

Did I mention we had some nice views.

Bryce in the snow

The route along the tops

"You go get car, I'll just wait here"

Amber Col - 3-4th April 2004

Uncle Roddus Tramping dairy: Tramp No.43

Amber Col - 3-4th April 2004

Another trip in this very active period with the CTC, this time an overnight one. The intention, from memory, was to head up the Hawdon river, Walker pass and onto Amber Col, camping high(I,m not sure where) and then along the tops on Sunday, dropping down Sudden Valley and back to the cars.

 We did as planned, leaving the car at Hawdon shelter, five of us getting to Hawdon hut in about 2 hours for morning tea around 11am. We got to Walker pass about 1:00PM, by which time the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped as well as cloud build up. We lunched just below the Pass. From Walker pass we followed the East branch of the Otehake river up to Amber Col. With the weather deteriorating, as forecast and rain and possible snow expected overnight, our leader decided to abandon the idea of a high camp and head down and camp near the Edwards river. 

 The weather did as predicted and it was still raining when we awoke the next day with fresh snow on the tops. We abandoned any ideas of heading back over the tops into sudden valley and instead just walked out down the Edwards, thus facilitating our driver in hitching back to the car at Hawdon shelter.

It seems I wasn't too keen on taking too many photos at this time, possibly because I didn't have a carry bag I could clip to my pack belt like I do now and so I had to get the camera out of the pack every time I wanted to shoot a photo. I only have 15 photos from this trip(normally, these days, I would take at least a couple of hundred) and these are the best of them.