Mt Oakden - 29th January 2012

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 112

Mt Oakden - 29th January 2012

Uncle Roddus's first tramp of the new year, a CTC club trip to Mount Oakden, a stand alone mount at the north end of lake Coleridge.

A party of 11 keen trampers headed off from the Algidus road around 9:30am on a warm but slightly overcast day, with a mild Nor' West wind to keep us company. We headed up the ridge between the two fords on the South-West corner of the mountain, through light scrub, encountering a sustained and quite steep climb of about 900M to point 1431. From here we travelled in a northerly direction along a bare ridge of shattered rock and several challenging rock outcrops that needed traversing before we reached the summit at point 1633. By this time the sun was more visible and the wind stayed low enough for a pleasant relaxed lunch while enjoying the views of lake Coleridge, up the Wilberforce and Rakia  Rivers and surrounding mountains and imagining what it must have been like here during the last ice age when Oakden was surrounded by glaciers. 

The trip back to the cars involved back tracking to near point 1460 before a bit of scree bashing down to the ridge just north of the one we came up earlier in the day. The cars were attained around 3:30pm.

Unfortunately Uncle Roddus left his camera in the car for this trip and so had to flog some pics from one of the other participants on this little adventure.

I really dig the way Bryce does this with Google Earth.

Some of the views we got, looking up the Rakia River.

Uncle Roddus struggling up the hill.

Onto the shingle part.

And heading towards som slightly tricky rocky bits.

Did I mention it was quite steep.

Peak hill is in the background, which I climbed last winter

I don't remember rock climbing being in the trip description.

Fuel stop.

Nice views of lake Cileridge.

Onwards and upwards.

Rock sideling.

Teddy Bear Rock.

The Arrowsmiths.