Western Arthurs Traverse A to K. Day 2

Woke to a perfect day.
Even though this was supposed to be our ‘rest day’, you réalise pretty quickly just how slow going the traverse is. Up down, up down, and lots of scrambling and pack yoga. What normally takes an hour, takes 4 and sometimes more.
Half the day was spent scrambling around Mount Hayes where Peter Dombrovskis died.
We had a swim in Square Lake which was stupid freezing.
Even though the photos of Lake Oberon are almost cliché, there’s nothing like seeing it for real and in beautiful light.
We stayed watching for almost an hour before the long and treacherous descent down to the campsite.
Because our next day’s decisions were so dependent on weather, I ran back up to Mt Orion for a weather report.
There was still quite a bit of snow up on the summit, and I stayed up there for ages photographing the changing light before some heavy cloud and rain suddenly came through, then a a quick descent back for dinner with the crew in bleaker conditions.

With the next couple of days looking like holding weather wise (and After a round of schnapps), we were all in very good spirits. Oberon is traditionally the point of deciding on whether to continue along the 2 most challenging stretches of the traverse, or to return back along the ( safer) way and back down moraine A.

Even though no rain was forecast, everything got saturated overnight.

That’s how the Western Arthurs are.

 

Western Arthurs Traverse A to K. Day 1

So Phil and I have been trying for the WAT for a very long time now, but young kids and feral weather have never been kind.
We like the autumn light of Tassy, but have never seen the point of trying the traverse in bad weather when there’s little to see and the danger is only amplified.
This year my boy Balti had just had a bit of a growth spurt, and we also had Phil’s 2 stepsons Xan and Pan to help out with their youth.
After weeks of nervously watching weather patterns, it looked as though we might just luck it this time, sneaking in after an Easter storm had delivered a deluge, with plenty of snow at higher elevations on most of Tassy’s mountains.
I flew in to Hobart with the boys late Easter Monday, and we all set off early from Hobart the next morning, and were packed and hiking by 10 from Scott’s Peak dam.

All photos have been muddled out of order.

Whilst the first couple of km entices you with classic Tassy beech and myrtle rainforest, the reality of mud soon makes itself apparent.

You can only try the little side wombats runs for so long. It’s a real mess and they need to duckboard the whole thing before too much more damage is done.

Poles are invaluable, and we opted for Salomons and leggings. Gators are just extra weight and a waste of space. You just wash the mud off with every river crossing.

We had lunch at Junction Creek and Balti caught a few brownies but nothing big enough for dinner.

It’s likely the first WAT with a fishing rod.

And then began the long hard tedious slog up moraine ‘A’

After 10km of ankle to knee deep mud, moraine ‘A’ is a real bugger with a heavy pack. But shear elation at the top where you really get the Jack and the Beanstalk vibe - it is a totally different world to that we normally inhabit, very magical and very beautiful, unlike any other alpine environment.

Then a lovely saunter along the fabulous path through the alpine grasses, and an awesome sunset over Mt Hesperus now behind us and then down to Lake Cygnus where we pretty much had to set up camp in the dark.

A very long day, but we had to make the most of the weather window that had been gifted us.

The nomenclature of the range only adds to its wonder, but I think it’s also the very obvious glacial sculpting, as well as the rock garden sculptures. You see stone animals and figures in every direction. Gargoyles, turtles, lions, dragons.

And of course the range has its own weather pattern, with orographic cloud constantly changing the light drama and forms of the mountains.