Mt Anne, Southwest National Park - April 2010

I'd been wanting to head to Mt Anne for a long time, but the logistics of getting there had held me back. In April of 2010 I found myself in Hobart with suitable transport to get me down to the south west of the state, with the weather also looking like it was going to co-operate I decided that this was my chance.

Mt Anne from near the start of the walk.

Mt Eliza

I was away from Hobart early and pulled in to the car park at Condominium Creek mid morning. I knew I had a big day ahead of me, according to my notes around 15 kilometres along with 1420 metres climbing, that was only half the story though. The track starts really easy with about the first 200 metres fairly level, there's even some duck boarding from memory, but then, f#%k me does it go up!

High Camp Hut.

Climbing up towards Mt Eliza.

With the exception of a couple of short (very short) sections, the climb up to Mt Eliza was unrelenting. The good news was the weather was looking OK and the vegetation on the ridge that I was climbing was the low alpine heath variety, so at least I had an ever expanding view to gaze at on my frequent stops. High Camp Hut was a good spot for morning tea and to shed some more layers, from here the route got a little steeper, I now found myself scrambling over large rocks following a trail of cairns.

Mt Anne, from the summit of Mt Eliza.

Lake Pedder, from Mt Eliza.

On reaching the summit of Mt Eliza I'd broken the back of the climb, Mt Anne still looked fairly intimidating from where I stood though, a pinnacle of bare rock jutting into the sky. I consoled myself that it would look easier when I got a bit closer, hmmm.....

That'd be Mt Anne behind me, how hard could it be?!

After getting a photo of Lake Pedder from the summit of Mt Eliza I headed of in the direction of Mt Anne. The plateau between the two mountains provided fairly easy walking, I just had to keep an eye out for the cairns when the route crossed the huge boulder fields. At one stage I made the short detour to the southern edge of the plateau to get a glimpse of Lake Judd sparkling in the sun below.

A tarn on the plateau between Mt Eliza and Mt Anne.

Lake Judd.

Eventually I found myself at the foot of what can only be described as a rock wall, looking a bit closer I started to notice the odd cairn, about now I was realising that the climb was going to get a lot more serious. The summit climb had all the good things, negative sloping wet bare rock, tiny ledges above massive drops, sections where my feet were scrambling around in mid air looking for a hold whilst my hands held on to the rock turning white. All in all, pretty good fun (in hindsight!).

The start of the climb.

That's not a track!

Look carefully and you'll see the cairns I was following.

The yellow rock marks the ledge.

On reaching the summit of Mt Anne I decide that I deserved a break, so I kicked back for a while taking in the view of Mt Lot and Lot's Wife and a fair chunk of Tasmania's World Heritage Area. It was a little hard to enjoy lunch on the summit to much though as I knew I had to get down yet, always harder than climbing. The crux of the climb down was near the top where I had to access a narrow ledge from above, I had about a 1.7 metre rock face to descend that was slightly negative, so I had to hang on and fish around with my feet to try and find some grip, all the while conscious that my clothes would be out of date by the time I hit the ground if I fell.

Mt Lot and Lots Wife from Mt Anne.

The summit photo, Mt Anne.

The boulder field leading back to Mt Eliza (under cloud).

As you've probably worked out already, I made it down. The rest of the walk back across Mt Eliza and down to the car was completed with a feeling of euphoria, probably due to the overdose of adrenalin coursing through my veins. Just as I got back to the car it started to rain, that would of upped the degree of difficulty a bit more if it had of happened on the walk. I was back in Hobart in time for a late dinner with Sam, all in all an awesome day!

The Dirt
I used the notes out of John Chapman's Day Walks, Tasmania edition 1. The walk was # 15 in the book. This is without doubt the hardest walk I've written up so far in relation to technical skill on rock. The climb would be dead easy for a rock climber, but for bush walkers in walking boots it really focuses the mind. Up and back took me 7 hours and I was going fairly hard, only really stopping on the summit for any length of time, however I am old and broken :)

The cloud is starting to creep over Lake Pedder during my descent.