Mt Rosea, Grampians National Park - 7th June 2014

I've climbed Mt Rosea before but my memories from that day are of being buffeted by wind and rain, with low cloud obscuring the views. So, with the forecast in Melbourne looking decidedly ordinary I thought I'd head north for a couple of hours and see if the weather looked better. Approaching the Grampians from Ararat things looked promising, Mt William was visible so I was hopeful that Mt Rosea would be clear as it is a couple of hundred metres lower than than Mt William at just over 1000 metres. I bypassed the temptations of Halls Gap and headed straight up to Rosea car park on Silverband Road.

The start, a few metres up Stoney Creek Road.

Easy going initially, even a bit of sun.

The walk initially heads west skirting the massive east facing cliffs and then doubling back and eventually reaching the top of the cliff line from the west. The view to the west as I was climbing was slightly disconcerting as there was a bank of black cloud coming in, and it appeared to me that it was going to reach the summit before I did. Once I achieved the top of the cliff I headed south along the escarpment, the cloud was coming and going, but it wasn't to bad. The views opening up through the mist to Lake Fyans, hundreds of metres below.

The Valley of Mystery.

A native pine, as I was approaching the top of the cliff line.

The weather coming in from the west.

Making my way along the top of the escarpment it was becoming obvious that there would be no views from the top today.

The walk along the top of the escarpment is top fun, there's plenty of easy scrambling, caves to walk through, snow gums, and, in my case intermittent views. I arrived at the Gate of the East Wind still dry but it was becoming obvious by now that I wouldn't be getting any views on the summit. I had around another 100 metres to climb and the cliffs ahead were shrouded in cloud. Crossing over the bridge that spans the chasm that is the Gate of the East Wind I was soon enveloped in cloud, oh well...

Looking back along the Wonderland Range.

A wind pruned snow gum with Lake Fyans in the valley below.

Luckily there are plenty of caves to get out of the weather for a bit.

Lake Fyans, still in the sun in the valley.

Gate of the East Wind.

The route passing through a cave.

The good news is I was able to get plenty of moody photo's in the mist, with the snow gums and rocky outcrops looming in and out of view. So far the rain had more or less held off,and with the help of a fair bit of cover from rocks towering above me I was still fairly dry. The situation change when I got to the last open hanging valley that I had to climb, I could just see the summit in the distance and now the rain started pissing down. Dropping my pack I quickly grabbed my jacket, at the same time swapped the DSLR for my little water proof camera. By the time I'd walked the last few metres to the summit the wind had also picked up, it looked like I'd timed my arrival to coincide with a southerly change blasting through. There wasn't much point in sitting at the lookout in the wind and rain so I had a bit of a poke around and found a rock ledge to sit under and contemplate life, whilst I chewed on some snakes and hoped for a window in the cloud.

Getting close to the summit.

The cloud added a bit of atmosphere to the photos.

A couple of walkers are just visible leaving the summit in the top left of the photo.

Sitting under a rock ledge eating snakes, on the summit of Mt Rosea.

The summit pic.

After 15 minutes under a rock on the summit I was starting to get a bit chilly, so deciding enough was enough, I put the pack back on and prepared to head of back to the ute. First though was the summit picture, so after scrambling around the rock, which now had approximately the grip levels of wet soap, I found a flat spot to sit the camera where it wouldn't get blown off the edge of a 200 metre cliff and got the money shot. I now headed off to the south to intersect with the Burma Track, parks have done a fair bit of work on this section of track and there were a lot of bits of the route that had changed since I was here last. I made my way down over the wet rocks and through the small cliff lines very cautiously as my ankle still isn't 100%. I'm assuming parks have up graded this section of track due to the fact that it is gong to be part of a new walk that will lead from Mt Zero to Dunkeld and take around ten days, whatever the rational, the stone steps and benched track made this section a lot easier than it used to be.

A section of the new track that heads down to Borough Huts.

More of the new track.

The track junction, turn left here otherwise you'll end up down in the valley at Borough Huts.

Descending through Sanderson Gap I eventually intersected the management track that leads to Burma Track, if anyone reads this waffle and contemplates this walk be careful here as the new walking track is by far the more defined route and if you keep following it you will end up at Borough Huts, a long way from your vehicle. Turning left onto the lightly over grown track I was soon on Burma Track, now last time I'd walked Burma Track it was a traffic-able management track that provided a pleasant easy way back to the start of the walk, that was around ten years ago before fire and floods had re arranged the scenery. Nowadays its slightly altered (he says with a voice dripping in irony), actually its completely fucked changed. The track is now regularly crossed by huge erosion scars that that have washed away large sections of the mountain, some of these little chasms are 3 or 4 metres deep and many metres wide and apart from looking ordinary they also have to be negotiated, in the rain the shear walls of clay were a bit slippery and took a bit of time to get through safely.

I was still getting the occasional glimpses through the cloud.

It was now officially 'pissing down'.

I suppose the advantage of climate change is that I'll never get bored re visiting some of my walks, as it appears that every ten years or so the mother nature will re arrange the scenery for me (what's that I hear.... "In my day sonny we had snow in Melbourne in January and we sun baked at St Kilda in June, if you don't believe me sonny just ask Bolta!"). Hey this is my blog, dementia's starting to set in so if my mind wanders a bit you'll understand, now where was I, oh yeah doing the Burma Track obstacle course in the rain. Apart from having the odd chasm to negotiate there was also a lot of fallen trees to climb under, over, or around, all in all the fire track was a lot more adventurous than it used to be. Getting closer to the intersection with Silverband Road I could make out the cliffs of Sundial Peak across the valley, I could also see the sheets of rain against the trees on the other side of the valley. Due to the re positioning of the scenery I now had a few new waterfalls to check out, although the house size boulders that had washed down the mountain when the new waterfalls were created made me slightly nervous.

The Burma Track steeplechase.

A new waterfall on Burma Track.

Another new cascade crossing Burma Track.

Check out the house sized boulder perched a hundred metres above Silverband Road, what could possibly go wrong?

The clay walls on the eroded chasms reminded me of Kokoda, they took a bit of care to negotiate in the rain.

By the time I made Silverband Road I'd had enough, I was wet through. Looking down to where Delleys Dell used to be all I could see was a massive scar, the track may have been re built but I was ready for the ute now, so I just walked up the road for a kilometre until I reached the car park. Quickly drying myself off, throwing wet boots and gear in the tray, I was soon on my way home to Sam. It looks like it'll have to be third time lucky for Mt Rosea, I'm determined to get a view one day.

A little bit more of the destruction.

The Dirt.
I used the notes from Chapman's Day Walks in Victoria, its walk # 6 in the second edition. I also used the Northern Grampians topo map. According to my GPS I walked 12.31 kilometres and climbed 595 metres. I would class this as an easy to medium walk, there is a bit of climbing and also there is a fair bit of rock to negotiate which seems to freak some people out a bit. The degree of difficulty goes up a bit if its wet.

The intersection of Silverband Road and Burma Track.