Re: Overland Track - Pack Weight Mega-Survey Thread
Posted: Fri 09 Jul, 2010 9:11 am
north-north-west wrote:Sounds like you did a reverse of some of my favourite route up there. The climb up Clear from that side must be a gut-buster.
If you mean the route from the saddle where we camped, no, its quite a gentle, if persistent rise up to the bald (snow-covered) summit of Mount Clear, then up/down/up/down wildly all the way to High Cone and the Nobs. The knee-busting drop from the Nobs down to Clear Creek (Brocks Road) is the worst, second only to the loss of the route ESE at High Cone which can cause signnificant time loss.
Wasn't aware you are an ice-climber. Does sound a bit scary to me, but then, so did ordinary bushwalking until a year or so ago!
I actually use one trekking pole most of the time for my walking while getting well used to carrying varying pack weights, typically from 13kg to 19kg but latterly sitting comfortably on 16.6kg. This includes the weight of my camera at 2.3kg and small tripod (1.52kg). I'm not a snapshooter and actually am "at work" producing the next photos for my gallery/sale. If the pack weight is managed carefully to "trim to the fat", all is carried well and easily, but it is an unproven task over longer multi-day walks, that's why I'm getting another multi-day walk done at the Prom to assess a couple of things. Can always downgrade the big camera to a baby Hasselblad X-Pan I suppose...