Carnage at Pigsty Ponds

[AndyP]

The weather over Easter would have caught a lot of people out. Us for example! We walked in to Pigsty Ponds in lovely weather on Good Friday - fantastic views walking along between Hills 1 and 4. There were three tents in our party and another four tents there as well. Showers started just after dark and the wind increased throughout the night, getting exceptionally gusty and swirly by the early hours of the morning. At about 5 am a strong gust picked my tent up, throwing my tent parter in the air over me to land on my other side and snapping two of my poles. First light confirmed that of the seven tents only two tents were left standing - four had completely failed and we're not sure what happened to the other walker - he had left very early perhaps before the worst of it, but possibly also after catastrophic tent failure.

Needless to say that everyone walked out Saturday, battling the continually high wind, hail and rain back over Hills 4 to 1.

The wind forecast for Hartz Peak (actually the Geeveston forecast) was 35 kph for Friday morning (Weatherzone). I guess we assumed that up on the range it would be higher - but was surprised (obviously!) by how strong it was -I don't really know but gusting up to maybe 90kph or more. We had given careful attention to the weather forecast using both Weatherzone and BOM but I guess we'll put it down as a learning experience in relating lowland forecasts to what is possible up high. It also made me wonder what triggers a Bushwalker's weather alert.

Any other horrowing stories of Easter bushwalking?

[ILUVSWTAS]

What kind of tents were they???

the forecast was pretty bad......

[stepbystep]

Pigsty struck me as being a pretty awful place if the weather went foul. There are some beatiful protected spots down at the Reservoir Lakes...not that this helps you now.

[AndyP]

Indeed - next time I'll probably head down to Reservoir Lakes.
I'm not sure what tents the other parties had. My tent is (was!) a Mountain Hardware Spire 2. The other two tents in my party were the two that survived the night. In the end though I think there was a degree of randomness to the result as the strongest gusts actually came from the east rather than the south-west or south and the other two tents in my party were better protected from the east.

[ILUVSWTAS]

I'm not sure what tents the other parties had. My tent is (was!) a Mountain Hardware Spire 2. The other two tents in my party were the two that survived the night.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[stepbystep]

I don't trust Mtn Hardwear tents, my Light Wedge 2 once got a split pole section just setting it up! I guess it was a pretty cheap tent though. I'd reckon their higher end stuff is much better.

[AndyP]

Spire 2 is (was) a RRP $800 4 season tent. I was reasonably pleased with how it handled the high wind - it seemed pretty rock solid...until that gust got under the fly and parachuted us into the air. Possibly one of the improvements would be a fly that sits a bit closer to the ground.

But I would caution others when looking at this tent based on another problem to do with the seam sealing/lining on the fly. Mine totally disintegrated after about a year. The company replaced it, as it was a known fault. The lining of this replacement fly has now started to disintegrate. Hopefully they'll replace it again but the jury is still out.

[stepbystep]

Yeah right I'd be a bit annoyed with that, I didn't look it up just assumed the Spire was in the similar pricegroup to my LW2

It's obviously not 4 season, you might have grounds for a refund?

[AndyP]

I wonder. I guess its going to be a bit of a grey area as to what a 4 season tent could be expected to handle and they could query whether it was set up correctly for the conditions.

Mountain Hardware apparently don't have an Australian distributor at the moment and haven't for over a year. I've heard that a new distributor is meant to be picking up MH shortly.

[nakedape]

We were nearly blown off Hills 1-4 a few years ago (Jan long weekend). We meant to camp at pigsty ponds but the wind had us looking for shelter - which was found down by the lake. It's moist down there but at least the trees blocked the wind.

N

[mikethepike]

In early March, I experienced the strongest winds I've ever experienced on the 'bare' saddle at Perdition Ponds on the way to Cape Pillar. 90kmp is what I estimated. I only kept going as I could see I would get in the shelter of scrub a bit further on. It was difficult to walk or even stand up. I was getting blown sideways or backwards if I turned to face the wind and needing four or five stumbly steps to recover each time. It's rocky in places there and I thought how easy it would be to break a limb. And it made me think that if anyone got a serious injury in that circumstance, there would be no way a helicopter could come to your rescue until things had quietened down. And tent survival in such conditions? It would want to be extremely well guyed but even then I'd like to see a tent survive intact. Strangely enough, or perhaps not, I was surprised to see rocks (say rock melon sized but not as round) perched on other rocks not being the slightest bit affected by the wind though I almost was expecting them to take off at any time. I suppose if such a thing was possible, they would have long ago disappeared.

[north-north-west]

In early March, I experienced the strongest winds I've ever experienced on the 'bare' saddle at Perdition Ponds on the way to Cape Pillar. 90kmp is what I estimated. I only kept going as I could see I would get in the shelter of scrub a bit further on. It was difficult to walk or even stand up. I was getting blown sideways or backwards if I turned to face the wind and needing four or five stumbly steps to recover each time. It's rocky in places there and I thought how easy it would be to break a limb.

Cape Pillar is one of the windiest places in Tassie. I've been blown sideways whilst sheltering behind a rock on that open stretch above Perdition Ponds. But there is sheltered camping amongst the trees just off the track up above it.

[Vern]

I have a Mountain Hardware Trango II tent but have only had good things to say about it. I've had some pretty windy nights in the open of the kosciuszko mountains to shelf camp and others and it has done well each time. I've also read stories of it outlasting other major brands in high winds. I'd suggest this over the Spire. As much as I love supporting local dealers I got it fshipped rom the states under half the price it was going for here.

However, I think more than anything that tent positioning and guy roping have alot to do with the outcome. There are as someone already said, some really well sheltered camp spots in the bush near Pigsty Pond that provide great shelter.