The Western Arthurs in Winter...

Tasmania specific bushwalking discussion.
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Tasmania specific bushwalking discussion. Please avoid publishing details of access to sensitive areas with no tracks.

The Western Arthurs in Winter...

Postby the tda group » Tue 03 Jul, 2007 2:16 pm

So the plan is to walk the famous Arthurs in winter. We all know that it is certainly a beautiful place when the weather is good, and when the weather is not good, well…

The question we have is of any specific experiences any of you have of the Western Arthurs in winter. Any information you have on snow cover, winds, wildlife, rain, and any chance encounters with blue sky would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

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Postby walkinTas » Fri 06 Jul, 2007 8:43 pm

Good luck with your adventure! I haven't been myself, but I thought I'd wish you luck just so that you knew there was life on this forum. :D

When do you plan to go and how prepared are you?
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Postby Son of a Beach » Sat 07 Jul, 2007 9:40 am

I can't make much comment on the Arthurs in Winter, but I've been through a few times in Summer. On the last occasion, it rained for 11 out of the 12 days we were there (despite the forecast being fine for the entire state for the entire time), and on the first occasion, a couple of our group nearly got hypothermia at one point.

Gotta be a tough place in winter!
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Postby kantonysen » Mon 09 Jul, 2007 7:39 am

I can't comment about the Western Arthurs in winter, but just getting to their base, or coming back after a successful traverse could pose difficulties. You need to be prepared for difficult creek crossings; water levels can alter significantly within a few hours. I've had a couple of experiences with flooding creeks on the Huon Plains in summer time.
Taking a climbing rope would be essential I would imagine.
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Postby tasadam » Mon 09 Jul, 2007 8:48 am

My time wasn't "quite" winter - we only got a couple of inches of snow...
My wife and I went up there from Scotts peak, had 1 night at the first lake with platforms (can't remember the lake - before Oberon but too lazy to look it up right now, names are not my forte)
Second day kicking about heading along the track, south, but the weather was bad so sheltered under a bush, made a cuppa then headed back to camp to have lunch then pack up and get off the altitudes. Second night spent at the base of Moraine A due to all the snow (2 inches is not much, but the weather was looking more and more FOUL so we decided to play safe and get out of there.
It's a beautiful place but when the weather is bad, the going is tough! I myself would not risk a traverse in winter but I would certainly go back there.
If you get lucky with the weather, you are going to have a great time!

The ranger from Mt Field Nat park tells me that the Western Arthurs "makes" the weather for Tasmania... Having been there and seen what the weather can throw at you, I can understand that.

It was funny that night when it snowed up there, I thought it was possums at the side of the tent again so I was bashing things and making a racket, but it was just the snow sliding down the side of the tent, which I did not discover til morning... We had a laugh about that.
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Postby kantonysen » Mon 09 Jul, 2007 6:10 pm

Adam, the first Lake with tent platforms is Lake Cygnus from memory. I was there years ago when we had a rough time with high winds. A cheap tent blew up that night, ended being rags.
I'd reckon that a traverse is possible in winter provided all gear is from premium brands, 4 season standard, and in good condition.
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Postby Son of a Beach » Tue 10 Jul, 2007 7:03 am

Yep, the first lake is Cygnus... great beach in summer. I think it has rubber mats embedded in gravel, rather than platforms though.
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Postby tasadam » Tue 10 Jul, 2007 8:15 am

Yep, Cygnus, that was the one.
We slept on a platform. There were several tent sites as you say with the mats, and there is another with the wooden platform a little further on (bit closer to the loo pod), that we used... We were the only ones there.
I must dig those photos out...
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Postby Penguin » Mon 23 Jul, 2007 3:18 pm

We went off to the Western Arthur’s in February, three glorious days of clear weather. The avatar is taken above Square Lake at the beginning of the Epsilon track. We had a great time but only got as far as Square Lake. We had to a helicopter out due to the bushfires, heaps of fun as there was no direct risk. I could imagine the area could be diabolical in winter, similar to being on Federation Peak in winter I would imagine. Only to be attempted by the experienced and brave.

How do you upload photos onto the site???
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Postby Son of a Beach » Mon 23 Jul, 2007 5:35 pm

Penguin wrote:How do you upload photos onto the site???


Click HERE for instructions (you can also get to these instructions by clicking the "BBCode" link under "Options" at the bottom-left when composing a message). Scroll down to the bottom of the BBCode page and check out the section on 'Adding an image to a post'.

You'll need to upload the pictures to your own site (or some other site) and reference their URL from here, as described on the page linked to above.

Remember for large images, or multiple images, use the "Gallery" forum or make sure you notify users of large images in the subject line of new topics outside of the Gallery forum (for the sake of people with low bandwidth network connections). Small images are OK in any forum, up to 200kb per person per topic (see the forum rules, if unsure).
Last edited by Son of a Beach on Tue 16 Oct, 2007 3:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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The Western Arthurs in winter

Postby chapman » Fri 03 Aug, 2007 10:50 am

I have visited the western Arthurs twice in winter on solo trips. The first time there was lots of deep soft snow and after struggling through to lake Cygnus and exploring the route through to Mt hayes I wisely decided it was far too dangerous to continue and backed out. I then spent the spare time on Mt Anne and got one glorious day of weather where I got some nice photos.

Next trip I was better prepared and carried an ice axe. There was not quite as much snow but still lots and the ice axe was not for ice but for clearing snow off the rocks both above and below. The real problem was that you have lots of steep climbs and descents where you must get hold of something but as its covered in snow you cannot judge what to stand on etc. If the snow was firmly iced onto the rocks you could just go up and down safely but often its not so you need to clear it off and thats where the extra length the ice gives your arm is really handy. If the snow is embedded you can also cut a step or chip it off. It also helps to keeps your hands drier etc. The second time I got through to Moraine K and dropped off the range there. The last bit throught o Rosanne would have taken two days and I had had enough by then as I was on my own. As for the weather - it was pretty poor almost the entire time but not really dreadful. The real problem is that its dark before 5pm so you have to use all of the daylight to keep moving and you eat breakfast and dinner in the dark so take sufficient torchlights and batteries - at least the new led torches require less spare batteries so that is one help of new gear. One advantage in winter is that you can camp anywhere and will need to as you should continue until its almost dark each day. You can always melt snow for water and level tent platforms can be carved out of snow quite easily in any semi level spot.

Have a great trip - its quite an adventure and tough in places - a rope would be really handy on the drop off Pegasus and Capricorn but I did not have that help as I had no one to hold it.

John
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