The partner and I both had the weekend off this past weekend, so with the promise of a good forecast we decided to give Frenchmans Cap a go. We had been wanting to do so for quite a while, with a couple of other proposed trips being canned due to work, study etc, so we were very excited that it might actually work out for once!
Being that we only had the weekend, we knew it was going to be a tough walk for us, especially considering that neither of us have really been super active of late. Still, it was worth it. We ended up also having a friend of a friend tag along, down from the US and keen to get a taste of Tassie walking, so we figured this was probably as good a trip as any to work out whether he liked it or not!
Set off on Friday afternoon after work/uni, with dinner at the Tarraleah pub. Parmies weren't bad, even if the desserts were very small! Had stupidly thought that we would be able to pitch a tent in what I assumed would be a dirt carpark, so you can imagine how impressed we were to find out that it was in fact quite a bit harder... So we just put a tarp down in the information shelter and slept under there instead
. Just lucky the weather played along!Up and at 'em early the next morning, leaving by about 7am. 4.5 hours to Lake Vera for a 40 minute lunch break, and then the long awaited climb up to Barron Pass... Which wasn't as bad as it could have been! But still fairly tough for the unfit.
Lovely views of White needle though:
Arrived at Lake Tahune about 3.5 hours after leaving Lake Vera. The lake was beautiful and still, and with not a cloud in the sky, and no mist in sight, the view up to Frenchmans was magnificent:
Being that it was about 1530 by the time we arrived at Tahune, we had to decide whether or not to attempt to summit that afternoon. After a bit of deliberating (really just an excuse to rest!) we decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, being slowed down by the significant amount of ice on the track, we only made it about halfway up before deciding it was best we turn around, but we were still treated to a magnificent sunset!
We headed back down to share the hut with 4 others, including one interloper from NZ. Up early again the next morning to get to the top of the Cap, making up in around an hour after leaving at 8am. Amazing views, with nary a cloud to be seen! Apparently some had read that article on summit poses recently posted here:
Back down in around another hour, and left Tahune at about 11:30 after a quick lunch. Fairly slow on the way out, especially in the last half, simply due to sore and tired legs, as well as flagging blood sugar levels! Eventually made it out by about 7pm, making for a fantastic weekend full of walking
