Esperance peak

[ILUVSWTAS]

12 peakbaggers took off for an attempt at Esperance peak yesterday,
Firstly i'd like to thank my usual buddies Stubowling, Ollster, Aljscott, MJD and Stepbystep for joining me on this walk, also a big thanks to Bap, Bartnshaz and Pazzar for joining us on their first peakbagging trip with us. It was a very enjoyable day!!

3 HWC members that I know quite well joined us on this walk (the three of them total well over 2200 combined peakbagging points), in fact 2 had been to Esperance already, but not the way I suggested we attempt it......

After a drive down that way a few weeks ago, I decided it should be possible to attempt the peak from Forestry roads below (FT are good for something after all) I found a spot that got us 2.9 k's away, and the scrub didnt look too bad.....

After a 6am meeting time at Huonville, myself getting a rare sleep in while everyone else did the travelling, we were off. Starting the walk through a regrowing coup, we were stumbling over fallen trees, logs, lots of cutting grass and bracken. This didnt last too long and soon we were in the forest, which while at first was a tad scrubby, it soon opened itnto patches of relatively open bush. up up and up we went making incredible time, we soon stumbled into some slightly thicker bush with Pandani starting to appear. All of a sudden in the middle of nowhere, we found a tape.... someone had been this way before!!!! The taps didnt appear to lead off downhill anywhere, it was quite a random place for them to start, but it was an uplifting sight as we felt we were really on the right route!! Just goes to show your NEVER the first to go somewhere.....

Shortly after this, we hit a sizable cliff line. No obvious way up could be seen, so we traversed underneath this for a couple of hundred metres passing some very nice mini waterfalls (someone might post a picture of these??) we finally found a way up, and the rim of the Plateau could almost be made out.
The next couple of hundred metres was probably the thickest scrub of the day, but we soon made short work of this and found ourselves standing in a burnt out area of alpine heaths and the remains of some plants which if they wernt burnt may have made progress a little more difficult. With the peak in view it wasnt long before we were hiding under the summit block trying to get out of the wind which was strong enough to make it impossible to stand upright.

Lunch was had here and the skies cleared for us to get some nice views of the SW peaks, Bobs, Hartz and Adamsons all looking quite striking.
A big black cloud appeared so we made a hasty retreat trying to stay on our upwards path all the way back. The last 500metres or so we wandered off it a bit and found the going a bit slower than expected, but we were back at the cars just before 3pm. Much faster than I had anticipated. And the scrub was nowhere near as bad as I had expected.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day and everyone was happy to be back in time to catch the end of what proved to be an interesting game of football.....

[stepbystep]

Nice report Mark, and the spellings not bad either
Some pics...

[ILUVSWTAS]

Awesome pics SBS, thanks! I miss not being able to post pics....

Spelling was ok for someone with a 6 IQ.

[ollster]

Spelling was ok for someone with a 6 IQ.

Surely you missed off a zero?

Nice report.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Ah sorry.

0.6

[ollster]

LOL. Couple of pics from me...

[ILUVSWTAS]

Second one is cool Oll.

[Bap]

Nice Report Mark, I love the rainbow your pic Ollster. Thank you for letting me tag along yesterday everybody i really enjoyed the walk, let me know the next walk you do, I would love to be involved.

[Taurë-rana]

Thanks for the report. I think I need to move south...

[ILUVSWTAS]

No worries Bap, it was nice to finally meet you.
Let us know when your going to be down this way in the future and we'll see what's on the forward walks program

[ILUVSWTAS]

Thanks for the report. I think I need to move south...

Yes Rachel as far as walking goes, there's alot more options down here

Im not sure you would have enjoyed the scrub yesterday though

[Taurë-rana]

I'm pretty tough Mark, scrub doesn't bother me as long as I don't wear out. My concern is that by the time I do move back to Hobart you blokes will have done all the walks around the place and I'll still have no one to walk with.

[ILUVSWTAS]

I know you are Rachel, from memory though you thought Snowy North was scrubby, and in fairness that was on a pretty good track!!!

[ollster]

that was on a pretty good track!!!

What's a track?

[stu]

Thanks for organinising Mark & for the report, much appreciated & nice to meet those I hadn't already met/ walked with.
It was a fun day in the forest / scrub & probably 2 hours quicker than I had expected.
Nice to get that one out of the way, filled in a gap for me.
Look forward to the next adventure

[ILUVSWTAS]

Thanks for organinising Mark
Look forward to the next adventure

Shucks guys. Thanks for all the kind words. Quite often I just turn up and go with the flow, so it was my pleasure to take this one on!!

Sure looking forward to the next adventure too!! 4 days of REAL adventure, BRING IT ON!!!!

Maybe the organising batton can be passed to some one else for the next big day walk??
Oll - Alexander??
Azz - Slatters peak??

Just throwing some thoughts out there

[ollster]

Maybe the organising batton can be passed to some one else for the next big day walk??
Oll - Alexander??

You know my plan - 1 day. Although I think we should camp at Mystery Creek, get going by ~6am, and then go hard.

PS: Alexandra

[ILUVSWTAS]

Ok, when?

[scrub master]

well done on sucessful days outing guys, I was wondering how it all went. I would have joined you but that 6am start in Huonville really would not have agreed with me - yes I'm getting soft. Keep me in the loop for any future outings, but I've already got Alex in the bag. It will be a BIG day from Mystery creek, at least there's little or no scrub except for getting up from Moores Bridge which will be a pleasant change for you.

[ollster]

well done on sucessful days outing guys, I was wondering how it all went. I would have joined you but that 6am start in Huonville really would not have agreed with me - yes I'm getting soft. Keep me in the loop for any future outings, but I've already got Alex in the bag. It will be a BIG day from Mystery creek, at least there's little or no scrub except for getting up from Moores Bridge which will be a pleasant change for you.

Yeah, Esperance was quite straight forward, definitely recommend doing it that way. I wasn't too keen on 6am either, but after two dry weeks (peaks wise) I would've got up at midnight. Alex will be a big day, but it's more time/distance not terrain/distance, so should be easy to predict.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Thanks SM, it was much easier than we expected, could have started later. Really dont like the early ones do you.... Unfortunately theres not many peaks left nearby, so it's either up early for a long drive, or overnighters from here on in

Speaking of Alex... how many hours walking did you do on your trip up there?? I know you had an overnight kit, but it'd still give some indication of time.

[Azza]

Great walk, the team was like a finely tuned scrub bashing machine...
Not often you do a 6-7hr scrub bash in that area of the state and not feel wreaked at the end of the day.

Slatters? well first I'd better work out where it is...

[ollster]

Slatters? well first I'd better work out where it is...

Ah, you weren't on the KW walk... Slatters is at the nth end of the sth part of the KW range.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Oh yeh I forget Azz wasnt on that walk, we had a big group I guess I figure we were all there...

Well that was just a suggestion, i'd be up for anything else as long as it's something we havent done!!

[ollster]

something we havent done!!

Going to need some sort of matrix to decide... the "nearby" list is getting quite short. May have to venture out West.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Could be a few on the Plateau still, Mother Cummings, Ironstone, Bastion....
Or near Frenchie, Raglan range has 4wd tracks all over it apparently,
I know how to do Parangana SL now, long day for one point though....

[ollster]

Could be a few on the Plateau still, Mother Cummings, Ironstone, Bastion....
Or near Frenchie, Raglan range has 4wd tracks all over it apparently,
I know how to do Parangana SL now, long day for one point though....

Mother Cummings is rather a long way, and I was going to save that for a trip up with the GF. Raglan would be cool. Maybe this Sat?

[ILUVSWTAS]

Molly Yorks Nightcap for me this Sat!!

[ollster]

Molly Yorks Nightcap for me this Sat!!

Trying for that gig myself. Might try and get something done Sunday too...