Bushwalk Australia

What is the easiest way to climb mt ida? I gather the ferry will not drop one on the lake shore underneath mt ida anymore.
Cheers C

Probably walking the lake shore when the waters right down; a reliable source tells me this makes it a fairly easy day trip from narcissus. Or just kayak to the base. The other way is from the Travellers on a multi day trip, but this may not be so easy?

Thanks Mjdalessa, I might try that

A friend & I did Ida last year as a fairly easy day trip.
We had a double kayak which we 'piggy backed' a ride on the ferry to Echo point, just leaving the paddle across the lake to Ida Bay for this leg.
The ascent is fairly easy off track - just stick to the obvious ridge through a bit of scrub & rainforest.
There is a pad to the top marked by a cairn if you can find it...others have gone other ways with more difficulty by the sounds of it.
I think the ascent to the top & back to the kayaks was only a couple of hours or so...maybe 3?
We then had the fairly long paddle back to Cynthia Bay, about 10kms or so I think....a great little peak with spectacular views as is expected.

a group of us from HWC climbed Ida in December from the Travellers Range. A fabulous trip. We went to Rim Lake and then cut across to Ida. You need to sidle under the cliffs (north side) right around to the Lake St Clair side to meet the pad coming from the lake. Quite scrubby and took us 7hrs return. We then went onto Spurling and exited to the Overland track just north of Narcissus.

Ive just climbed Mt Ida on 4/3/2014. aged 50 I used my rubber dinghy to travel up the lake and tied up on the beach that is the base of the ridge line that leads to the summit. I head off at 10.00 am. I knew the sun was just to the right of the peak as I set out, so when I could not see the peak I followed the sun. There is no track but the bush is not hard to traverse, I veered slightly left each time I had to make a decision on easiest paths. There are about 3 or 4 lines of 3 to 5 meter limestone cliffs to climb but there is a few large trees and broken banks to get through these. Towards the last saddle the bush is less dense and you can see the cliff face of the western and southern face. As I walked up to the last cliff face I followed the first rock markers taking me left to the easier northern rock face. Then there are some clear rock markers showing a shute access on the north side of the mountain. The last few hundred meters require care and one particular section has a climb up a rock about the height of a large fridge. Lots of good hand and foot holds but a 3 meter drop to a very steep slope makes you concentrate. the peak was reached in under two hours from the edge of Lake St Claire. The way back down was easy, the great foot holds gave me confidence over the "fridge' rock. Then I looked down to the bay where my dinghy was tied and then upwards to Mt Olympus. Then I was able to descend on an angle towards my marked spot on Mt Olympus. the limestone cliffs were not easy to descend, I just turned left and found a solution usually within about 50 meters. I arrived on the beach one hundred meters south of my boat about one hour and fifteen minutes to finish.

Thanks for reminding me. Must take the kayak next time I hit St Clair.

I've climbed it from the Traveller Range. We headed out from Rim Lake, through a big of scrub (sidle to a saddle at spot point 987). We originally went around the western side - but it didn't look to easy, so went back around the east side - easy scrambling up to a notch (saddle) between a (lower) north peak and a south peak. From here we could scramble up to the summit of the south peak. I remember one tricky exposed section. See photos on this page -

http://www.david-noble.net/Tasmania/Lak ... airP3.html

Once down from the summit, we did go back via a different route - a bit more to the east of the one we had used earlier - more direct - which looked to offer less scrub - but it was probably much the same.

Out and back from the summit took us about half a day? We left Rim Lake after lunch and climbed Ida - and back to Rim Lake - and then camped about half way to Lake Sapho.

The advantage of climbing Ida from the Traveller Range is that you get to see some really fantastic scenery as well - and it is generally quite easy walking (if you choose a good route)

Dave

I've just kayaked, camped, and climbed Mt Ida. After waiting for a good weather window about 1.5h paddling down the lake started the fantastic views. I camped on a little point about 200m south of the obvious south facing cove, just north of a rivulet, as this spot kept the views both ways on the lake and the evening sun. I was rewarded with a beautiful flaming sunset over Olympus, golden down to Mt Manfred. The walk the next morning was essentially bashing magnetic north up the ridge, then emerging at the bottom of the cliff face pointing at Olympus. Here on a small rock field the cairns start and take you left, skirting around through the very top of the scrub, until providing a steep access up the north face. It wasn't climbing, but was a steep scramble eased by handholds on rocks and scrub. An awesome view at the fairly small top rewarded the effort!! As a fit 50yo approx 1h 45min each way dealt with the walking, plus add an hour at the top to enjoy the view. (One tip - wear scrub gloves! Being able to grab scrub/trees easily for braking or hauling made it much quicker).
Enjoy!

It was a comfortable day walk from Lake Sappho. Beautiful country between Sappho and Rim Lakes.

stepbystep wrote:It was a comfortable day walk from Lake Sappho. Beautiful country between Sappho and Rim Lakes.

How hard is it to get to Lake Sappho, SBS?
Given that my back doesn't go well with kayaking, and The Boat no longer drops people off, I've been looking for reasonable alternatives. I've been told not to bother because of the awful scrub - so I'm not finding it easy to find people to attempt it with me. Looking for someone with a boat...

Last time I talked to the boat driver he said they would drop people over the side close to shore, they just wouldn't make contact. Apparently there was damage done to the boat in a previous drop off.

If you felt like swimming the last ten metres maybe they'll run you over ?

Tortoise wrote:

stepbystep wrote:It was a comfortable day walk from Lake Sappho. Beautiful country between Sappho and Rim Lakes.

How hard is it to get to Lake Sappho, SBS?
Given that my back doesn't go well with kayaking, and The Boat no longer drops people off, I've been looking for reasonable alternatives. I've been told not to bother because of the awful scrub - so I'm not finding it easy to find people to attempt it with me. Looking for someone with a boat...

Easier to walk down the lake from Narcissus. I did a trip from the south to Rim Lake > Ida > Narcissus. There's a few big trees on the shore to clamber over and I guess you'd need to know the river was lowish (I crossed about 800m-1km up from the hut). The plateau is lovely around Lake Sappho and Rim Lake though!

Tortoise wrote:

stepbystep wrote:It was a comfortable day walk from Lake Sappho. Beautiful country between Sappho and Rim Lakes.

How hard is it to get to Lake Sappho, SBS?
Given that my back doesn't go well with kayaking, and The Boat no longer drops people off, I've been looking for reasonable alternatives. I've been told not to bother because of the awful scrub - so I'm not finding it easy to find people to attempt it with me. Looking for someone with a boat...

I didn't find it scrubby between St Clair Lagoon and Sappho/Rim. Plenty of pads and open leads. Lot of dodge and weave, and the terrain between Sappho and Rim in particular is awkward so you need to be careful with navigation, but scrub wasn't the problem. Bit of ferny country lower down but that didn't last long.
Supposedly a better route from one of the forestry roads further east also, but I started from the dam.

north-north-west wrote:

Tortoise wrote:

stepbystep wrote:It was a comfortable day walk from Lake Sappho. Beautiful country between Sappho and Rim Lakes.

How hard is it to get to Lake Sappho, SBS?
Given that my back doesn't go well with kayaking, and The Boat no longer drops people off, I've been looking for reasonable alternatives. I've been told not to bother because of the awful scrub - so I'm not finding it easy to find people to attempt it with me. Looking for someone with a boat...

I didn't find it scrubby between St Clair Lagoon and Sappho/Rim. Plenty of pads and open leads. Lot of dodge and weave, and the terrain between Sappho and Rim in particular is awkward so you need to be careful with navigation, but scrub wasn't the problem. Bit of ferny country lower down but that didn't last long.
Supposedly a better route from one of the forestry roads further east also, but I started from the dam.

Funny how ppl have different experiences!

You can get to Travellers Rest Lake via forestry roads and a good track, from Travellers Rest we had a mixed bag of scrub and easy stuff between TRL & Sappho, our alternate route back was worse than our inward route. Walking between Sappho and Rim was a complete delight the whole way! Between Rim and Ida there's some pads and a bit of scrub, not too bad.

stepbystep wrote:Funny how ppl have different experiences!

You can get to Travellers Rest Lake via forestry roads and a good track, from Travellers Rest we had a mixed bag of scrub and easy stuff between TRL & Sappho, our alternate route back was worse than our inward route. Walking between Sappho and Rim was a complete delight the whole way! Between Rim and Ida there's some pads and a bit of scrub, not too bad.

Well, I spent my first night camped by the cliffs above Leeawuleena, a little south of Sappho. From Sappho I was too far west and ran into a little awkwardness. It's better keeping further east until you're fairly close, that's all. Didn't know about the track to Travellers Rest. Been up most of the forestry roads but never saw a sign of a walking track from any of them.

Good pads from Rim to the climb up Ida; no scrub, just a few fallen trees to get over/around.

But the easiest route is from Leeawuleena, up the north side. One just needs some sort of watercraft to get there.

Leeawuleena

This name rings a bell, but does not come u on TheList. Can you remind me where this is north-north-west?

More commonly known as Lake St Clair.

OK, that's why I have seen it before. Thanks.

Thanks for all your ideas, folks. My prospects of getting there are looking much better.

I went there with a group over the March long weekend from lake St Clair and came across a Canon lens cap (on the off chance that anyone knows of someone who lost theirs about 3/4 the way up)...