Mt Ida

[Senex]

Has anybody climbed to the summit of Mt Ida? If so I should be extremely grateful for any tips on the best route. My wife and I have been up as far as the saddle between the two summits but having no idea if this was a suitable place to ascend from and not being suitably prepared we did not proceed. We climbed to that point by walking up from Ida Bay then circling the steep rocks in an anti-clockwise direction finally ascending the rocks from the East side. Do you know a better route? Should we just have climbed "SW" from our high point or what?

[tasadam]

Chapmans notes in his Cradle Mtn - Lake St Clair book are pretty good.
I think another place to look is the Abels volume 1. But I haven't climbed it, only studied the 1:25000 map along with the track notes to see how doable it seems.

Good luck!

I went up the front once on the end of a rope. A Hobart climber invited me! Never again. I seem to remember that we left the summit and went towards the rear and then slid off the Northern side and thence to the bottom. It was about 30 years ago so don't quote me on the accurate route.

[DaveNoble]

Back in Jan 2001 - I was in a party that climbed Mt Ida - from the plateau. I remember it was a bit scrubby through the saddle - and we had no notes - we went around the south side - and scrambled to the notch between the two summits. The western summit is higher - and to get there from the notch involved a short tricky section that was a bit exposed. The tricky section was however quite short - and after that it was easy going. See -

http://www.geocities.com/david_noble_au ... rWalk.html

for a photo of the peak and one on the summit

Dave

[DonQx]

Did you go up the southern or the northern side?

Southern is a faily 'dodgy' climb, northern is fairly straightforward and easy to follow once you are on the right route.

a.

[scrub boy]

I climbed Ida from the southern side and then sidled around to the northern side for the final ascent. I'm sure that there are a few options in the detail of the route but it was fairly straight forward apart from a particular move around an awkward rock which I found fairly hairy. In fact, although I'm confident at scrambling, I would not really contemplate moving across that particular bit again. A really nice one to get up.

[PeterJ]

The approximate route up Ida from Rim Lake is marked on the map at http://bushwalktracknotes.blogspot.com/ ... t-ida.html

From Rim Lake descend from north side about 20 metres beyond the exit of creek and go below cliffs to pick up obvious ridge. This is crossed and the route circuits around base of Mt.Ida to meet the ridge from Lake St.Clair. A pad goes up using ledges. If coming from St.Clair use the ridge leading to this same western side. From memory (Feb 1998) it all seemed fairly straight forward
From Rim Lake it is just over 1.5 k and about 4 hours return

It is so long ago that I went up from Lake St Clair shoreline that it is all a bit hazy, but I think we went up the nose.

[Senex]

Thank you to everybody who replied to my question about Mt Ida.

From what I have read I think that our best bet is to return to the notch we reached last time and traverse from there SSW towards the higher summit. We want to use the same approach as last time, namely to kayak to Ida Bay, camp overnight and ascend from there.

Should anyone else consider ascending from Ida Bay, a small warning. Going up is very bushy and scratchy but straightforward, however descending the same way we constantly found ourselves at the top of tiny slippery cliffs, with no view to left or right. These involved either tricky scrambles down or long drawn out traverses to find an easier route. If we'd had a rope these would have been no problem at all.

[stu]

Anyone been up Ida lately with anything else to add (PM me if too sensitive).
Hoping to make an ascent from Lake St Clair side in coming weeks / months.
The final scramble sounds tricky from some peoples perspective & easy from others - are there multiple final routes to the summit?

Stu.

[abowen]

Hi Stu,
Have only attempted this walk once, but didn't get beyond Ida Bay. Whole summit was clouded in and we pulled out. From Ida Bay - if kayaking - it looks very scrubby on the rise to the western slopes. You can also see a line of small cliffs, which someone else has already mentioned. It looked possible to get through them. It would, however, be difficult to pick the exit on the way down (unless marked with a GPS).
I too would be interested in some more information. It's on my list for a revisit, by kayak, when the weather is better. Was also considering extending my stay and paddling across to Echo Point and then climbing Olympus from there as a day walk (I haven't checked any times on this yet).
Cheers
Andrew

[Funky_Bunch]

as a school group in 2000 we did both mountains olympus and ida on consecutive days, taking a tinnie from echo point hut across the lake, from memory it seemed pretty straight forward though "hairy at times" our teacher led the way and I was more concerned with chatting to the girls rather than taking notice of where we were. its a great view from the top of both and well worth the trip.

[stu]

Well, me & a mate had a successful trip up Mt Ida on Saturday
He has a double kayak, and with only a day trip planned we piggy-backed a trip on the ferry to Echo Point (kayak on the roof for a $20 fee).
From there a 20 minute paddle across to the beach below Mt Ida, which would be quite nice camping.
The ascent was pretty easy, mostly easy forest / scrub, tho some quite large sandstone cliff lines, so prominent in the southern reserve, caused some creative route finding. We managed to find a cairned pad up the western flanks of the peak which was steep, but straight forward.
The return trip from the beach was 3 hours including 15 mins on the summit & a 15 minute lunch break once off the top.
It was then a 10km paddle back to Cynthia Bay which took just under 1.5 hours (at pace ).
It was a very fun day out & great to get this classic little peak done as I have been eyeing it off for a couple of years now.
Anyone wanting more specific info / track notes please feel free to PM me.

Stu.

[north-north-west]

...creative route finding...

Now there's a term I like.

[flyfisher]

Wicked one !