Matt Down Under

Route: High Camp — Mt Eliza — Mt Anne — Mt Lot — Judds Charm

It was a sleepless night. It was very cold, I always need a few nights to get used to sleeping on my camping mattress, and hearing the mice walking around the hut during the night also kept me awake. I heard a mouse (or rat?) walking next to my mattress and from that moment on, I couldn’t get any sleep. I didn’t want to have to replace any more gear due to destruction caused by mice, so I stayed up to defend it. I would strongly recommend sleeping in a tent at High Camp, there’s certainly no shortage of warnings of mice inside the hut.

The climb up Mt Eliza started right next to the hut. It was quite steep, but it took only half an hour. There were some large boulders to climb at the top, but nothing too difficult. From the top we had superb views. It was still early morning, but sunny with clear blue sky. Looking down to Lake Pedder with all the morning mist covering the valleys was beautiful.

The track was easy to follow on the plateau. About an hour after leaving the Mt Eliza summit I arrived at a large field of boulders. At the end of it there was the turnoff to Mt Anne. There were a lot of boulder fields in the area and I kind of liked it. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that these are natural rocks created through erosion over millions of years. It sometimes looks so clean, as if someone dumped it there.

We left our backpacks at the turnoff and I grabbed my daypack and stuffed the usual items inside: water, snacks, first-aid, PLB and my windbreaker rain jacket.

Walking up to the top of Mt Anne doesn’t take very long and until close to the top, the track is quite easy. It follows along the steep cliffs of Mt Anne, then crosses a boulder field, and suddenly the track ends in front of a steep rock wall. While walking across the boulders I saw Nick climbing up in the distance, but for myself I couldn’t really imagine how to get up there. I had climbed several mountains in Tas before and sometimes it involves a bit of rock climbing, and pulling yourself up some large rocks and so on, but this one here was a different story. It went straight up, with not many places to grab hold.

I walked around for a while and tried to find a spot where it seemed feasible to climb up and being able to climb back down later, but I couldn’t see any. It always involved some 5-10m of free climbing, balancing around narrow cliffs without any room for mistakes. Usually I’m quite comfortable in heights — unless I don’t feel safe or get the feeling that it’s too risky.

Ultimately I took the plunge and climbed up around 5m which was rather difficult. But then I reached a spot from where I couldn’t see how to continue without some rather risky climbing manoeuvre — all while looking down some 10m walls of course. I saw some cairns along a very narrow edge of the wall, but no way I was going to walk along there!

I got the feeling that this climb was too risky only for a photo from the top. Climbing up there without a safety rope seemed crazy and should only be done by groups of people with rock climbing experience, anything else would be silly. I decided to climb back down.

I have had a lot of trouble climbing back down the few metres I went up, but in the end I made it back safely. Just when I wanted to walk back I found Nick again — he had been at the summit and couldn’t find a way back down, so he ended up going a rather unusual way down some cliffs around the back of the mountain. Mt Anne is a challenge, a safety rope and climbing experience is really necessary. Not worth risking your life only for a photo from the top.

We met the group of people from the hut again — among them was a German who lives in Melbourne. Back at the junction we grabbed our packs and walked towards shelf camp and Mt Lot. The track became more difficult to follow and by then it was a very hot day. I should have filled up my water supplies at the small tarns near shelf camp, but I thought I still carried enough. Very big mistake, the track became very difficult and tiring, I needed a lot more water than I thought.

Until down to Frances Bluff the track was still ok, but then walking along the steep ridge and up to The Notch and Mt Lot was a bit tricky sometimes. I needed lots of breaks, I didn’t feel any energy, my legs were really tired. I wasn’t really sure why, but my feeling was that I didn’t feel completely safe on the track, having to jump around boulders on high cliffs, a few risky situations, it was beyond the level of risk that I’m usually willing to take.

Even though I didn’t feel comfortable I didn’t want to spoil the trip, so I just walked on. At The Notch, we used a rope for pack-hauling. It was less dangerous that expected, but not for the faint-hearted. After The Notch the track followed steep cliffs again, not much room for mistakes. The view down to Lake Judd was amazing, but I was more focused on walking safely.

I tried to stretch the last bits of water in my bottle for as long as possible, I was clearly dehydrated and it added to my general lack of energy following a sleepless night, very hot sunshine and a lack of a safety feeling on the track.

At the last part up to Mt Lot we had to do pack-hauling again. For me this trip involved far too much rock-climbing. At the summit I sat in the shade behind a rock for a while before we started to climb down. From the top the track went down very steeply directly along Lightning Ridge, over a lot of boulders.

Nick was walking far ahead and yelled for me every now and then. I always yelled back ‘I’m alright’ and tried to catch up. However, being dehydrated and incredibly tired, it was painful and slow to climb down a very steep mountain.

I actually thought we would have to cross the whole Lightning Ridge, but once we reached the first saddle, the track turned into thick pandani forest down towards the lakes at Judds Charm. There was a network of tracks and we had to take care to take the right one to our campsite.

Somehow I managed to stumble down to the lake where the campsite was, I think it must have been around 6pm. The water from the lake may have been the most refreshing water I ever got to drink. I clearly went far over my physical limit on that particular day.

Before I set up my tent I went for a swim in the lake, the water was cold but relaxing for the legs. It was probably the most tiring and difficult day I ever had on any walk.