Lake St Clair Circumnavigation  4 - 12 January 2001

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All images copyright David Noble. They cannot be used for any purpose without permission.

Day 6 - After a great sunrise, we kept traversing the Du Cane Range - often on giant boulders to Falling Mt. After climbing this peak we descended to Du Cane Gap, walked about 10 metres on the Overland Track and then climbed up to the Traveller Range and camped a short way along it.



Above - getting ready to leave Mt Massif



Above - the way ahead -  giant dolerite boulders



Above - the nearby Cathedral Mountain



Above - now on top of the Traveller Range - Alex looks back at Falling Mountain. The standard route is just behind Alex's blue pack, through medium scrub to reach the cliffs, straight up (the view from here is very foreshortened), then traverse to the left to gain the ridgeline. On this trip however, we had traversed under the mountain (left side as viewed) going through the landslide section. This turned out to be a reasonable route and it meant we could climb the peak without big packs.



Above - camp on the Traveller Range



Above - Dead tree, Traveller Range


Day 7 - We navigated carefully amongst a labyrinth of lakes south along the Traveller Range towards Mt Spurling. After looking at the route ahead from the summit - we modified our intended route slightly by going more to the west over the Mts Of Jupiter towards Rim Lake. We camped that night on a pinnacle on the Mts of Jupiter.


Above - map check - Traveller Range


Above - Orion Lakes - Traveller Range


Above - the map showed an isthmus here. Not quite - but almost.

Above - Mt Ida from Mt Spurling


Above - our campsite on the Mts of Jupiter was on the side of a pinnacle

Above - Alex at the campsite on Mts of Jupiter. looking towards Mt Spurling.

Day 8 - We walked through generally open country towards Rim Lake and after lunch had a side trip to Mt Ida. Despite some scrub on the way and a challenging climb to the top, this was one of the highlights of the walk. In the late afternoon we continued south to camp at some small lakes near Lake Sapho.


Above - Rim Lake and Mt Ida


Above - Alex on the tricky part of the climb - a short exposed bit, coming out of a notch


Above - Alex and Rob at the tricky bit

Above - Alex on the summit of Mt Ida. Lake St Clair behind.


Above - our last campsite near these attractive lakes


Above - Dusk

Day 9 - We walked to Lake Sapho and then along a carefully chosen route to the south designed to minimise scrub and blowdown. This was very successful and we arrived at Travellers Rest Lagoon just after lunch. From there we picked up a faint track that led to logging roads and eventually along the Lyell Highway to the Derwent Bridge Hotel. There we celebrated the end of a most successful walk in the usual fashion.

Day 10 - Somewhat seedy the next morning, we had breakfast at the café and caught the bus back to Hobart.

After a short stay in Hobart we headed out to the South West for another adventure.

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