Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Mount Ossa x2


In October last year a couple of colleagues were doing the Overland Track with Cradle Mountain Huts Walk.  I arranged to meet them for their 'Ossa Day' by doing a long return day walk from Arm River.  I had also arranged to do a day walk the following day with a young bloke relatively new to bush walking.

Soon after my friends hit the track, I called the young bloke to ask what kind of walk he would enjoy.  Lo and behold, he said he'd heard Ossa could be done as a day walk.  Well blow me down!  Righto.  I was in training for the Kentish Triple Top Mountain Run so I decided to give it a go.  80km, 2000m vertical ascent/descent over two days.  A perfect warm-up stroll.

On the first morning I left home at 5am and hit the track at 6:30.  I maintained a brisk pace heading in along the Arm River Track but once I met the commercial group things slowed pleasantly as we sauntered up to their lunch spot on the side of Mt Doris.  From there it was a glorious sunny afternoon scramble up to the crowded summit where several groups were enjoying the cloud-free views.

We left the top around 3pm and at 4:30pm I bade farewell to my friends at Pelion Gap as they headed south to their freshly baked goodies, fine food, wine, hot showers and comfy beds!  On the way out I struggled to maintain any kind of decent pace, taking a full 5 hours to reach the car.  Timing was good though.  I arrived at the saddle near Wurragarra Creek just in time for a fine sunset display on the west facing cliffs of Mount Pillinger.

Incidentally my friends had a pearler of a week with blue sky and sunshine for their entire 6 days...  in October!!!

After a short sleep back home I collected my friend at 5:30am and hit the track at 7.  By 1pm we had reached the summit where I was again treated to glorious blue skies in every direction.  Unlike the previous day's brief summit stop, this time we stayed for 90 minutes climbing dolerite pinnacles, taking photos and generally taking in the serenity.  Nice!  At 8pm as we arrived back at the car I was stoked at the distance and climb I had covered in the 2 days.

Facebook pics of Ossa Day 1
Facebook pics of Ossa Day 2

Postscript - At the Triple Top 2 weeks later I whopped my previous best by 20 minutes finishing in 24th place taking 2:46 to cover the 20km run over Mounts Claude, Vandyke and Roland.