Pelion Traverse

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Thought I'd share some photos from my traverse of the Pelion Range over the show long weekend. First day was spent walking in the Arm River Track to Pelion Hut via Pillenger and Oakleigh, then it was an early rise to catch the first light of the next day on top of Pelion East.





Reluctantly chucking the pack back on, it was time for the slog up Ossa, where there was still a fair amount of snow left on the higher slopes despite four days of sunshine.







After reaching the summit I ducked down over the otherside, aiming for a smaller peak along the ridgeline which connects with Paddy's Nut, clambering over a series of massive slabs and doing my best to avoid the dropoffs. Once past the scree it was a welcoming relief reaching the magnificent grassy shelf and taking a breather by the tarns.







By the time I shot up Paddy's Nut and over Thetis, I was looking forward to calling it a day, however found the decent down to Leonards Tarn a little less straight forward than it seemed..running into some fairly nasty scrub BUT once I bashed through discovered it was worth the effort, taking a splash and kicking back to admire the views.





Next day I made my way straight up to Achilles, and had also planned to head out to Perrins Bluff..unfortunately accepting I wouldn't have time (knowing I still had to find a way over Pelion West). There were some nice tarns that would have made a perfect extra stop for the night along the ridge to PW. Once over the last hill before the mountain itself, I picked up what seemed to be a faint track that got me through the worst of the scrub, until the gruelling climb began. It turned out a little crazy at times, having to throw my pack up and down, squeeze though gaps and dangle around some dodgy cliff faces, jumbled up in the massive maze of truck sized slabs. Ever the "there's always a way" optimist, there were times I started to have my doubts, and it was a huge morale boost when I stumbled upon the final cairned route! Once I reached the top, the climb up the summit itself which I'd heard so much about seemed like a joke









After a big lollie hit, I continued zigzaging through the boulders following the route down to the Overland Track and back to Pelion Hut for the night, walking back out the Arm River Track the next morning. Totally stoked on the trip as a whole, four days of perfect weather, some amazing summits, plenty of heart racing adventure and some pretty fine looking leg muscles i must say

[Graham51]

Great stuff and some fantastic photos.

[MJD]

Very nice; good shots and what lovely weather. I've always liked the view from high on Ossa looking through to Gould & Hyperion.

[J-Pugz]

Great Shots! Can't believe how much snow there was on Ossa!

[Nick S]

Great trip report. I've yet to explore around Pelion west. Such nice weather in the past 2 weeks

[stepbystep]

Awesome stuff mate, wish I had the fitness of you young blokes....great pics too!

[wander]

Awesome trip, nice pics. Can you organise the weather for my next wander?

[Mickeymoo]

Very nice, great photos and write up, sounds/looks like a great trip!

[doogs]

Awesome photo WB, sounds like a great long weekend away!!!

[Phil]

Inspirational photos, great weather, thanks for sharing!!

[frenchy_84]

great photos. Must have been a big day going from pelion hut to thetis over every peak in between

[phan_TOM]

Awesome photos & what a place. Looks like you had a great trip and you definitely scored with the weather... my legs feel sore just thinking about it, might have to go and have a little lie down

thanks for that

[South_Aussie_Hiker]

Magnificent photos

[andrewbish]

Wow, what an amazing, dramatic place.