The Eastern Arthurs

[ILUVSWTAS]

MJD and I took a stroll (I use the word stroll in jest as it was 4 long hard days) through the Eastern Arthurs recently.
In through the Huon track ( or yoyo ) and out Farmhouse!
In my opinion it was tougher than the Western arthurs with extreme exposure on some parts and much climbing. I think we did well over 6000mtrs in the 5 days we were out.
3 of the days were 12+ hrs walking, including the 2 VERY hot days we had recently. The first day involved 7 hrs of walking th yoyo track which is called the yoyo track for a very good reason. The track has been cleared recently and is otherwise very easy pleasant walking along the Huon river!
Anyway, the scenery was amazing as hopefully the following pics will show! I think I managed to get a bug from somewhere as I was really feeling poor for the last day or so, and today I am on and off the toilet like a yoyo myself..... but it was worth it!!

[ILUVSWTAS]

Of course some peakbagging was done inbetween the sunsets and amazing scenery

[ILUVSWTAS]

Then there was Fedders which we didnt climb due to poor weather

[ILUVSWTAS]

And more amazing scenery

[ILUVSWTAS]

And then there was well more....

[ILUVSWTAS]

And we had a visit from this little critter who was VERY tame. would come within a foot of us! He grabbed an empty soup packet which we had to try and get back off him, he didnt give it back without a fight though....

[stepbystep]

Awesome Mark, cheers for those, but in 4 days - I think you're both barking.....

[ILUVSWTAS]

4 days with one half day (afternoon) to make a start on the yoyo track. so a total of 4 and a half days. Though the last day we were back at Farmhouse at around 4pm, so that was a pretty short day too.

[MJD]

Just as well the last day was short - I was stuffed. My GPS said 78 kms and almost 6300m of ascent during the trip.

Nice pictures. Here's one for the Ollster:

[ILUVSWTAS]

Thanks mate! Start one yourself when youve got yours all sorted!!
Thants a cracker of that snake!! forgot to mention we saw a few of those!! that one near East Portal was as fat as my arm!!! That one in your pic was big enough!!

[ollster]

Nice pictures. Here's one for the Ollster:

Yeeerrrrgghh!!! Keep it away!

Didn't see anything like that on the Southern Ranges... dogs, however... well, see my post.

Sweet photos. Stu will probably post some from our trip next week.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Hope so!! looking forward to seeing some on FB soon Oll!!
We saw 4 big snakes!! (and yes we DID have our pants on) One much larger than this one. Martin nearly trod on this guy.....

[tasadam]

Well I can forget about entering the photo comp this month!
Well done!

[melinda]

Amazing photos. Hope to get there one day.....
Even the snake looks impressive
Melinda

[Nick S]

Love that 3rd pic swtas! sounds like you had another hard trip, harder that WA's hey?
Ah I'm looking forward to walking in Tassie again!

[ILUVSWTAS]

Thanks Adam! Hardest thing is finding one pic to enter in the comp!
Hey NickS, good to see you back home safely!! Yeh I bet your itching to get out there! How was Singapore??

I thought the Eastern was definately tougher than the Western Arthurs! We did do some long days, I reckon if we threw an extra day in there it may not have been the case, but it was certainly steeper and more exposed up there than in the Western!

[Nuts]

Great! Those ranges always look spectacular from any angle... Didn't you have 5 days
Must be time for 'the big one' soon eh? Feels like a warm, dry summer ahead...

[ILUVSWTAS]

Well technically I guess it was 5. We didnt start til late on the first day. Just knocked a few hrs of the YOYO track off in the afternoon. So it was more like 4 and a half days.
4 Full days is what I meant

[Nuts]

Yer, read thru, I understand, should have said '6' ... I guess smelling the roses becomes a more useful excuse with age
Nice set of photo's, well done...

[ILUVSWTAS]

I wish we had stayed for the 6th day! Would have made it much easier especially with the heat!! We had planned for 6 days but came out on the 5th as the weather had packed it in for the last 2 days. Had Planned to try and get up Mt Hopetoun, but as always when walking in the SW you need to alter your plans to suit the weather!

[Steve]

Would have passed you had I stuck with my original plan of doing the EA over new years. At 12am, six hours before setting off, i decided to go with the WA instead. I could see Fedder from just about every mountain top along the way and kept thinking how great it would be over that way. Good to see you got it all in before the weather cracked up, some awesome shots there too!

[ILUVSWTAS]

Thanks Steve! It was a great trip, just a shame the weather packed in a day early and we couldnt get up Fedders!!!
Did the WA's a few months ago (only a-k) and got up 13 of the 15 peaks along there myself!! Only missed Alderbaran and Shaula.
The Eastern Aethurs was much tougher in my opinion. The peaks are steeper and harder to get up, The Gables and Four peaks looked quite suicidal with out ropes. And the exposure on some parts of the southern traverse underneath Federation itself was extremely exposed and steep. An amazing walk though,

[MichaelP]

this looks awesome. so so so so so so want to do this.
probably would take longer than 4 days tho i rekon.... stay up there and enjoy it, if the weather was as good as you guys had it.

[ILUVSWTAS]

if the weather was as good as you guys had it.

You may note there are no photos from the last 2 days... Sadly the weather did crack up on us...
But I would DEFINATELY suggest taking more time to enjoy it!! We really rushed through and in hindsight an extra night at Goon Moor would have been ideal!!

[melinda]

Hi ILUVSWTAS,
If a person was thinking of planning a trip there (Eastern and Western) what month would you suggest?
Melinda

[ILUVSWTAS]

Jan-March is most likely to have less rain. and if it does rain it's more likely to pass quicker.

Make no mistake though, Both these ranges are incredibly difficult and require confidence with heights and on rock with great exposure! Places on the Eastern arthurs require alot of scrambling where a slip would be fatal!

[melinda]

Hi ILUVSWTAS and friends,
Just tossing ideas around here.
If we did a trip like this it wouldn't be until early next year.
I do understand that these ranges are serious.
We do a lot of climbing and scrambling around clifflines, I guess I feel confident with this to .... a certain degree.
One of my mates suggested taking a bit of abseiling gear. Could you use abseiling gear in some of the more difficult places or would it not suit conditions??
Melinda
PS I've seen some of your photos, do you have any photos that show the dodgy bits?

[tasadam]

Hi ILUVSWTAS and friends,
Just tossing ideas around here.
If we did a trip like this it wouldn't be until early next year.
I do understand that these ranges are serious.
We do a lot of climbing and scrambling around clifflines, I guess I feel confident with this to .... a certain degree.
One of my mates suggested taking a bit of abseiling gear. Could you use abseiling gear in some of the more difficult places or would it not suit conditions??
Melinda
PS I've seen some of your photos, do you have any photos that show the dodgy bits?

Hi Melinda.
I think this question would be better suited to this topic.
In particular, have a look at the reply from Dave Noble on page 2, there's a link to his youtube video I'm sure you'll find "enlightening".
Hope that helps. You could try asking about the merits of climbing gear there too if it hasn't already been covered.

[melinda]

Cheers tasadam,
Will check it out.
(Source material from Dave Noble has to be good! We are still referring to some of his hand drawn maps from the 80's.)
Melinda

[ILUVSWTAS]

I think then Melinda you would probably be fine!!
Excellent work by Adam to highlight Dave's videos from his trip. It shows some of the scrambling areas quite well! Though places like Geeves Gully along the Southern Traverse still shocked the pants off me when I saw it......