Mount Wellington Circuit

Friday, 9 August 2013

Mount Wellington Circuit

Thursday 8th August 2013

Today I wasn't sure which walk I would be doing as I drove into Hobart because it was going to depend on the weather. I had a choice between Mt. Wellington or Platform Peak, but when I saw that Mt. Wellington was cloudless and had no visible snow on the summit, the option was easy. The road up to the parking spot at The Springs was a little icy so I used 4WD just to be on the safe side as I had seen the evidence of someone sliding and wiping out a couple of road signs. I had previously done a few different circuit walks on Mt. Wellington and I had walked all the tracks I was going to use before, but I had not combined them all into a circuit.
I started walking at about 8.20am up to the Milles track and then onto the Icehouse track. The first icehouse is now very overgrown and not readily distinguishable in the bush and the top one is also being overtaken by the bush although the remnants can be easily seen. I made it up to South Wellington summit just in time for morning tea, but there was nowhere dry to sit as the rocks were all covered in a fine blanket of snow. The weather was still clear here but the clouds were starting to roll in on the main summit. This is a very pleasant spot to sit on a good day as the views are magnificent. There was a good covering of snow on the southern and western peaks. The track into here off the Icehouse track had frozen patches of water and care had to be taken as it was quite slippery.
After a short break it was back to the South Wellington track and on to the main summit. Of course, as it has a habit of doing, the cloud really started to roll in and visibility was reduced to about 50 metres. Surprisingly there was absolutely no wind here at all. I could not see the transmission tower until I was almost on top of it. I could not get over the amount of people wandering around here as there were absolutely no views at all. Anyway it was then down the Pinnacle Road for about 800 metres to pick up the Panorama track which was followed down to meet the Pinnacle Road once again. I then walked down the road for about 1 km. to The Chalet which was completely devoid of people so it seemed like an ideal place for lunch. There was no cloud here and there were lots of people a little further down the road checking out the scenery.
I finished lunch then went down the road a short distance and on to Hunters track which was followed for about 1.5 kms. before I deviated off to Lakins Lair. This is a line of cliffs where there are some "caves"; not really caves, but more like indentations in the rock. Anyway it is an interesting place with some history. I then walked down to the Lenah Valley Fire Trail passed Junction Cabin, down the Lenah Valley track, via Lone cabin, passed Rock Cabin and back to the car which I reached at about 2pm.
Overall a very enjoyable walk except for the lack of views at the summit, but I had seen them before, so that was not a total disappointment
Distance: 14.8 kms.
Time: 5'40"
Ascent: 770 metres
Click here to download GPX track.