With the threat of worsening weather this afternoon, I wanted to do a shorter walk so I could be home by the time it started. Platform Peak was chosen for a couple of reasons- it was short and it was also unfinished business as I had attempted to do Mt. Dromedary and Platform Peak together last year, but ran out of time, only getting to the base of Platform before having to turn around, as I had to be home at a certain time.
Armed with fresh information on the tracks, thanks to Becca (Blog site here) I set off walking at 8.35am from the end of Braslins Road in Black Hills. The weather was fine and cool with lots of frost on the ground and a blustery wind up in the tree tops. I knew this part of the track as I had previously walked this way. The track goes uphill on old forestry roads before making a turn and heading north until a junction is reached and then westwards to another track. From here I walked south for 150 metres to find the walking track heading up to the summit. The track was well marked and was easy to follow all the way up and had a light covering of snow most of the way. It was blowing a gale at the top, so I didn't hang around too long before finding a bit of shelter out of the wind. The temperature up here was 1 degree, but I don't know what the wind chill factor was, but take it from me, it was cold. The summit cairn is very impressive as you can see from the photos.
I was going to stop for a bite to eat up here but decided to keep going. The track descended quite steeply in places in a north easterly direction to finally reach a well maintained road. It was then just a matter of following this road for 1.6 kms. and then branching off on an old forestry track to eventually meet up with the outgoing track and back to the car. I never did get to eat anything, so by the time I reached the car I was quite peckish.
This was quite an enjoyable walk with great scenery.
Distance: 12.3 kms.
Time: 3'25"
Ascent: 550 metres
There is a map and gpx track at Everytrail.
Click here to download GPX track.
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| Looking Westwards from near summit |
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| Looking SE towards Mt. Wellington |
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| Looking Westwards |
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| Summit Cairn |
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| Looking towards the summit cairn |
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| Looking Westwards |
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| Icy pond beside road |
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| Summit Cairn |
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