Madeline had completed a reccy so knew the area and what was on offer. We were efficient on getting to St Arnaud and leaving at a respectable 9:30am giving us plenty of daylight. The track is a bit like a logarithmic scale with a very gentle start getting steeper as you go. There were not many people around so we only met a few on the track. At our first break we were lucky enough to see a kaka in one of the trees above us. The bush was lovely to walk through although I don’t recall hearing a lot of bird life. The track steepened as we approached Parachute Rocks and not long after we rose above the bushline. Another 15 minutes or so saw us at Parachute Rocks (1450m). It was good to have climbed 800m before lunch. The views back over the lake were quite stunning and not long after, day trippers arrived to share the rock outcrops.

From the rocks the track zig zagged to the ridgeline and there was not much talking going on from yours truly. Once there we walked along the ridge and over the high point at pt. 1787. Not long after that Peter P declared a touch of cramp and the decision was made to camp at the first set of tarns. This allowed those that wanted to go no further to rest while others went for a wander further along the range. However, further ridgeline travel would have been challenging but a slightly lower route allowed the four to join a side later just east of pt. 1796 to get view down to another group of tarns. Ian raced back from this jaunt to make sure he was able to get the right light for his photographs. After dinner Phillip declared he was going to go horizontal and ponder but I think the unplanned snoring was not what he had in mind. Ian was kind enough to share a tipple before we all slept during a star lit evening.

The next morning it was a leisurely rise, including Peter and Michele have an invigorating dip in the biggest tarn, before setting off to a saddle in the north. This led us to another valley with an array of tarns. At the first tarn, which turned out to be the warmest, most jumped in and afterwards enjoyed the warmth of the sun. From our lunch spot in the tussock we had expansive views. At this point the party had various debates as to where the junction was along the main ridge and the party split. Of course some people are more right than others with several joining the ridge well after the summit and ending up doing a circumnavigation of the peak (by edging across the snow grass slopes) to join the track lower down. Returning to the car a few had a dip in the lake and all had refreshments at the Alpine Lodge in St. Arnaud. The weather could not have been more perfect and our thanks to Madeleine for a great trip.

Trip Participants were: Madeleine Rohrer (Leader) Ian D, Philip Palmer, Peter Phipps (scribe) , Michele Cunningham (editor) and Ashley Chen