Scotts Knob –  Leader: Peter Wise

This was the third trip to this particular peak for leader Peter, but his fitness level had slipped a little since the last two trips so he didn’t make it quite to the top this time. Five trampers set off in two vehicles early on the Saturday morning, with Peter leaving his car at the river crossing in the Branch. Bryan got his 4x4 across with ease after which we all crammed in for the 15km trip to the hut. We ended up parking the vehicle about 3kms short of the hut due to a heavily rutted side stream crossing so had to walk the rest of the way and then up the valley towards Scotts Knob for about two hours to set up camp. With the valley feeling very cold and chilly, Bryan and Peter decided to explore a plateau high up on a nearby sunny ridge. Although here was water up there, the site didn’t shape up as well as it looked from down below. We all had had experience of sleeping with snorers so on this trip most of us had a tent each.

Sunday morning started with a steady climb up the valley and on up the gut before having to find our way out of that and on to the adjacent ridge then on up to the rocky bluffs and into the snow. Here we fitted our crampons in fine weather before plodding on. Bryan and Carol soon tramped on out of sight followed by Giselle and Grahame. Peter stopped near the bottom of the shingle slide for a rest. A short time later, Carol and Bryan re-appeared followed a little later by Giselle and Grahame. They had gone the wrong way and time had run out by the time they had realized so returned to where Peter was. Here we had lunch and a little photo session before continuing on down to the camp. Packed up camp about 4pm then carried on to the hut and back to the 4x4 just on dark.
Those on this trip were Carol Crocker, Grahame Harris, Giselle Clements, Bryan McLean, and leader Peter.