Mount Barney isn't as challenging as Everest, but it certainly isn't easy to climb. In fact, it defeated me, while climbing with my father and my brother, high on the southern slopes of the mountain at 300m below the summit.
I first started to get excited about climbing Mount Barney when I found out there was some good rock scrambling there. I was climbing indoors all the time, and was aching to practice my skills on real rock. And I had, plenty of times before; such as on Mount Olsen-Bagge, a low mountain on the rim of a massive crater-shaped valley known as Wilpena Pound. The mountain, it turned out, was harder to pronounce than to climb, but it was still very steep and required clinging to rocks.
That was a year ago. Half a year before that, I had climbed a disorderly mass of boulders set up not unlike popcorn, which was called Cathedral Rock. Cathedral Rock was easy but required basic rock climbing skills like chimney climbing and gripping smooth rock without handholds. The view was great from the top.
Over a year after that, in the stark, barren mountain wilderness of western Tasmania, I climbed an unearthly spire of bare rock called Cradle Mountain. Cradle Mountain was hard, and my mother was one of about 60% of climbers who turned around before the summit.
On the same trip to Tasmania, I climbed a gigantic bulge of slippery pink granite called Mount Amos. It was one of the Hazards, a row of four granite mountains. At the hardest, Mount Amos required climbing up a 60 degree cliff about 45m high.
So, with all that experience, I thought I would be able to climb to the top.
The North Ridge Route - Planning and going there
Mount Barney is a serious mountain. It can be seen from as far away as the township of Gleneagle, about 70k away. Even from there, it obviously rises above the horizon line. It's only about 1354 meters tall, but its problem lies in its steepness; I would guess it has an average steepness of 45 degrees or more. Every route requires basic rock climbing skills and most require a rope.
Mount Barney is easily compared to Katahdin in America for exposure, steepness, and height. However, it has only one regularly maintained trail, has absolutely no flat ground on its eastern half, even on the ridges, and less people. There are twelve trails, only one of which is maintained. There are eight peaks. The highest one, the West Peak, is 1354 meters tall but doesn't have a good view. The East Peak, just to the east, does have a great view, and it is the most climbed. There are three commonly used ascent routes of the East Peak: the first one, the South Ridge Route, climbs to the saddle between the East and West peaks, and directly up to the summit from there. The Logans Ridge Route ascends from the east, and requires rock climbing skills and a roped climb up a cliff. The Southeast Ridge Route is fairly challenging but not hard.
We were planning to ascend the North Ridge Route to the North Pinnacle, which lies north of East Peak. The North Ridge Route, we discovered later, requires a rope which we did not have. We were planning to tent up on the top at a windy 1200m above. These problems did not stop us, but the late hour did; it was already 12:30 when we arrived at the base of the mountain. We got a topographic map and considered our options. Then we booked a campsite at the saddle between the East and West peaks, and set our eyes on the South "Peasants" Ridge Route, by very far the easiest route up the mountain. (The Peasants Ridge Route was graded class 5, or "very hard")
To the mountain: the Peasants Ridge Route
We walked with full packs from the Yellow Pinch Carpark. The trail forged uphill at a steep grade and reached a cattle gate. At the cattle gate, a rocky trail led up a steep and challenging spur. We walked up it. Still in sight of the cattle gate, I looked up and saw that the spur seemed to end mysteriously. I then realized we were walking Yellow Pinch, a hill that was not remotely close to the mountain.
We backtracked and followed the trail through the cattle gate and into a narrow pasteurized valley, with golden hills to the left and Mount Barney, a mass of rock the surface of which seemed to be mainly cliffs, to the right. Eventually, we crossed a creek and the trail turned to the right, into a valley of gorge proportions. Then we entered the trees and the national park. We passed two campsites which lay along a bubbling creek. And then we saw what we were waiting for, a rocky trail leading up a ridge.
There was a tree next to the junction. There were markings on it, but I didn't read them until I was on the way down the next day. They said:
NOT
HARD
SE
I should have read them. In any case, when I thought this was the South Ridge Route, it was too late. But luckily the trail was still very enjoyable.
The climb: The South East Ridge Route
We climbed, with full packs, to the top of a ridge.
I thought the climb was steep, and it was. I have rarely climbed up something steeper than that ridge without switchbacking and a lot of steps. But this track had none of that. It just went straight up. And that was only twenty degrees. The top of the ridge revealed fifty degree incline just two hundred meters from us. We stopped and rested, and worried a lot about the time. It was 2:30. We decided we could only barely make it to the saddle before dark.
Just after passing a clearing where walkers were resting, the trail turned thirty degrees up a ridge. More and more outcrops of rock showed around the now slippery path. After passing the foot of a cliff, we veered right and followed the foot of the cliff up the spur. Finally reaching the top of the cliff, we rested. It was 3:00.
We were at only 600 meters above sea level. But already the hills we had walked below looked like mere bumps. Just after leaving the top and continuing up toward another cliff, we bumped into a group of hikers walking down. When we asked how far the saddle was, they said it was two, three hours to the summit and another hour down to the saddle. That was when we realized we were on a different route. It also meant we were out of time. We had to camp somewhere below. We decided to pitch camp at the clearing just below the steep part of the mountain for an ascent the next morning.
Mount Barney was first climbed in the 1820s, though not many ascents were made after that. The last of its pinnacles to be climbed, Leaning Peak, was climbed in the 1930s, and it was a very long time after that when all the peaks were climbed by a single person.
However, in the 1960s, bushwalkers discovered the mountain, and it became almost holy to them. People came back again and again, ascending by the same routes or other routes. Some came with nothing but water on their backs. Many camped and hiked in undesingnated places on trails unknown to most maps. Fifty years later, it's still the case. At our camp, around 8:00 PM, bushwalkers came past, heading up. They weren't even using their head torches. They told us they had given up on the Logans Ridge and were coming here, in the dead of night, to make their ascent. They sounded like they had been on this route before.
My point is, although you really only bushwalk on the mountain, it's climbed in the style of ice climbing. People ascend and camp wherever they want to. If the day is late, many people don't turn around but hike through the night, or bivvy on the peak.
Anyway, we started hiking at 7:00 next morning. We ascended the first cliff in about 15 minutes, but the weather was bad. A cloud capped the mountain above about 900 meters, but it wasn't looking like rain. So we kept on climbing. We skirted to the right of the next cliff, and then started climbing on the ridgeline, which was not very exposed at this point.
Suddenly, the ridge got thinner, at 850m above. There were gaps in the ridge-line which revealed swaying palm trees 200m directly below. And then, we had to climb up to follow a fin of rock that was just a meter wide with 50m drops to either side. On the other side of that fin, the ridge broadened into a wide forest, and we ascended into the clouds.
After climbing for a long time, we reached a peak (1000 meters above sea level) which we thought was the summit, but then the thick fog parted for a moment and ahead was a massive, 50m high cliff. The track led to the right of the cliff, but we still had a slippery bulge of rock 3m high to surmount, wet with condensation.
At this cliff, we stopped for a long time to try and find the best route up. The rock was almost vertical, at about 75 degrees. It was also very slippery. On one side of the rock, another slab over-hanged the bulge, making for a good chimney climb. I tried to go up twice, but the rocks were very smooth and covered with dust, so I kept slipping down. Then, my brother found another route. It was up the other side of the rock, a fracture about ten centimeters wide. The fracture ended before the top of the wall. From there, my brother had to cling like a spider to some "ledges" in the rock which had a slope of sixty degrees, with no holds. Luckily, he got up without slipping.
Then it was my turn. At the end of the fracture, I stepped onto the slope, very reluctantly. I have to admit, I have a little vertigo, and stepping onto almost vertical slippery rock without hand holds would be frightening for anyone. I trembled as I hauled myself up.
I and my brother managed to get up, but my father could not. We had worries of getting back down if the rock got a little wetter. The fog would furthermore hide all the views we could see from the summit. So, we ditched the summit attempt there, at 1020 meters, and headed back down.
However, I will be back.
I first started to get excited about climbing Mount Barney when I found out there was some good rock scrambling there. I was climbing indoors all the time, and was aching to practice my skills on real rock. And I had, plenty of times before; such as on Mount Olsen-Bagge, a low mountain on the rim of a massive crater-shaped valley known as Wilpena Pound. The mountain, it turned out, was harder to pronounce than to climb, but it was still very steep and required clinging to rocks.
That was a year ago. Half a year before that, I had climbed a disorderly mass of boulders set up not unlike popcorn, which was called Cathedral Rock. Cathedral Rock was easy but required basic rock climbing skills like chimney climbing and gripping smooth rock without handholds. The view was great from the top.
Over a year after that, in the stark, barren mountain wilderness of western Tasmania, I climbed an unearthly spire of bare rock called Cradle Mountain. Cradle Mountain was hard, and my mother was one of about 60% of climbers who turned around before the summit.
On the same trip to Tasmania, I climbed a gigantic bulge of slippery pink granite called Mount Amos. It was one of the Hazards, a row of four granite mountains. At the hardest, Mount Amos required climbing up a 60 degree cliff about 45m high.
So, with all that experience, I thought I would be able to climb to the top.
The North Ridge Route - Planning and going there
Mount Barney is a serious mountain. It can be seen from as far away as the township of Gleneagle, about 70k away. Even from there, it obviously rises above the horizon line. It's only about 1354 meters tall, but its problem lies in its steepness; I would guess it has an average steepness of 45 degrees or more. Every route requires basic rock climbing skills and most require a rope.
Mount Barney is easily compared to Katahdin in America for exposure, steepness, and height. However, it has only one regularly maintained trail, has absolutely no flat ground on its eastern half, even on the ridges, and less people. There are twelve trails, only one of which is maintained. There are eight peaks. The highest one, the West Peak, is 1354 meters tall but doesn't have a good view. The East Peak, just to the east, does have a great view, and it is the most climbed. There are three commonly used ascent routes of the East Peak: the first one, the South Ridge Route, climbs to the saddle between the East and West peaks, and directly up to the summit from there. The Logans Ridge Route ascends from the east, and requires rock climbing skills and a roped climb up a cliff. The Southeast Ridge Route is fairly challenging but not hard.
We were planning to ascend the North Ridge Route to the North Pinnacle, which lies north of East Peak. The North Ridge Route, we discovered later, requires a rope which we did not have. We were planning to tent up on the top at a windy 1200m above. These problems did not stop us, but the late hour did; it was already 12:30 when we arrived at the base of the mountain. We got a topographic map and considered our options. Then we booked a campsite at the saddle between the East and West peaks, and set our eyes on the South "Peasants" Ridge Route, by very far the easiest route up the mountain. (The Peasants Ridge Route was graded class 5, or "very hard")
To the mountain: the Peasants Ridge Route
We walked with full packs from the Yellow Pinch Carpark. The trail forged uphill at a steep grade and reached a cattle gate. At the cattle gate, a rocky trail led up a steep and challenging spur. We walked up it. Still in sight of the cattle gate, I looked up and saw that the spur seemed to end mysteriously. I then realized we were walking Yellow Pinch, a hill that was not remotely close to the mountain.
We backtracked and followed the trail through the cattle gate and into a narrow pasteurized valley, with golden hills to the left and Mount Barney, a mass of rock the surface of which seemed to be mainly cliffs, to the right. Eventually, we crossed a creek and the trail turned to the right, into a valley of gorge proportions. Then we entered the trees and the national park. We passed two campsites which lay along a bubbling creek. And then we saw what we were waiting for, a rocky trail leading up a ridge.
There was a tree next to the junction. There were markings on it, but I didn't read them until I was on the way down the next day. They said:
NOT
HARD
SE
I should have read them. In any case, when I thought this was the South Ridge Route, it was too late. But luckily the trail was still very enjoyable.
The climb: The South East Ridge Route
We climbed, with full packs, to the top of a ridge.
I thought the climb was steep, and it was. I have rarely climbed up something steeper than that ridge without switchbacking and a lot of steps. But this track had none of that. It just went straight up. And that was only twenty degrees. The top of the ridge revealed fifty degree incline just two hundred meters from us. We stopped and rested, and worried a lot about the time. It was 2:30. We decided we could only barely make it to the saddle before dark.
Just after passing a clearing where walkers were resting, the trail turned thirty degrees up a ridge. More and more outcrops of rock showed around the now slippery path. After passing the foot of a cliff, we veered right and followed the foot of the cliff up the spur. Finally reaching the top of the cliff, we rested. It was 3:00.
We were at only 600 meters above sea level. But already the hills we had walked below looked like mere bumps. Just after leaving the top and continuing up toward another cliff, we bumped into a group of hikers walking down. When we asked how far the saddle was, they said it was two, three hours to the summit and another hour down to the saddle. That was when we realized we were on a different route. It also meant we were out of time. We had to camp somewhere below. We decided to pitch camp at the clearing just below the steep part of the mountain for an ascent the next morning.
Mount Barney was first climbed in the 1820s, though not many ascents were made after that. The last of its pinnacles to be climbed, Leaning Peak, was climbed in the 1930s, and it was a very long time after that when all the peaks were climbed by a single person.
However, in the 1960s, bushwalkers discovered the mountain, and it became almost holy to them. People came back again and again, ascending by the same routes or other routes. Some came with nothing but water on their backs. Many camped and hiked in undesingnated places on trails unknown to most maps. Fifty years later, it's still the case. At our camp, around 8:00 PM, bushwalkers came past, heading up. They weren't even using their head torches. They told us they had given up on the Logans Ridge and were coming here, in the dead of night, to make their ascent. They sounded like they had been on this route before.
My point is, although you really only bushwalk on the mountain, it's climbed in the style of ice climbing. People ascend and camp wherever they want to. If the day is late, many people don't turn around but hike through the night, or bivvy on the peak.
Anyway, we started hiking at 7:00 next morning. We ascended the first cliff in about 15 minutes, but the weather was bad. A cloud capped the mountain above about 900 meters, but it wasn't looking like rain. So we kept on climbing. We skirted to the right of the next cliff, and then started climbing on the ridgeline, which was not very exposed at this point.
Suddenly, the ridge got thinner, at 850m above. There were gaps in the ridge-line which revealed swaying palm trees 200m directly below. And then, we had to climb up to follow a fin of rock that was just a meter wide with 50m drops to either side. On the other side of that fin, the ridge broadened into a wide forest, and we ascended into the clouds.
After climbing for a long time, we reached a peak (1000 meters above sea level) which we thought was the summit, but then the thick fog parted for a moment and ahead was a massive, 50m high cliff. The track led to the right of the cliff, but we still had a slippery bulge of rock 3m high to surmount, wet with condensation.
At this cliff, we stopped for a long time to try and find the best route up. The rock was almost vertical, at about 75 degrees. It was also very slippery. On one side of the rock, another slab over-hanged the bulge, making for a good chimney climb. I tried to go up twice, but the rocks were very smooth and covered with dust, so I kept slipping down. Then, my brother found another route. It was up the other side of the rock, a fracture about ten centimeters wide. The fracture ended before the top of the wall. From there, my brother had to cling like a spider to some "ledges" in the rock which had a slope of sixty degrees, with no holds. Luckily, he got up without slipping.
Then it was my turn. At the end of the fracture, I stepped onto the slope, very reluctantly. I have to admit, I have a little vertigo, and stepping onto almost vertical slippery rock without hand holds would be frightening for anyone. I trembled as I hauled myself up.
I and my brother managed to get up, but my father could not. We had worries of getting back down if the rock got a little wetter. The fog would furthermore hide all the views we could see from the summit. So, we ditched the summit attempt there, at 1020 meters, and headed back down.
However, I will be back.
No comments:
Post a Comment