Federation Peak: what's the weather like in November?

[Julafreak]

Hi all, I heard the best time to head up feder will be in the summer? But I doubt I'll be free in the summer and Im wondering if it's a good idea to head in during late November. Is there any possibility of getting clear skies? (given the weather's notoriety down there). Any thoughts?
Julian

[pazzar]

Late November could bring anything, sunny clear skies, snow, hail, rain, fog etc. Be prepared to camp at the base for a few days if the weather is unsuitable for ascent, and I wouldn't recommend you do this alone.

[Azza]

The best thing you can do is be flexible with your dates and watch the weather charts and try to time your ascent to coincide with a fine spell (Big High sitting smack bang over tassie would do nicely)...

Statistically Feb is the more stable month and drier month, but things still operation on a pretty consistent cycle (most of the time)...
A couple of days good weather, followed by a fews days of bad / somewhere in between weather.

There is no guatentee that Nov is really bad time to go... or that Feb will end up being any better. Infact all the times I've been to fedder I've had rotten weather and climbed the thing in the rain and mist, unfortunately I've never had the luxury of being flexible with dates due to work commitments.

Sometime you get lucky with the South West..

[ILUVSWTAS]

It's a bit overcast with passing showers.

[Son of a Beach]

Hi Julian,

In my limited experience of the south west, I've found early December to be very good, and late summer to be very bad. But I don't think I've been often enough for that to be statistically relevant.

However, late November is usually a lot more like Summer and is usually a lot better than early November which is a lot more like spring. So although you should always be prepared for anything (especially in the south west), I reckon late November would be a good time to go.

I hope you get good views. I've been up fedder twice, and not got any views from the summit (great views from Devils Thumb and Thwaites Plateau just afterwards though!). Both times were in summer.

PS. I should add that Federation Peak, and the Eastern Arthurs (or the Western Arthurs) is VERY different to most of the other standard walking tracks in Tasmania, and is substantially more difficult than any of the other popular walking tracks.

[Julafreak]

Thanks for the feedback guys.. but Im wondering if it's a definite NO-NO to get up there if its even slightly slippery. From the videos and pictures Ive seen of the ascent (it's always only ascent, are there any videos of descendings??), it's *&%$#! steep!

Pazzar has suggested I do more exposed walks like mt. Anne first.. and Im starting to think that might be a good idea.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Sounds VERY sensible.

Try these......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP1M3ZN_wxg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhmHUzeWAQ

[Azza]

Thanks for the feedback guys.. but Im wondering if it's a definite NO-NO to get up there if its even slightly slippery. From the videos and pictures Ive seen of the ascent (it's always only ascent, are there any videos of descendings??), it's *&%$#! steep!

Pazzar has suggested I do more exposed walks like mt. Anne first.. and Im starting to think that might be a good idea.

Do you rock climb? If your comfortable on a 'easy' climb / scramble with a bit of exposure then its not too bad.
I've been up twice in the wet, and some might easy its easier because you don't get the same sense of exposure in the mist.
Effectively your just traversing a series of ledges all the way to the top. But there are a couple of exposed spots.
However Pazzar is probably right, if something like Mt Anne freaks you out then Fedder will most definately be an issue.
btw Mt Anne isn't more exposed...
On fedder you do need to do a little bit of route finding looking for the cairns which can be stressful.
I've taken non-climbers up there. But from the non-climber perspective I probably wouldn't have felt confortable to go to the top otherwise.
A little bit of experience certainly goes a long way.

[Julafreak]

Thanks for the clips ILUVSWTAS. I get the full impression of the dangers involved (coming down that is).

Azza, nope I dont do rock-climbing but I can see what you mean. It requires a fair bit of confidence in the footwork? (Im very used to climbing trees where I come from if that counts... hahahaha!) But yeap, I'll do mt.Anne first. As much as I hate to, I've decided to abort the Nov attempt till I get a fair bit of experience first.

Thanks again for the advice!