Park Closures

[ErichFromm]

This may seem like a stupid thing to ask but...

Wanted to do the Fortress at Grampians in a couple of weeks but note it is still "closed". Now does "closed" mean no one allowed to walk there, or "you can walk but at your own risk and noting that tracks will be in poor condition"?

[Hallu]

The road is closed, how do you expect to get there ?

[ErichFromm]

It's not the road that's closed but the track....you don't need to go through Grampains to get to the West side.

[Hallu]

http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... Update.pdf The road to Buandik looks closed to me.

[Snowzone]

The road is closed at the Henty highway. I drove past it a week ago and can confirm the gate is definately closed. Would be a long walk in from there.

[bmak]

You can get close enough to walk in.
I was in the area on the weekend and everyone just drives around the gates it seems. Even parks vic
Some roads have been closed for ages in the grampians and traffic on them has not reduced much

[Drew]

Just wondering if you ended up doing the walk ErichFromm? I'm looking for ideas for a walk in the next couple of weeks. I did the Fortress years ago and remember it being a good walk. According to Parks Vic it's still closed.
Cheers

[ErichFromm]

Hey Drew,

No - i wussed out and went somewhere else (The Bluff near Mt Bulla). I did the Fortress though before all the fires and it was fine up to the Fortress itself but I had trouble locating the path soon after that. I imagine it will be even more overgrown now. So if you've done it before and are confident it should be fine.

The Bluff is another good multiday hike if you are wanting one. Park near 8 mile, up to the Bluff and then down to Richies hut the next day. First 4 hours are a killer though....

[Drew]

Funnily enough, the Bluff was an area I was looking at as an alternative. I was thinking of doing the route in Glenn van der Knijff's book, which starts and ends on Clear Creek Road and goes over Mt Clear, King Billies, Mt Lovick and The Bluff before descending down Jamieson's Spur. Apparently Jamieson's is a bit of a nightmare with nasty regrowth at present, so your route might be better.

Was access to Eight Mile okay for 2WD?

Cheers,

Drew

[ryantmalone]

Funnily enough, the Bluff was an area I was looking at as an alternative. I was thinking of doing the route in Glenn van der Knijff's book, which starts and ends on Clear Creek Road and goes over Mt Clear, King Billies, Mt Lovick and The Bluff before descending down Jamieson's Spur. Apparently Jamieson's is a bit of a nightmare with nasty regrowth at present, so your route might be better.

Was access to Eight Mile okay for 2WD?

Cheers,

Drew

I haven't done Jamieson Spur yet (its on my hit list), however if you search the forums a bit, there are a few people that have done it.

The general word is that its fairly easy going until the last few hundred meters where scrub becomes a bit of a nightmare.

[Drew]

Yeah, I looked into doing this in January and this reply on the forum put me off:

Done this walk over the Australia Day weekend and the walk is really nice, except for last 300 to 400 m elevation descent along Jamison Spur down back to the starting point. Very overgrown is and understatement and would rather say it is extremely overgrown to the extent that I would not recommend to anyone to do that, unless you have some masochistic tendencies and like ankle breaker territory (saying that as experienced mounteneer and done most of AAWT so know what overgrown can mean) - so no fun (and I do not like getting tangled up in Blackberries and stinging Nettles). Unless someone cuts a track along the lower parts will be impassible for a while until trees regrow and undergrowth dies off.

If I do it I think I'll take Refrigerator Gap track instead of Jamieson's.

[Avatar]

The 8 Mile Gap to Refrigerator Gap section had a short section of proud rock which scraped under my 2WD sedan (130mm clearance) last November. No evident damage but it sounded horrendous. A truck went over the edge at this spot. There were also a few 4" to 6" cube shaped rocks which it was worth stopping and removing, usually near strategically placed potholes which you didn't see until too late. Put the rocks in the potholes with a shovel of dirt and have a better trip out. Managed to get the 2WD past Refrigerator Gap up to the Bluff side road - road surface was fine - but a lot of it was in first gear. I suggest 2WDs stop at 8 Mile Gap unless you have big clearance and know the road is dry or you don't care about cracking a sump or diff.

[Drew]

Thanks Avatar, sounds like good advice.

[ErichFromm]

Just got back from the Bluff walk. Knees swollen so bad I can no longer bend them (due I think to the large descending part of the shortcut from Bluffs hut to Richies).

As already mentioned, I'd drive to eight mile and stop there (not because of personal experience - I've only ever driven this far myself - but everyone i met there was doing the same and recommended it).

Definitely bring a saw too. If I didn't have my little Bahco Laplander on me my trek would've been cut short as a tree had fallen across the road.

Note that the Bluff is still covered in snow on the Hut side and very loose. Expect to be up to your knees (or bum in some points) most of the way unless you bring snow shoes.

[icefest]

ErichFromm, can you post pics?

[ErichFromm]

Thought you'd never ask

In all honesty photos do not do it justice. I was totally not expecting how amazing it was....

refrigerator gap

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the bluff from a distance

it was about here I was wishing I'd brought snow shoes...

[ErichFromm]

Bluff hut

Camp shoes from my gaiters so my boots could dry

Garlic and Chorizo to recover from ice-foot

[icefest]

Looks incredible! Did you end up glissading on the melting snow?
Those gaiter booties remind me of the hut booties I made a while back in tassie.

[ErichFromm]

No glissading for me - I'm very new to the whole thing (had to google "glissading"). The snow was very soft though so not sure if you could've done it anyway. It was actually quite a chore getting through it - was glad when dry ground came back...

Love your boots - yellow is very fashionable I hear. What is the material? Guess you take needle and thread as part of your normal kit?

[icefest]

The weather in your photos looks magnificent.
They are made from coal briquette bags.
The stitching is what was used to close the bags originally (If you know how, you can scavenge the entire thread whole)
The holes were made using some old wire heated in the fire.
They are buttoned shut with some buttons I made of wood.
They were more waterproof than expected - enough for quick toilet trips.
Best time to glissade is when there is a layer of soft snow on harder snow, (AFAIK, I'm not a NZ mountain guide)
This is last winter on Mt Bogong:

[ErichFromm]

Nice job - I've made a note of your booties and may do the same one day (while claiming it was my own idea).

I don't want to alarm you - but think there may be something wrong with your face......

[Drew]

I got back last night from a 3 day Bluff circuit. We considered cancelling due to the pretty horrendous forecast but decided to toughen up and just go anyway. It turned out to be a good decision as we had a great walk and the weather wasn't that bad.

We ended up doing the walk in the opposite direction to what was originally planned so that we'd be at lower altitude on Monday when the weather forecast was worst. After driving through a lot of heavy rain on the way up, we started at 8 Mile Flat about 3:30 Monday afternoon. It rained lightly for the short walk to Ritchie's Hut. We chose the high track, which we later discovered had been a great decision - the low track apparently has no less than 12 river crossings! It continued to rain all night but only lightly.

On Tuesday we set off on the climb towards Bluff Hut. We ended up on a false track so did a bit of scrub bashing but eventually found a clear track up the spur. It did come and go a bit in parts due to lots of fallen trees and some regrowth but was pretty easy to follow. It was a tougher climb than expected and we were pretty knackered when we got to Bluff Hut. A beautiful spot to spend the afternoon, enjoying the view of the Howqua Valley. And not a drop of rain all day!

Wednesday morning we woke to very thick cloud and light rain. We considered taking the safe but boring road option but decided against it and headed up to The Bluff. The visibility was shocking but it was very atmospheric at least. The wind became very strong and icy so at the summit so we didn't stick around to enjoy the non-existent views. We struggled to find a track to descend down to Bluff Carpark. Actually, we failed to find a track at all! We found a cairn and started descending there, knowing that wherever we went it was going to be obscenely steep. It was pretty tricky with everything wet and slippery. We'd taken a bearing from the beginning of the descent and it led us to the car park eventually. I imagine it would have been a lot faster and easier on the real track though. Looking back at the Bluff from Refrigerator Gap it seemed inconceivable that we'd descended that route. I'll have to go back one day to see what the real track is like. And to see what the view from the top is like too!

The descent from Rocky Ridge down 8 Mile Spur was looong but very pretty. A bit of sleet, a bit of rain, a bit of sun. My knees were complaining by the end (I had an ACL reconstruction 5 months ago so this was quite a test) but we got back to the car happily enough. And just as thunder roared and it started to hail too! Perfect timing.

All in all a great walk. A good reward for heading out despite the weather looking *&%$#!!

[icefest]

Sounds like an incredible walk, are there any forthcoming images?
How much wind was there and what tent did you sleep in?

[ErichFromm]

Thanks for the report Drew.

I was up on the Bluff on a perfect day and the wind still blew pretty hard - hate to imagine how it would be on a bad day. Glad you made it back safe.

And I second Icefest's requests for photos....

[Drew]

Okay, due to popular demand here a few photos. The wind was pretty bad on the summit but I imagine it could have been a whole lot worse. Probably if it had been still up there or sunny we would have spent longer trying to find the right route down. In those conditions you tend to just want to get the hell off the mountain!

We slept in my friend's Hilleberg Nallo. Great tent, except that one of the zips broke (the entry to the vestibule). The winds were pretty mild overnight though so it didn't cause any problems.

Attachments

The Howqua looking lovely in the rain.

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Ritchies Hut

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On the way up to The Bluff

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Me at the summit. Great view!

Bluff-4.jpg (76.77 KiB) Viewed 17113 times

The Bluff from near Refrigerator Gap. Looking at that I have no idea how we descended!

Bluff-5.jpg (256.44 KiB) Viewed 17113 times

[ErichFromm]

Great Photos. Shame you missed the view as pretty spectacular. I guess you have a reason to go back now...

I came up the other direction and even then i had a hard time following the path.

Shame about the zipper on the Hilleberg too - almost criminal for a tent that costs so much (I hear zippers are a common issue with those tents).

[icefest]

How tight was the strap on the floor, below the zipper?
I think Hilleberg do (relatively) cheap repairs.

[jimmyharris]

Just an update on road access to Refrigerator Gap for anyone who might come across this post. I was up there from Sunday 20/10 to Tuesday 22/10.

The road is now in very good condition from 8 Mile Gap through Refrigerator Gap up to the Bluff Car Park and should be no problem for any 2wd. I was in a Forester but would have fine without the (slight) extra clearance and AWD. It may get a little slippery in the wet but I didn't see anything to be too worried about.

There was a bulldozer parked at 8 Mile Gap on my return and it had very recently been doing work on the section of track between the Bluff Car Park and where the Bluff Track heads off Bluff Link Road and up to Bluff Hut. Even this would now be fine for 2wd drives in dry conditions with all trees cleared and nearly all potholes filled in.

On a side note, I had a great couple of days.

Climbed the Bluff, camped over the back and then walked over Howitt to Vallejo Gantner Hut for the night. Up early and back the way I'd come but I walked down Bluff Track and Bluff Link Road instead of back over the Bluff. Two long 25km+ days with half being on excellent walking tracks and the other half on terribly boring 4wd tracks.

I'd been thinking about spending an extra day heading over the Cross Cut Saw and up to Mount Speculation and back but the dismal weather forecast persuaded me to head home instead.