Hydrographer (hydro) hut June 2012 (a few photos)

[shazcol]

Not to many trip reports lately so I decided to post about a nice walk myself and two mates did over the first weekend of July. This remote hut was apparently used for weather surveys for some possible hydro impoundments in the past I am lead to believe. Others may have better information they can share?

Friday we were picked up from my work in the trusty Triton of my mate around knock off time in the drizzly rain for our drive to Cradle. The plan was to walk into Waterfall Valley hut Friday night, walk to the hut and explore the area on Saturday then walk out on the Sunday. About Cethana we had the wipers on flat out in torrential rain and we could see flashes of lightning in the clouds. Not looking to promising for a start!

We arrived at Dove Lake car park to steady rain and an easing of conditions as the front went through. We got ready and headed off to Waterfall taking about 4 hours. We had rain, snow and eerie moonlit glow conditions along the way that enabled walking without a headlamp at times. We arrived at about 11PM that night to an empty hut so we did not have to wake anybody luckily.

Day2 started out with steady snow falls till we got going and headed off to our chosen route off track across the button grass covered hills. I was treating this trip as a nav exercise so we were only using compass and map to find our way in the gloom. Crossing the outlet of Lake Agnew proved an interesting exercise due to the raging torrent flowing down the creek out of the lake (96mm fell in the 24hr). We eventually found a suitable place to scramble through the trees and across. It rained or snowed pretty much all day along the way but walking was reasonably pleasant. We stopped for lunch about half way next to a high point that gave excellent views of Lake McRea. We arrived high above the hut with limited views due to the low cloud and finally got down to the hut and sat down for a rest before exploring.

We went exploring before taking our wet gear off for the day and obtained a high point that had views over Commonwealth Creek and towards Razor Back Falls. It started to snow pretty hard and made taking a decent photo difficult. I also filled my phone with water rendering it useless for the rest of the trip (it dried out and survived). We also explored the falls going off the Southern escarpment from the unnamed tarn. It was very slippery and steep here and a fall would have been a long trip down to certain injury. The hut was comfortable but very basic (much better than a tent though!) and it was obvious it has received very few visits as there are only 3.5 pages of logbook entries since JAN 2004. A few games of Cribbage, tea and off to bed.

Day3 had us up early as a big days walking (about 21km) to get all the way back out and back to Launie at a reasonable time. The forecast for Sunday was bleak before we left but we woke to the the most magnificent calm and cloud free day. The snow covered peaks in all directions looked magnificent even before the sun rose. All the tarns had a thin covering of ice on them. We had a fantastic trip out to Waterfall Valley with magnificent views and easier walking apart from another difficult crossing of the Agnew outlet. As we reached Waterfall Valley the front could be seen building in the distance and within 30 minutes it was colder, cloudier and the odd bit of drizzle and snow on Barn Bluff.

We fueled up at Waterfall for the last push up the cirque and around the back of Cradle. A few overlanders at the hut with one group heading up Barn and another couple settling in for the night. We had a few showers around the cirque and then quite a bit of snow fell while behind Cradle towards Kitchen Hut. We arrived back at Dove lake to chain smoking tourists polluting the air and could not wait to get out of their! A quick stop at Sheffield for some tasty fish and chips and our trip was over.

The area around the hut is very pretty and you could base yourself here for a couple of days exploring around the area. Several routes have been followed to get to the hut. All require off track navigation skills. There is old mining history in the area and several waterfalls to explore. As the area could be considered sensitive I won't post many more details. Some research and planning should see you right for a nice weekend walk. It is advisable to keep groups quite small, three was enough.

First views of Oakleigh through the rain.

First-views-of-Oakleigh-through-rain---6300699.jpg (79.4 KiB) Viewed 15533 times

Below Razor Back Falls through the snow

Below-Razorback-through-the-snow---1175.jpg (172.81 KiB) Viewed 15533 times

Calm evening views

Gloomy-Evening---6300707.jpg (90.22 KiB) Viewed 15533 times

Cradle morning view

Cradle-Views---1200.jpg (81.88 KiB) Viewed 15533 times

First Light

First-Light---7010746.jpg (64.47 KiB) Viewed 15533 times

[shazcol]

Part of a broken spectra (see Dave Nobles site for info on these)

Broken-Spectra---1205.jpg (72.68 KiB) Viewed 15532 times

Across Lake McRea to Cradle

Cradle-and-McRea---7010779.jpg (123.36 KiB) Viewed 15532 times

Agnew and Barn

Agnew-and-Barn---7010797.jpg (191.95 KiB) Viewed 15532 times

Barn before the front

Barn-before-the-front---1223.jpg (114.66 KiB) Viewed 15532 times

Attachments

Pano from high point

[dee_legg]

Beautiful shots, thanks for sharing! It looks like a great trip.

The photo looking across McRae to Cradle, can you give a rough estimation on the height of the cliffs on the lake shore?

Cheers,

Dee

[stepbystep]

+1 stunning!!!!

Nice photos too

[shazcol]

The photo looking across McRae to Cradle, can you give a rough estimation on the height of the cliffs on the

The map shows about 40-50M height. They were quite vertical. Getting to the base of them would be interesting as they go straight down into the lake from memory. There are quite a few similar cliffs in the area that we saw.

[corvus]

Thanks shazcol it is back on my to do list again,ran out of time after taking a wrong lead 15 years ago now know which way to go thanks to a kind forum member.
Will be on my Summer itinerary so it will interesting to see what reaction I get at Waterfall Valley when I explain my destination.
corvus

[doogs]

I love that photo of Cradle, those cliffs look quite amazing.
*A Brocken Spectre is an exagerated shadow cast usually on to a cloud or mist, the circular rainbow often associated with these is called a glory. There is a fair bit os superstition with these and they are thought to be the probable explanation for a couple of "haunted" mountains in Scotland.

[Nuts]

yes, nice report, well done....

spooky spectre

[shazcol]

spooky spectre

It was a complete circle but I did not take my wide angle lens and all the point and shoot camera available could only capture one section of it. I found it quite an interesting phenomenon, only the second one I have ever seen.

[Nick S]

lovely photos shazcol!

[stepbystep]

spooky spectre

It was a complete circle but I did not take my wide angle lens and all the point and shoot camera available could only capture one section of it. I found it quite an interesting phenomenon, only the second one I have ever seen.

I'm a bit intrigued by this pic. Is it a broken spectre or a fogbow? The broken spectre I experienced on Paddy's Nut was quite different. It gave me the impression of the birth of a 3 dimensional rainbow with me at it's centre... The colours of the rainbow were very distinctive. I have experienced 2 fogbows before. Your pic looks almost like a mix between the 2.

[doogs]

spooky spectre

It was a complete circle but I did not take my wide angle lens and all the point and shoot camera available could only capture one section of it. I found it quite an interesting phenomenon, only the second one I have ever seen.

I'm a bit intrigued by this pic. Is it a broken spectre or a fogbow? The broken spectre I experienced on Paddy's Nut was quite different. It gave me the impression of the birth of a 3 dimensional rainbow with me at it's centre... The colours of the rainbow were very distinctive. I have experienced 2 fogbows before. Your pic looks almost like a mix between the 2.

The "Brocken Spectre" refers to the exagerated shadow of yourself which this photo doesn't appear to have. The ringed rainbow is a "glory".
If you google brocken spectre and fogbow you can see a clear difference. As a bit of a side interest google "the grey man of Ben Macdui".

[weetbix456]

yeaaa really cool pics. amazing! love the one across to cradle and the pano..looks like you're all having a spectacular winter!! much love for tazzz

[Phil]

Wow, some glorious pics! Thanks for sharing

[Overlandman]

Great Pics Shazcol, I have been over that area (airborne) on a number of occassions. Maybe one day, I will walk in to the hut, What type of digital camera are you using?
Regards Overlandman

[shazcol]

What type of digital camera are you using?

A more than 8 year old http://www.dpreview.com/news/2003/9/29/olympusc5060 on that trip. I left my DSLR at home (which was a mistake!). The C5060 takes a good photo though, it was a high end compact in it's day and I also use it for underwater as well in a housing.

[kanangra]

Is that that the hut shown on the Will sheet at 167:757? Is that its correct location?

K.