Mount Hugel

[mjdalessa]

Went on a HWC trip to Little Hugel today, lunching at the tarn just past the mountain; from there I set out to see how far I could get on my own. I had 3.5hrs to get from just past Little Hugel to the carpark. Decided to continue with my original plan and go for Hugel. There is a good pad right out to the tarn before you attain the plateau proper from Little Hugel. It can be located by keeping your eye out on the left for a pad at the foot of a gully/ bowl just before the summit. This makes what scrub there is trivial and soon becomes delightful alpine walking. There are great campsites everywhere on the manicured wallaby lawns, a great high camp. The plateau was easily attain by keeping to the rock. Once up, I was confronted by several fairly shallow but scrubby gullies. These were avoided by keeping to the right hand side. The plateau was great walking, with only the occaisional scrub band; I was pretty surprised to discover all the pools were dry though. The final bit appears to be an absolute confusion of boulders, but was easily bypassed by a gully on the left.

From the tarn, I was on top in 40mins, beginning to eye off the confusion of large boulders leading to the Rufus saddle. These were quite awkward with some nice deep crevices in abundant in certain sections. The ridge gets very narrow in one point with some interesting scrambling. The views down into the Franklin River valley and Lake Hermoine were sensational. It took 40mins from the summit to saddle, a welcome tarn awaiting at the bottom. Another 30mins or so saw me on the summit of Rufus, somewhere I definately wasn't expecting to be considering the time constraints. I meet a couple on top, but other than that saw barely anyone. The descent of Rufus was just annoying after the Hugel crossing, too many small rocks on half of it. The heat was really getting to me by that stage too, to make the circuit I was having to move pretty fast. I was back from the summit within 1:50, with little time to spare, very pleased with my day. Hugel is a great summit, I'd recommend it to anyone, except for maybe the confusion of boulders on the back side.

Looking Back, just past Little Hugel

Lunch Spot

Attained the plateau; Little Hugel behind

Looks climb-able

Spiny friend before Hugel

[mjdalessa]

On top

Descent Route

Lake Hermione

Sink Hole, Franklin River valley

Hugel Ridgeline