St Valentine's Peak

[biggbird]

Had the day off "sick" from uni, so decided we might as well head up St V's peak instead of sit around at home!

After taking one wrong dirt road near to the mine, we eventually found the carpark and got going around 12.

It was interesting to read the logbook when we got there; the last people, having gone through on the 29th of last month, didn't attempt the "creek" crossing. I don't really blame them, it was a bit of fun and games to get across!:



Luckily the second crossing was a little more civilised:



So after that, it was onwards and upwards through the bush, following the rather overgrown track until we got onto a patch of forestry road. Followed this for a km or so, before re-entering the forest:



After a decent climb up through some slippery, wet rainforest, we eventually made it out onto the ridge:



In typical tassie style, we couldn't see a thing from the top:



But after lunch on the helipad and a bit of a wander about the summit, we headed back down:







Nice that the clouds cleared off, at least a little!:



Eventually made it back to the car at around 5, so the 4.5 hour time suggested in the wiki is fairly spot on! Given our lack of fitness and experience, the interesting creek crossing and having lunch up the top for half an hour or so, I'm sure it would be possible to do it faster, but it was nice to take our time and enjoy the scenery. You really can break this walk up into 4 distinct stages it seems: 1. Initial forest (including creek crossings), 2. Road, 3. Rainforest, 4. Ridge/summit (quite exposed in places, but fairly simple, even for me, who is terrified of heights!)

One more abel down, and off to Mt Murchison tomorrow!

Edit: hopefully the photos might fit now...

Last edited by biggbird on Fri 04 May, 2012 9:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Eremophila]

Nice pics, bigbird.
We went up in January and had an awesome view from the top, Cradle Mtn and Barn Bluff in the distance.
The log was above water at the time - good for me, I like to tape my toes individually before a walk as I'm somewhat prone to blistering. So any time my feet get wet, means a major exercise to dry them off and re-tape *groan*

[biggbird]

Would have definitely been a pain if you'd had to go over yesterday then, no way of not getting wet! We could just see Mt Roland in the distance, but that was about as good as we got Just an excuse to do it again another day!

[eggs]

Good report and great photos
Thanks
I wonder how often that helipad would get used?

[biggbird]

My partner and I wondered the same thing. There was also a radio facility up on the peak which is apparently used by Forestry Tas/Fire Tas, so presumably it's used to get people up to the top to maintain/use that equipment. Hopefully that isn't too often, always better to avoid fires!

[mjdalessa]

The creek crossing made me laugh, I had the same deal in December. Couldn't see any bridge, just a skinny log under a foot of water.

[biggbird]

Haha, at least it made for an interesting start to the walk, and something to look forward to on the return . Also, the fact that you said you had it in December just goes to show that you can't predict much with the tassie weather, would have thought the middle of summer would be the best time to try and cross!