Day 2 began with a 5 hour climb up Moss Ridge to Béchervaise plateau. A unique track in that it is incredibly obstructed by the surrounding trees and pandanis, requiring the flexibility of a gymnast to weave through, including the strenuous motion of completely bending over and then arching your back up to allow those with tall packs to pass. We called this move the 'Cobra' after it's similarity to the yoga exercise.. Although slow going and steep at times, our group didn't require any pack hauling, with handholds available where needed, even the occasional plank!
We left our packs at the plateau and continued up the Southern Traverse to the Federation peak junction. This is a surprisingly steep track both up and down, especially with packs on as we did the following day. Slowly making our way along the dangerous path we had words of encouragement from 4 guys who had already made the summit that day. In short; DOWN a steep gully, UP a steep gully, directly up the southern side of Federation peak, take a left at a red rock, sidle around a corner, scale 2 incredibly exposed but not too difficult sections of rock, and then a final scramble to the top...
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The Vibram 5 fingers
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What an incredible feeling to finally reach the top! None of us were really expecting to reach the summit with the rainy start to the day and it was quite special to then leave a note in the holy pages of the summit logbook.
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Feder from the Southern Traverse
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