Mystery Photo: Can You Help?

[whynotwalk]

Where on Earth?

This old photo - taken somewhere in Tassie - is part of a collage on the office wall. We've debated for years where it was taken, and what the mountain in the background is (and the lake at the bottom). We'd love it if someone in the esteemed "Where Am I?" brains trust - or anyone else on the forum - could help us end the debate.

cheers

Peter

[eggs]

Don't know what you concluded - but they are definitely on Ossa looking towards Castle Crag / Falling Mt with Lake McFarlane below.
They would be on the edge near the small tarn at the top

Compare:

View to Falling Mountain/Castle Crag and Lake MacFarlane from the climbing gully on Mt Ossa

[tasadam]

Well done Eggs!

[whynotwalk]

Yes Brian - I reckon you're right. The only doubt we have is that they MIGHT be standing on sandstone. If so, is there some just near the Pool of Icarus (your suggested photo site)? Or would it be further down?

cheers
Peter

[eggs]

Looks like Dolerite to me
I don't have a close up photo of that edge - but check out the look of this rock just to his right which is next to the track:

Dolerite on top

If there is any sandstone there, it is way down the side - almost to the valley floor.
There is a nice little waterfall going over horizontal strata down there.

Horizontal bands way down the side with ringed waterfall

Last edited by eggs on Wed 15 Aug, 2012 1:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[whynotwalk]

Yep - well argued Brian, as ever

I guess the columnar nature of the dolerite, and some horizontal cracking, gets close to mimicking sandstone ... especially in a VERY old pic. Thanks for being our brainstrust on this one,

cheers

Peter

[whynotwalk]

But wait ... maybe there's more to be unravelled in this mystery. One nay-sayer around here suggests that the pic was taken considerably lower than the summit of Ossa, and lower than yours too, Brian. And in fairness it does appear to be well below the height of the Du Canes.

The same (geologically-trained) sleuth also still favours the sandstone theory. In looking for such a setting, he considered the saddle between Doris and Ossa, but thought the angle wrong. After a bit of consideration, and checking out a suspiciously wide contour on the side of Ossa, and above the lake, he concluded as follows:

The 3 people are standing on some sandstone outcrop on the mid slopes of Ossa above Lk Macfarlane – hardly on a common route these days, so I wonder what was going on then?

Opinions?

cheers

Peter

[eggs]

Clearly they are in a line over the top of MacFarlane - that places them at least in line with Icarus - see my first photo to see the change in angle when viewing from the ascent gully.

Likewise - my shot was from high up in the ascent gully - well above the horizontal banding further down - and checking the different positions of the tops at/near Falling Mt - the old photo is taken from a spot higher than I was. [Falling Mt appears well above the ridge high point - whereas in my shot they are almost in line]
Check this shot also - the relative gap is only slightly bigger here than the old photo - but mine is also taken from a higher spot than the edge of the plateau next to Icarus.
Also note that whereas most of the dolerite on Ossa tends to be vertical columns, this section is flat with a high percentage of blocks fallen on their sides and covered in soil.

Taken from just below the top of Ossa looking across top plateau - note the photo view gap of Falling Mt relative to the high point on the ridge. I suspect they were somewhere near the ringed area.

The old shot is a telephoto which compresses distance. For such a telephoto shot looking down on those tops, I am not sure how you can conclude anything about height relative to the Ducanes?
Maybe the fact that the shot is angled slightly down is creating an illusion of being taken from a lower spot?

Finally - Is the lower horizontal band sandstone or siltstone? It would probably be the same band that appears on the side of Pelion East at Toad Rock.
Does your friend have a geological map of the area?

Edit - just checked an online resource - and the lower cliff face [with waterfall] is sandstone.

[whynotwalk]

Hi Brian - isn't this fun!

I agree the angle is right for the old shot to have been taken from near Icarus. But my cropped photo from there shows it to be the wrong elevation. To be technical, the bumps line up differently.

Also the old photo shows no mountains behind the Du Canes, while mine shows them clearly in the background. That's surely a matter of elevation. Perhaps you may not have to descend far to lose the background, but it's not from the summit or its immediate vicinity.

I certainly agree the old one has considerable telephoto compression - and that does somewhat confuse matters. Where's a TARDIS when you need one

cheers

Peter

[whynotwalk]

And here are the pix side by side for comparison.

The answer is out there somewhere

Peter

[eggs]

Wow - great comparison
Except the aspect ratios between the photos is wrong.

If you shrink the LHS photo to get the same horizontal ratios for the peaks it is close to matching the outline on the RHS.
But Looking more closely - it has to be from a little bit further south and a bit lower down the slope.
They can't be too far south of the pool before MacFarlene no longer lines up properly.
Has anyone checked out what the eastern edge is like near the tarn?
Maybe they ambled down there to get a good view over the Lake?

As for mountains at the back - a lot of current photos as well as old photos can disappear the background depending on cloud/smoke/heat haze and how far away it is.
It is a common phenomenon in some of the rougher Where Am I offerings.
Old photos can do it in the prossessing - note the halos around the people. I can do that when adjusting light and shadow settings on digital photos.
I actually think I can detect a faint washed out background of mountains

[tasadam]

Just been through a heap of my photos, and my conclusions are:
I think it's Dolerite,
It's taken from behind the larger lake in eggs' first photo.
That lake features in the foreground of the old photo.
The walkers appear to have turned left before going up the chute towards Ossa
There is a lot of rock out that way, it could be any that they're standing on.
These 2 images were extracted from the basic JPG then downsized to 2000 wide so I can get them in much higher resolution if it helps.

[ILUVSWTAS]

A few of us have often thought the bump on the southern end of Ossa is quite impressive and might be fun to climb.. could they have ventured out there for a look??

[ILUVSWTAS]

Out here??

Attachments

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[eggs]

Castle Crag and Lake MacFarlene are basically in line.
On your map - draw a line through them and see where it intersects the Ossa skyline.
It won't be out at that tip.

[ILUVSWTAS]

No quite right.

I'd like to know if anyone has been out there though..?

[tasadam]

Don't know whether it helps or not, but I've just been tweaking the image in photoshop, see what detail I can extract from it.
This is about the best I can do for bringing out the detail.
I certainly cannot bring out any evidence of land mass behind the mountain.

[Nuts]

My first thought was lower, off the edge of the Doris scarp somewhere. This just based on the aspect.Classic old photo isn't it.

[Son of a Beach]

Possibly descending from Ossa to Pinestone Valley. It's not hard to do via a couple of different routes. Just a bit bouldery in some spots. I wouldn't even be surprised if that was a standard route before going via Doris became the popular and 'official' route.

[Nuts]

I only have mini view, that is McFarlane at their feet?

Have you been down into the valley SoB? I reckon they would have struggled with the Fagus the first time maybe but along the ridge looks obvious?

[*]That waterfall down there takes 1/2 hr to get within 20m and another hour for the last bit lol..

[Son of a Beach]

Have you been down into the valley SoB? I reckon they would have struggled with the Fagus the first time maybe but along the ridge looks obvious?

Yes, a few times. There's a bit of scrub towards the botton where Ossa proper hits the valley floor, but nothing serious (just watch out for the small cliff, which can be skirted around). There's also a bit of scrub within the valley itself, but nothing too daunting if the route is planned carefully to avoid the worst of it (ie, there are open areas a lot of the way, and staying away from the creek helps). One of the times I did it we had two fairly inexperienced and unfit girls, and they had no problems with it.

[Nuts]

Yes. Nothing too difficult, it is pretty thick at the lake edge but the lake is shallow, just that the ridge has likely always been open walking and an obvious lead, perhaps your right though I haven't seen any markers up the valley either.

[Nuts]

'inexperienced, unfit girls'

[Son of a Beach]

Oh, I think I see what you mean. We didn't go towards the lake. We just followed Pine Stone Valley back to the OT.

Hey, one of them was my wife, so knock it off!