Southern Ranges, SCT and SW Cape Circuit Video

[Guido]

Hi,

Jan - Feb 2024 I walked the Southern Ranges, South Coast Track and South West Cape Circuit.
Here is a video report of the trip. Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... jC4AYSr8RY

[bumpingbill]

Great video! Well done with PB. Weather looked awful but what can you expect.

Im surprised you missed PB low camp. Usually pretty easy to find, but you’re far from the first to miss it.

And I’m wondering which way you went up PB to hit a massive cliff! Don’t suppose you could PM me your GPX to see how your walk differed from mine?

Anyway well done! Diving into the rest of the series now. *&%$#! brilliant stuff. My favourite videos of all are PB/south west stuff.

[Guido]

Thank you! And well, I wasn't really looking for PB Low, so that may have something to do with me missing it. I remember seeing like a T-junction and I guessed left for the main track - right must have lead t PB Low. And about the cliff, I'm pretty sure it was on the main route. There were cairns. My guess is the weather - being absolutely horrible - just made a reasonably easy 3 metre climb a lot harder than it could have been.
Hope you enjoy the rest!
Guido

[phATty]

Brings back some great memories, Guido. The Southern Ranges are one of the most windy places I've ever been, it took two attempts to finally traverse it the full way. The first time our tents were ripped to shreds at Pigsty Ponds, the second time we got through but we had a bit of a restless night at Ooze Lake where my mate had to brace his tent with a walking pole.

It's worth knowing that there are sheltered spots in the scrub at Ooze and down at Reservoir Lakes below Pigsty Ponds. The only really bad spot if you use these is Wylly Plateau which I'm sure in bad weather could go absolutely nuts.

[philm]

Loved the video - well done on the trip. You had some good weather on the SW Cape.

[durks]

That's a lovely video: thanks for posting it. Your enthusiasm for the area shines through.

For me, your video is instant nostalgia: I did the Southern Ranges (but in the opposite direction to you) with my wife, in 2010. We also got hit by shocking weather - non-stop rain and wind - but I think that's not unusual. I have done lots of mountaineering in Europe - including some of the north faces you read about - but I found this trip the hardest thing and most committing thing I have ever done.

My wife died recently - and watching your video has brought memories flooding back to me.

By the way, I remember that cliff on the descent from PB High Camp to PB Low Camp - we came down it in the pouring rain. And I also remember the confusing maze of tracks around PB Low Camp - so I can understand why you didn't actually see that camp.

Thanks again.

[north-north-west]

And I also remember the confusing maze of tracks around PB Low Camp - so I can understand why you didn't actually see that camp.

I've done the circuit twice, once in each direction, and finding PB Low - and the route from it - is far easier when you're coming from PB. It's the hard left turn just before the campsite that tends to fool people (self included) when going the other way.

[Biggles]

Indeed it is a fascinating and interesting video of the trials and tribulations of this epic, often underestimated walk. Many people have got to that wall to wall scrub and turned back, exhausted from the pushing and shoving, destabilising and tearing of fabric and skin — yes, start with gloves and leave the gloves on!

The shelter you used seems not really suitable for the typically wild conditions encountered, as one can observe from your need to hang on to the poles and everything else in the gales!

It is a bit of a shame that Precipitous Bluff didn't greet you with a sunlit prow in the afternoon over the undeniably bleak and not very satisfying view of rain, wind, cold and cloud!

Great achievement, but maybe time to look at a sealed tent that is quick and easy to put up and won't shirk in vicious gales.