Climbing Ossa

Here we are! At the start of the climb up Tasmania’s highest peak, Mt Ossa!
Jeff called me out for my last post touching on this saying I didn’t make it sound like it was very hard. 😀
I’d like to correct that. It was no walk in the park. We are not super young and fit so for us it was quite an effort. The climb was steep and at times dangerous with having to get over large rocks and boulders with no discernible path.
However – to date I think its been my favourite climb!
(Get yourself a cuppa – this is a long winded post 😀 )

The first part of the climb is on well constructed paths, with real steps. It goes up a lot, but takes away the unsure footing of loose rocks and roots.

The views start getting great even at an early stage

Mt Pelion East

At this part of the hike, we are basically skirting Mt Doris, who sits beside Ossa. People who don’t want to climb Ossa can climb Doris or simply get to this point – that the rangers call the Japanese Garden.
Its so unexpectedly delightful

The scrubby bushes, pincushion plants, rocks and weathered wood really make up a beautiful area to walk through.

I really was lucky to be in this spot when the sun came out!

So – now we start going down to then start going up the REAL climb!! Clearly my ‘false summit’ is not the top since there are those nice big craggy peaks either side, but I mistakenly thought that was as far as you could go. (Learning curve coming up)
The tiny yellow dot circled in red is Yoshi – one of our fellow hikers from Japan who was madly fit and seemed to scamper up mountains! Perhaps his presence here gives you a little scale!

So… up we go! (So glad I have a camera. Marvellous excuse to stop and hyperventilate take photos)

See the mountain on the left in the distance? Thats Mt Oakleigh. We walked from that area that morning before we even thought about tackling this climb! (Right then I was feeling rather accomplished haha)

And onwards/upwards

We met Gloria on her way down. Can you believe she is afraid of heights!!?? She didn’t go all the way to the summit but to get where she got to was pretty amazing as even I got unexpected vertigo at times when I turned around and saw the drop!

Actually, it was in the spot in the photo above that I had to step further into the mountain as I turned and blanched as the effect was a sheer drop off right at my feet!

Steep as it may be – it was still so beautiful with the continual rockery gardens.

Where the fun starts…

We are still lucky to be getting views. At times the clouds would roll in and obscure things.

This section is totally ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’. There are posts that guide your general direction, but you have to select the way – not all rocks are fully stable either!!!

I was not a fan of this slab!! It was grippy enough underfoot but I found it slightly unnerving! Its not a short drop if you happen to tumble!

The closer you get, the huger and more impressive this mountain becomes

Thats Jurassic dolomite you are looking at there (and Jeff 😀 )

Now looking back the view is truly spectacular!

But we ain’t done yet!! We actually missed the little dogleg climbing up and across – happily some other hikers appeared out of there coming back so we were able to correct our (happily short lived) mistake.

Coming out on the other side I am not sure I was expressing happiness and enthusiasm when I saw how far we still had to go! Returning hikers were assuring us that the worst was over!!
Again – those tiny dot people are for scale and it didn’t look like a hop,skip and a jump to me!!!

Still… there was no way we were giving up after coming that far!

Its amazing how far you can get on your own two feet after a relatively short period of time! That saddle quickly moved into the background.

So close to the end!

The area at the top was a fabulous plateau of rocks, pincushion plants, mosses, grasses etc.
And it was flat. Bliss

One final little rock scramble and we were at the top!
Proud moment for the Millars!! 🙂

Mt Ossa – 1,617 metres (5,305 ft) above sea level. Tasmania’s highest peak.

We were pretty much the last of the Overland Hikers up here and it was a little chilly up top. No time to linger for excessive amounts of time – it was a long way down and we still had to collect our packs and hike a couple of kms or so into camp.

Still lucky with the views!

Going down is tricky. Its a slow process while you make sure you have stable rocks underfoot and your balance is sure.
It was quite a relief to get back to the ‘path’ (as narrow and steep as it was)

Disappearing down

Back on the beautiful tracks that skirt Doris!!

We are so pleased we did this. It was a challenge for us but a spectacular experience.
I must say were were pretty tired that night and my legs acted a bit wobbly on the final descent into the camp area!

Anyway, now I can actually go back and start working on Day One’s story and photos!! 😀 Hope you enjoyed!!
Cheers!