Conquest of Mt Clear
Posted Wednesday 27th October 2021
Contents
- Walking In
- Retreat
- Another Try — No Thanks
- Third Time Lucky — Walking In
- Mt McDonald and The Nobs
- High Cone, Square Top and Mt Clear
- A Good Ending
Our first attempt was in early December 2010. The 60 km road in to the walk start headed through Sheepyard Flat on the Howqua River, then up a rather airy section of narrow winding road with a number of hairpin bends and no safety barriers, to Eight Mile Gap from where the Jamieson Valley track descended to the river of the same name.
In this area it was obvious that there was work going on — which turned out to be construction of proper bridges over rivers and creeks in the Jamieson Valley. At the first major crossing of the Jamieson, the half completed bridge was not trafficable, although quite negotiable by walkers, a happenstance that had interesting repercussions a couple of days later — in fact it saved us from possibly being stranded in the wild for days.
Walking In
We parked the car on the flats nearby, gathered our backpacks, and set off on the first part of the walk — around 3km of riverside track that made for pleasant walking even though it was slightly uphill. In time we came to the remains of a bridge over what was now Clear Ck (a pair of logs were all that remained in place) which was bypassed by a shallow ford. Apart from getting wet feet this presented no hardship.
Ben wades Clear Ck on the way up to Mt Clear.
From this point on though the track, by now bordering on impassable for all but the most robust of off road vehicles, started a long ascent that took us 500 metres vertically in the next 4 km. Although not unduly steep it was relentless and involved several hairpin bends, which of course were of little concern to us at the speed we were walking. Toward the top of this ascent, we came across a section of bushfire regrowth — the bane of walkers who find its closely packed mid-height form very demanding to get through. At the same time, we had a bit of light rain pass over, which we paid scant attention to. Once we gained height, we found ourselves on a ridge of sorts with more benign walking in most places.
Once up on the ridge the route became both easier and more attractive.
The forest had thinned out to scattered alpine species (notably snow gums) and the now more open grassland was liberally decorated with summer wild flowers. In time we arrived at our planned camp site — a saddle below Mt Clear — and set up our tents. Five hundred metres away we knew that there was water, in fact the headwaters of Clear Ck which we had waded earlier in the day, so we duly stocked up, after which Ben cooked up dinner.
Campsite on the ridge among the wild flowers.
By now it was around 17·00, but after a long hard day an early dinner was very welcome. Ben commented that looming clouds were looking a bit threatening and maybe we should pack everything away just in case, which was reinforced by a rapid deterioration in conditions as we ate. Good perception. It did start raining soon after and in fact teemed down for the next 30 hours or so. Savage winds and periodic thunder storms were just part of the deal.
Despite being on a ridge we still had a couple of centimetres of water flowing past (and under) the tents for much of the time. There was no hope of cooking any meals and in fact even ‘nature breaks’ had to be somewhat opportunistic at momentary pauses when things calmed down a bit. All the next day we were isolated in our individual tents, although when the wind abated, we could shout across to each other in a fairly rudimentary way of communicating.
Weather records for Mt Buller indicated they had had 145mm of rain with winds of up to 107 km/h — a fair indication of what we also had. During the second night it slowly eased off until morning when it was no longer raining but everything was absolutely drenched.
Retreat
Mt Clear was enveloped in cloud at daybreak on the second morning out camping, so in the rather depressing circumstances we decided to call it off and head for home. Easier said than done.
We were all packed up ready to go at 06·35. Initially the going was reasonably easy (apart from the wetness of everything) but as we got onto the now descending road, we had flowing water loose rocks and slippery mud to contend with — messy but almost manageable. Max succeeded in upending himself near the bottom, with little damage apart from becoming quite a bit muddier.
Awash under foot and 100% humidity above — walking out along the ridge.
In time we arrived back at Clear Ck — no longer a creek but a raging torrent that was completely unwadable. What to do? The first thing was to try the residual logs where the bridge used to be, but they had been swept away and were nowhere to be seen. We decided to explore upstream and as luck would have it found a large old tree, partially rotten on its outer layers, lying over the torrent.
Ben and the packs have already crossed the accidental log bridge. Max follows last in line.
Ben went first on an exploratory crossing and finding it reasonably secure then took both back packs across in turn (Ben and a back pack weighed less than me on my own) then I followed. From the far side we had around 100 m of the worst scrub I have ever had to deal with – everything dripping wet, hidden rocks, holes and fallen timber underfoot and generally extremely unfriendly. Ben also picked up a bunch of leeches, or rather they found him in this watery wilderness. The whole event from arrival at the torrent until we set forth toward the car, after a bit of a reviving rest, took well over an hour.
The now quite impassable ford with a sign that probably once belonged to the now completely missing bridge.
The three km to the new bridge and car took only 40 minutes, but we were not done yet. We turned the corner toward the bridge and discovered it now stood completely isolated in the middle of the raging river with both headwalls washed away. Just across the other side was the car (lucky not have been collateral damage from the flood) but inaccessible.
We were not going to be defeated at this last hurdle. After a bit of scouting around we found a suitable sapling which we managed to wrestle out of the ground and use as a very frail looking bridge. Once again Ben took the packs, in this case to avoid the very real possibility that our sapling would break. Fortunately, guard rails on the bridge projected out far enough to provide convenient hand rails, so we both crossed onto the bridge, pulled the sapling after us and repositioned it on the far side and finally, nearly five hours after departing our camp, were able to reach the car.
The spindly sapling that saved us from remaining isolated on the wrong side of the Jamieson River.
It didn’t take long to load up the car and depart. Not far out we met a Park Ranger coming in to check if there were any people stranded in the area — he presumably would have been our savior if we hadn’t got ourselves out. After a very welcome and much overdue meal at Mansfield we headed for home.
Another Try — No Thanks
In February 2012, a bit over a year later we decided to have another go. However, the day before we were planning to go the weather forecast looked very much as it did for the first (unsuccessful) attempt to Mt Clear, so we decided we were not slow learners and would put it off until a later date. And it did in fact rain heavily with quite a bit of flooding in the North East of the state on the days planned for the walk.
Third Time Lucky — Walking In
Having tried twice, in a manner of speaking, to get to Mt Clear we decided that we should try again but on a rather more interesting route that embraced a lot more of the main Divide that we had not trodden before. In all, we added around 16 km of the divide to our itinerary, embracing the peaks of Mt McDonald, The Nobs, High Cone, Square Top and of course the elusive Mt Clear. Early December 2012 had the right sort of forecast so off we went on our third attempt
This time we crossed the now completed bridge and parked a bit further up the Clear Ck Track, being well aware that a 4WD had fallen into a hidden hollow further up under the same road not long before. This time we took the precaution of carrying quite a bit of water, since the Divide was notably short of reliable water.
The first two km were a pleasant stroll beside Clear Ck, but then we turned up The Nobs Track which was something else – 2 km at an average grade of 1 in 4 with some bits of 1 in 3 all on a gravely surface that was not conducive to adhesion.
Ben starts into the climb up Nobs Track.
Drainage humps on the way up were the only places where it was practical to stop for a rest. The only saving grace of such steepness is that it gains elevation relatively quickly, always assuming you can actually travel on such ascents quickly.
Well up, the track swings around and soon after the grade eases.
Having staggered up to the summit of the really steep bit 90 minutes later we kept going for a further km to the junction with the Australian Alps Walking Track (AWT) — the long distance route from Walhalla to the southern outskirts of Canberra. We had lunch there and were surprised when an ancient 4WD Toyota in low 1st gear came grinding up the road behind us — we thought the road was unnavigable. Alex, the driver, was something of an eccentric but he had 50 litres of good Jamieson River water aboard — something we would be extremely grateful for next day.
Having lunched and chatted to Alex, Ben reckoned we had time to do some exploration of the north Nobs, a spiky little peak that soared above our lunch spot – approximately 150 metres ascent in a horizontal 1200 metres – not as bad as the road but not quite flat either.
Max on the upper slopes of north Nobs peak.
Having done that and deciding that we might risk a camp site next afternoon on the other side of north Nobs, we went the other way down the ‘disused’ road to a camp site at the low point of the whole ridgetop walk (other than the Jamieson Valley). Water was supposed to be available at a couple of creeks (soaks) a quite a long way down the road but when we got there it was all dry apart from slightly turbid water lying in odd puddles on the road. In the circumstances we carefully drew water from the puddles and reserved our clean water for drinking (the puddle water was for cooking).
Despite the lushness we couldn’t find any water as we descended the road.
Mt McDonald and The Nobs
Next morning, we were off at 06·45 on a day walk (no packs) to Mt McDonald, approximately 3·5 km away and the western outlier of this particular piece of the Divide. It was harder than we anticipated and was not helped by continually losing the track, although the principle of when all else fails keep to the ridge line worked quite well for us.
As we gained elevation the view broadened out to encompass all the surrounding mountains.
We met the second of a number of serpents on the way, but without any aggression either way.
One of several serpents we met up with along the way.
Mt McDonald, at 1620 metres actually has twin summits approximately 100 metres apart and had enormous views in all directions, being clear of trees at that elevation.
The summit of Mt McDonald.
The return downhill was much faster and we were back in camp around 10·50. A bit of a rest, an early lunch, then packing so we could set off, fully burdened, hoping to find Alex and his bountiful water supply – which we did. He not only gave us a good supply of water but brewed up tea for us, after which we set off over The Nobs with an over load of around 6 kg of water additional to our normal load. At the summit, an area about the size of a small kitchen, we took off on a side trip to south Nobs – roughly 500 metres away beyond a gentle saddle.
Ben on the strangely formed south Nob summit.
The descent from the north Nobs was very steep and quite unstable – the first of several quite scary descents we had to make. Camp this night was in a lovely field of white and yellow wild flowers – the most prolific season I have seen up in that area for 20 years.
Camping in a field of flowers — probably the best of all the camp sites.
While we were there and with not a breath of wind, a fire killed snow gum of venerable size just folded up and crashed to the ground – a hazard we have met before. Part of the consequent problem is that there is a lot of fallen timber over the rather faint walking track which tends to result in quite a lot of ‘invent your own’ route finding. Coupled with this was the absence of track markers — presumably they were attached to trees that no longer stood?
High Cone, Square Top and Mt Clear
Wednesday morning saw us off again at 06·40 with the first objective being High Cone – another steep conical peak, although this one had an additional hazard — a small cliff that we had to scramble through. For some unfathomable reason some clown way back drove a 4WD up to the summit and the wheel marks (now deep rutted trenches) and still very visible. We can only hope that he overshot the tiny summit and disappeared forever over the far side.
Ben surges up High Cone not far from its summit.
Descent was the usual fraught adventure followed by an even longer ascent to Square Top – as the name suggests it is a long flat mountain with steep cliffy ramparts all round. Square Top was clad with almost 100% of its trees fire killed (snow gums are not as resistant to fire as many lowland eucalypts) – a depressing prospect for the next decade or two until new growth gets established.
Contemplating the cliffy approach to Square Top.
It also meant that the faint track was no longer able to be followed – we kept finding bits of it but then it disappeared again under fallen timber. Instead, we simply found our way to the west side cliff-line and followed that until we arrived at the track descending to the north.
Descent from here was a bit clearer and easier but then we had another hard ascent to Mt Clear, which at 1695 metres was the high point of the whole walk.
Contemplating the bulk of Mt Clear.
Mt Clear is a big domed mountain with a somewhat monastic presence – the summit is bald but is surrounded on the rim by a thick grove of unburnt snow gums.
Lunch was had on the shoulder of the mountain in a shady bunch of trees before an awful descent from the northern end on a steep gritty slope at an average 1 in 2·5. Whilst we managed to descend without falling it was a close thing and very draining of, by now, fairly depleted energy reserves.
About to descend off Mt Clear.
From the bottom we walked the kilometre or so to the same camp site where we were washed out two years previously and were delighted to find that the water in Clear Ck was running, although just as a trickle. Each of the first three days involved over 600 metres of vertical ascent, so in aggregate we were not far off 2000 metres of up and, of course, in the end the same amount of down otherwise we would have had trouble getting back to the car.
Back in camp at the same place where we got washed out two years earlier.
A Good Ending
We had intended to do a day trip to the King Billies but a degree of exhaustion coupled with a relatively uninspiring track section brought about a change of mind.
Very pleasant early morning walking along the ridge tops.
Next morning, we walked out but with its own adventure. Part way down I tripped on something and was upended on the track, repeating what happened on the same track two years before. In this case I didn’t get any obvious damage but my glasses instantly disintegrated into many bits, which made navigation for me considerably more difficult from then on.
The track ahead is not all that clear — fire regrowth.
We happily waded Clear Ck running at its normal rather laconic pace, then covered the remaining two km back to the car and the journey back to Melbourne. Having left Ben there I headed back north, with somewhat degraded vision, to Seymour, then next day Canberra and finally home to Lake Macquarie. Driving was made much easier by the fact that the Hume is (or was then) all 110 km/h while the only unknown in regard to speed was Pennant Hills Road where the legal speed was way above whatever speed traffic on that road could ever achieve.
Ben wades Clear Ck with hardly enough water to cover his ankles.
All up we covered around 49 km and ascended around 2000 metres over the four days out. We still have around 7 km to cover between the foot of Mt Clear and King Billy 2 to join the dots up between Mt McDonald and The Viking, a ridge top distance of around 48 km. We will probably do this from the northern end, if and when.
