Eldon Crag

Date: 17th January 2023 - Summit: 1321m

Photo credits: Ben Wells, Tracey Orr, Simon Kendrick, Jess McDonald

Day 4 of our trip begins now. Find the previous day’s adventures here.

Eldon Crag was to be the first Abel that we would summit this trip. We would visit it before returning to climb Eldon Bluff, even though we would pass practically right under Eldon Bluff on the way. It made sense to do the furthest away Abel first. In the words of Mark Twain - eat the bigger frog first and save the smaller (easier) frog for later.

We were only a few days into our trip but already feeling the physical and mental impact. The combination of climbing both Eldon Crag and Eldon Bluff along with the intense heat, short supply of water and fifteen long and scrubby hours would make this one of the toughest days on our trip. Welcome to The Eldons - where you well and truly earn every summit.

We knew that it would be a long and hot day before setting off. The Abels warns that reaching both summits from Lake Ewart makes for a very long (~15hrs+) day and generally recommends against it. However, I am not sure any of us knew exactly just how long and how hot a day it would turn out to be. Yet as we left camp bright and early, all of us were eager to finally climb an actual mountain. We were already three days in of tough walking but other than a couple of ridgeline high points, we really hadn’t got our sweeping mountain views yet. At least now we got to climb something!

Our original plan had been to camp up high on the Dome Hill Saddle near the northern foot of the Eldon Range plateau, to close in some of the distance to the peaks, shorten our days and generally make our lives easier while in the area. This plan was soon scrapped, due to the lateness of the hour that we finally reached Lake Ewart on Day 3, and the fact that we were worried there was no water up on the saddle. This meant we had extra distance to cover today. Turns out we made the right call regarding the shortage of water up there. In hindsight, we were also pretty glad we hadn’t lugged our heavy packs through the dense scrub from Lake Ewart to the saddle, as it was tough enough with just day packs!

These two mountains were the big kahunas of the trip. We needed (well, really wanted!) to accomplish both days goals, as coming all this way back again to summit just one or the other if we failed was not in the least bit enticing. Excited, apprehensive, eager and - on reflection - somewhat ignorant to the day’s battles, we set off around 6am, keen to beat some of the forecasted heat.

Our day began effortlessly enough by crossing a small button grass plain heading north west. It was easy walking at this stage, weaving around the mounds that wet our trousers with morning dew. Later, the fronds would be dry, smacking us with round pops of yellow pollen that resembled paintball stains. Sometimes the dry pollen would release as we brushed the fronds and go up our noses, or stick to the back of our throats.

At the edge of this first button grass field, we began the job of hunting through the narrow scrub band to locate a spot to cross the creek hidden within the tea tree and baurea. The creek was barely a trickle but its sides were deep and scrubby. After a few minutes of wandering we located a suitable spot and crossed over, breaking out onto another small button grass field.

This short-lived button grass field was the entrance to what can only be described as a hideous concoction of Tasmania’s alpine scrub. Worse still, this scrub was attached to a steep upwards climb. We took turns trying to find the path of least resistance upwards. A mixture of baurea, scoparia, tightly packed tea tree, dense stands of pandani and other nasties poking us in the eye, fighting our progress forward or tripping us up. Something always grabbing at you, scratching you, fighting you or clinging to you. Yesterday, we had thought the scrub down to Lake Ewart horrid - and it was - but today we were going uphill through similar stuff. The four of us kept line of sight of each other, as a few steps too far forward and you would be swallowed up and no longer visible to the person behind you!

With no line of sight above or below us and rarely more than a metre or so in front of us we were relying heavily on GPS to maintain our heading while reading the terrain. Heading towards the Dome Hill saddle up top, whilst trying not to drop into one of the numerous small gullies and water ways that seemed to surround the climb on every side. As one of us would tire from leading, pushing, shoving, grunting and navigating we would rotate another of us forward. All the time constantly looking for evidence of pads, cut tracks or signs that others had passed through this very place. Most of the time we were unsuccessful in finding any of those. It appears so few visit here each year that the voracious scrub quickly covers any evidence of human passage.

It is kinda nice thinking that great parts of this area are so untouched. If a Tasmanian Tiger still exists anywhere I like to think its within the scrubby and relatively unexplored land masses of the Eldon Range and beyond.

Nearing the top of this first climb we broke out finally into lower vegetation generously interspersed with patches of gravel. How lovely it was to not be fighting the overzealous scrub, for even just a short time. By now the morning was warming up considerably as we headed slightly north, using the low scrub to gain a little more height and visibility. The numerous small water pools and yabby holes below our feet were disappointingly bone dry. Thank goodness we had not tried getting our big packs up here the evening before. Dragging them up here through all the thick scrub only to find no water would have been a bitter pill to swallow.

The lovely gravel patches all too quickly gave way to lumpy coral fern as we changed bearing and headed south west directly towards Eldon Bluff. Our plan and the advice we had been given was to contour the northern side of Eldon Bluff as close as possible, until we reached a large rock fall to breach the rim of the saddle between Eldon Bluff and Eldon Crag. Looking ahead, it became apparent why. The lower reaches of Eldon Bluff were - you guessed it - very scrubby and very steep. None of us wanted to push sideways through that for hours and hours on end!

And so began the real grind of the day. Up we went, trying to get ourselves as close to the huge dolerite columns that surround Eldon Bluff’s northern faces as possible. Even close to the rocky walls, the going was slow. Incredibly hot and painfully slow going. I was glad that we had positioned ourselves to hit Eldon Bluff’s dolerite walls three quarters of the way along its length.

Sidling around Eldon Bluff was tough work. It involved constantly gaining and dropping elevation in just the right amount. Drop too low and you would hit dense scrub. Climb to high and you would have to retreat when you hit giant impassable columns of rock. Occasionally we’d see evidence of previous walkers by way of a lightly trodden pad. We would grasp those until they invariably ran out again.

It was during this contouring dance that we first smelt what Jess and I referred to as a “chlorine” smell, eventually figuring out which plant was omitting the (foul) odour. I found the smell quite off putting in the heat. Its overpowering stench adding to the “character building” of the day.

With the going slow - much slower than any of us had realistically anticipated - and the sun high over mostly clear skies we were all rapidly drinking through our water supplies. I was carrying three litres, as was Jess and Ben, Simon carrying even more. But three litres was not going to be enough at this rate. It is a horrible feeling to be conserving water so early on in a walk you know is going to be long. My skin was thick with a salty crust from the sweat, and no matter how much sunscreen I seemed to apply, I could feel my skin roasting. The rock scree that had been so evident from the saddle below seemed to be constantly evading us. Jess had messaged a friend along the walk for an encouraging pep talk, and her friend had responded simply with “be better”. This had given us all a chuckle, but the going was hard. Really hard. We were all digging deep and trying to be better, to do better.

At last after what seemed an eternity, we reached a steep, small gravel trail that led us upwards towards bigger rocks. We were so desperate to be out of the scrub that none of us even minded that the gravel was a tad slippery under our feet. The bigger rocks hid a few descent sized holes and drops along the route, and I made a mental note that we really needed to be off this section before darkness to avoid potential falls!

There were sighs of relief all round as we breached the small saddle between Eldon Bluff and an unnamed high point we would have to climb over to reach Eldon Crag. It finally felt like progress, but we dared not look across to our north as we still had a long way to go! At least the coolish breeze blowing across the open plateau was taking some of the edge off the sun’s heat. The relief greatly appreciated.

Our spirits lifted further as a semi-decent pad and two cairns lead up the climb ahead. Yay! They, of course, both ran out pretty quickly, but the way forward was easy enough to pick now we were on rock.

Over the small high point we went and then down the other side. Looking ahead we quickly picked the best rock chute to get us up and onto the Eldon Crag ridge. The boulders at the base were pretty big, but got smaller as we got higher, patches of scrub in the boulders assisting us upwards. Simon noted a cairn at the top of the chute for the drop off on our return - which was great as from up top all the chutes looked the same!

And then something totally unexpected happened. We stepped out of the chute and onto the most wondefully easy walking we would experience on the entire trip! It was splendidly open! Cushion plant, coral fern, rock and/or low vegetation shone like Dorothy’s Yellow Brick Road ahead! Oh my goodness did we all need that in that moment! Our rate of forward progress leapt beyond 1 kmh for the first time in hours.

I raced over to where I could see an area of pools and yabby holes, hoping against hope that they contained water. Relief does not even begin to describe the feeling I had when I realised a few did; we could tread on the outside of a yabby hole and it would fill with water. Muddy, yes. But water! We would stop here on our return from the summit to collect a few litres to replenish ourselves and our supplies.

We chatted away as we wandered the open ridge. None of us were moving fast as the effects of the heat started to take their toll. The very easy walking eventually gave way to a short lived section of rock to negotiate to the summit. I was wilting pretty quickly and I wasn’t sure if it was the heat, the exertion or the fact that I had tested positive for COVID the day before leaving for our adventure. My legs felt heavy, too heavy to lift. It was my turn for a pep talk from the others, and to take a few minutes to try to drop my heart rate below 200bpm!

Finally, seven long, hard-working and sweaty hours after leaving camp at Lake Ewart, we touched the high point on Eldon Crag. Our first summit of the trip and one that had tested us all in the conditions.

And as hard a slog as it had been, I can 100% say that it was worth it in that moment. Blue, mostly cloudless skies afforded us views in every direction. Lake Dorothy glistened below us and far in the distance we could see the entire length of the Eldon Range. Just wow. All was forgiven in that moment as we feasted our eyes and filled our tummies recharging for the next challenge ahead - Eldon Bluff.

Still, water availability was in the back of our minds like a little devil on our shoulders whispering in our ears - aren’t you thirsty? Wish you more water don’t you? What if we don’t find water? Water was consuming my every thought! We were seven hours in and needed to get all the way to Eldon Bluff from here and then all the way back to Lake Ewart and had only meagre water supplies left. It was now 1pm and the hottest part of the day lay ahead.

It would have been lovely to spend a few hours up there but alas we didn’t have the time to spare. It was going to be a 9pm or 10pm return to camp - if we were lucky!

Dragging ourselves away from the summit we headed back towards the small yabby holes we had located on the way up. Working together to tread on the surrounding grass to force the water up from deep underground, we painstakingly collected the water a cupful at a time and filtered it through my Buff into our bottles. My Buff will never be the same colour again but we managed to get almost three litres out! This water was a godsend. (Even more of a godsend was the water that Jess would find the energy to collect for us all when we hit the Dome Hill Saddle on our return hours later. She managed to locate and follow a small creek we had seen from up high and capture enough for an extra 500ml each. What an absolute bloody legend!)

With our water supplies somewhat renewed, we descended back down the rocky chute, back up and over the unnamed high point and back to the base of the giant boulders where we would begin our climb up Eldon Bluff. It was time for the day’s next big challenge to begin…

Find the rest of the days adventures here.