Tramontane

Date: 21 January 2023 - Summit: 1142

Photo credits: Ben Wells, Tracey Orr, Simon Kendrick, Jess McDonald, Becca Lunnon, Timothy Hoban

Day 8 of our trip begins now. Find the previous days adventures here.

This day belongs forever to one of my bushwalking idols - Miss Becca Lunnon AKA Rock Monkey Adventures. It was Becca’s 158th Abel and all of us present felt incredibly honoured to witness her touching the summit. Tramontane has a very undeserved reputation of being a hard task master. Sure, it is not an easy mountain to reach but nor does it deserve the unflattering terms usually associated with it.

Perhaps it was the awesome company, the great route picking by Becca, Tim and Bender or just the anticipation of seeing Becca reach such a milestone - whilst also drawing a line under our own successful Eldons trip - but we all thoroughly enjoyed our day out. After all, any day that finishes in a giant choccy freckle has to be a winner!

With the allocated time off fast approaching, Simon, Jess, Bender and I had gathered around Jess’s kitchen bench to discuss our long-anticipated Eldons trip. It quickly became apparent that, due to work constraints, we were one or two days short for the full ‘west-to-east’ traverse we’d originally been considering. I tossed out the idea of leaving off Eldon Peak and instead attempting Tramontane on our walk out… and seeing if Becca and Tim were keen to join us as it would be amazing to see Becca complete her last Abel.

Ben was tasked with the job of developing a realistic itinerary from our messy map, and contacting Becca to see if her and Tim were interested.

It just so happened that the starts aligned. Becca and Tim were keen-as to ‘tail end Charlie’ onto our trip. They however would only have three days available - due to existing holiday plans soon after - so would be setting themselves up for monster days. We all knew if anyone could reach Five Duck Tarn, climb Tramontane and walk back out to the car over the space of a mere three days, it was them!

From our end, we just needed to keep to our intended schedule for the seven days prior so we’d meet up. No mean feat, especially given the uncompromising nature of the area we’d be in and the weather it receives.

Through lots of early starts, hard walking and plenty of good luck with the weather gods, we managed to pull it off. It was so heart warming to see them both at Five Duck Tarn when we finally dragged our exhausted selves to camp rather late into the evening after summiting High Dome. Knowing we’d all made it and we would (hopefully) see Becca reach her milestone would make an already incredible trip super special.

Excited conversation over dinner was truncated though, as the bugs and then rain soon had us diving into our tents not long after our arrival. Best to get some sleep before yet another early start.

The morning sky looked clear and promising as we all set off around 6:30am. None of us had a GPS trace but thanks to a lot of research and some helpful trips and key coordinates from fellow walkers (thanks Lewi and Kathy) we had created what we hoped would be a reasonable “line” for us to follow - really just straight lines dropped over the map to keep us roughly on bearing. Everything in between though, we’d be taking on as it came.

After a few photos Ben repeated his oft-used phrase of “lead on”. With no other immediate takers I headed off out front, through the mostly waist height tea tree surrounding Five Duck Tarn in the general direction of what we had all dubbed the “mini-Moss Ridge”. In spots the tea tree was over my head height though, and Tim would give me a nudge left or right.

The pad down ‘Mini Moss Ridge’ was wet and slippery from the evening rain and seemed much steeper to descend than to climb, so I just slid down on my backside. My wet weather pants were ruined anyway!

Because of their limited available time, Becca and Tim would be leaving most of their gear on the cut track and on return would continue south to begin their walk out, whilst we would return back to Five Duck Tarn. With everyone now sporting light daypacks, we turned east, leaving the cover of the forest for the soggy button grass. Mud squelched under out feet and occasionally claimed a boot or two. Tim and Becca led initially into the foggy mist, which was surprisingly heavy despite the sun trying to penetrate through. It was a bit creepy watching everyone get swallowed up into the ‘white’, but it sure made for some pretty awesome photos.

The small button grass field ended, replaced by open rainforest which deposited us at the top of a quite steep descent through deep bauera. Fair to say, we all made mention that the steep climb back up through this bauera on the way back wasn’t likely to be anyone’s favourite part of the day.

Reaching the Murchison River at the base of the valley was a highlight. We spent a goodly amount of time drinking in the cleanest, coolest, best flowing and definitely most delicious water of the trip. The river itself was flowing healthily enough to fill our bladders and bottles but not cause issues for a crossing. Chatting away whilst we nibbled and drank, everyone remarked that -thus far - it had been very easy… so the hard stuff must be just around the corner?

Our biggest climb of the day began immediately after crossing the river, but my goodness was it easy! All of us were a little in shock that we were able to just wander and occasionally duck and weave through lovely open forest, following a north-east heading before turning east. Where was all the scrub everyone talks about? Tim was out front, like a magician somehow more or less following the exact contour that Becca had on her GPX behind him, but without him even looking at the GPS, just reading the terrain and finding a comfortable way up what is really quite a steep climb.

I very much suspect if it wasn’t for Tim’s excellent route finding (climb too high and hit cliffs, too low and hit gullies) we would indeed have suffered the misfortune of the rumoured scrub. Again, all of us couldn’t help but remark how lovely the climb through the forest was and straightforward the day’s adventures had been so far.

The universe is a great equaliser though. As we were marvelling at how perfect the day was going, a scream of pain pierced the air behind me - one of those screams that you know means something pretty serious has just happened. It was enough to immediately stop us in our tracks.

I turned to look behind me and saw Jess, laying awkwardly on the ground and struggling to sit up. Then I noticed her arm. I nearly passed out at the sight - her shoulder was dislocated after slipping on some wet timber. Seeing someone you care for in pain is horrible. Simon was immediately at her side. Bender called out for Becca (who is a paramedic) while unclipping the InReach on his shoulder strap. Bender sensed that our walk was over and a rescue was probably on the cards and wanted to have the InReach ready to go.

The only time I have ever seen a shoulder popped back in was in Lethal Weapon II where Mel Gibson’s character slams his purposely-dislocated shoulder into a wall. Probably not a very realistic portrayal, save all the screaming. I can’t remember if it was Simon or Becca who managed to get Jess’s shoulder back in - I could not watch - but after a tense minute or so Jess’ shoulder was re-located. I am in awe of them and her.

And get this… Jess then took a few pain killers and continued on. What?! Yep! That girl is a dead set legend. Okay, so apparently the shoulder in question has been prone to dislocation since she was younger and this is not the first time it has happened… but still. Bloody gutsy!

With Jess’s shoulder popped back in (seriously whoever says that in a blog!) and a few careful minutes of testing to make sure it and her were okay, we continued on. The lush green forest soon replaced by divine pandani forest. Giant pandanis, baby pandanis and every size in between. It was beautiful to walk through. Once again, where was the nasty stuff? It must still be ahead, we all thought.

The pandani gave way to low alpine heath and open walking. Bender came across a recently shed snake skin as we found our way across the minor plateau towards ridge we were aiming for. Even the brief pockets of scoparia were unable to dent our enthusiasm as we pushed through with minimal effort as they lasted seconds not minutes in duration.

Using the plateau meant we lost virtually no elevation and stayed within very easy forest. Within short time it would bring us to the thin connecting ride all the way to the base of Tramontane. Thankfully, Jess’s shoulder was holding up, the walking was easy and practically scrub free, and the excitement was building. We were getting close.

Out on the ridge, we made our way up through some brief rocky outcrops before entering yet another, stunning pandani forest. Bender led, following the top of the ridge that was getting very thin indeed as we pushed further east towards our peak. It was truly lovely walking.

We had already decided earlier - based on the advice of someone who’d done the opposite and regretted it - that we would contour north around Tramontane’s cliffs rather than trying to climb directly up them. The cliffs looked sort of like stacked columns, steep and potentially full of dead ends. Even the ‘Rock Monkey’ herself agreed. Bender jokingly asking her to repeat it for the camera. Plus, for Jess, climbing those sketchy things without the use of one arm would be far from ideal.

We reached the rocky cliffs and, of course, Bender had a quick climb up to take a look while the rest of us began the contouring. He soon yelled out it contouring was definitely the more sensible way to go! We stopped contouring a smidgen too early, and used a steep chute to gain access to the summit plateau. We decided on the return we would use an alternate gully, as it would be safer and easier.

Once on top, we rode the now very manageable rock and light scrub towards the summit. It was Becca’s turn to be out front. I was starting to feel so excited for her that I was getting emotional. A little hunting around for the actual peak, a few more steps and we saw the summit cairn come into sight. It may have been just a small cairn on top of a few boulders, but it was a monumental moment. We gathered around Becca while she touched the summit cairn - and then it was celebration time!

Cheers, tears and hugs all round. This magnificent woman had summited her 158th Abel and she had allowed us the honour of joining in and being part of it. The stars had aligned for this trip and what a very special way to climb the last Abel of our trip and Becca’s final Abel. Like the rock star he is, Tim pulled out a giant chocolate freckle from his pack that he had made himself and secretly carried the whole trip (without breaking too - how!?) to surprise her. Fittingly, she used a rock from Tramontane to cleave it into enough pieces for everyone (before replacing said rock) and we snacked like kings.

While It had taken us the best part of six hours to cover the not-inconsiderable distance from Five Duck Tarn, every single one of us was more than a little amazed by how easy the day had been - by the standards of the Eldons anyway. It would be even easier and quicker from Pandani Grove, had we been able to use it as a camp, if one was coming in just to visit Tramontane.

There is never enough time at the summit though, and alas we had to start the journey homewards. Choosing a different gully to drop off the summit area and the return journey mostly trending downhill made for faster progress across the ridge and back down to the Murchison. The steep climb back up the bauera wasn’t quite as bad as we’d feared, and before we knew it we were farewelling Becca and Tim at their packs. They would push onwards making up some ground before camping on Mediation Hill, while we would return to our tents at Five Duck Tarn.

The return trip to Five Duck Tarn was much quicker so we had lots of time to enjoy the sunset, fend off the march flies, have a giggle over dodgy shoulder rides and feel the glow of having achieved all our mountain objectives for the trip and having watched Becca touch that summit rock too. It had been a good day. A very good day indeed.