Marian Harradine
Sunday 10th June 01.
It was clear and sunny when we left Hobart at 10.30am after a 3 degree frost.
We were on our way to Strathgordon but on the spur of the moment, when we got to Scotts Peak Road, we decided to turn in there to check out Mt Eliza. We got to Condominion Creek, the start of the walk, at midday. Mt Anne, the top of Mt Eliza and surrounding mountains were under low misty cloud and it was 6 degrees.
We signed the book and started walking at about 12.10. We had not climbed for more than 20
minutes when we stopped to catch our breath and turning round saw an amazing view of Lake Pedder below with beautiful reflections of the mountains. A good photo stop. If we had gone no further it was worthwhile climbing to that point to see the views that day.
The steep climb soon warmed us up and we got to the part where the track goes downhill to climb again to another shoulder after about 35 - 40 minutes climb. After that the rest of the climbing though still steep did not seem as hard as it was not as constantly steep. We got to Mt Eliza hut at about 1.35 and decided to climb up the steep rocky ascent behind it for a half hour to see how it went, the weather beginning to close in somewhat. We stopped for lunch up on a rock in a sheltered spot for a few minutes and continued up. It got rather exposed and cold with a light drizzle and the cairns were not that easy to find in thick mist so we turned back after about half and hour with not much more than an estimated ten minutes of climbing to the top of the plateau.
We made our way down to the hut with little difficulty rather regretting that we did not go that bit further up to the top. But there is always another time, better safe than sorry. The return walk from there took a bit over an hour. We arrived back at the car park at 3.40.
A very pleasant way to spend a Sunday in winter.