Mt Picton

We planned to climb Mt Ossa Christmas week, but thankfully found the reports of the access road closures. Instead, we decided on an overnight at Mt Picton. As a 40+ and a 50+ year old couple who are healthy but not ‘fit’, we found this one challenging but very rewarding.

The start point was easy enough to find by following previous notes. Having a Landcruiser we drove the last section of road – I wouldn’t have wanted to take a two-wheel drive up there.

The track was often muddy, with a number of trees/branches fallen over the track. With overnight packs at times it was a difficult decision whether to go over or under! From memory there were three water crossings; all managed with no wet feet (either a log bridge or rocks to step on). There were also two climbs that have a rope for assistance. I really enjoyed this section of the track; there were a number of birds and it was interesting forest. Pretty sure I spotted a Lyrebird. My partner did not enjoy it so much. He managed to fall in a mud hole resulting in a tree-branch stabbing him in the chest and a broken trekking pole.

After 4 hours we made it to the Lake Riveaux and Glassworm Tarn junction. At this point I think it’s fair to say we’d both had enough. Although we’d only walked 4.1km, we had climbed 500m and the track condition meant that high concentration was necessary the whole time. We kept going towards Steanes Tarn.

A further 2.3km, and 290m climb had us arrive at our camp site. This section of the track was less muddy, but had overgrowth making it a challenge with a large pack at times. We set up our tent on one of the large flat rocks at the base of the summit. We were lucky to have no wind and the place to ourselves. There is plenty of water available.

The next day we climbed the summit via the cairned track (1.6km). We had a clear day and magnificent views. One of the best we’ve seen. We stayed up there for half hour or so before making our own way back down the more direct and steep route up, but was easy enough to do.

We had some lunch before heading back down to the car.

I think I recall reading somewhere that this walk is about a 7.5 hr return. It took us more like 11 hrs (6 hrs up and 5 hrs down) – and this is excluding the summit!

Road condition and how to get there.