The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

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The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby stu » Tue 26 Aug, 2008 2:53 pm

Hi,
just wondering if anyone has done or has any info on getting from The Guardians to Lake Marion (via Horizontal Hill); ie. straight down the southern side of The Guardians, I've heard it is very steep & loose? A walk has been planned over the Show Day long weekend (extended to 5-6 days) - from Du Cane Gap, up Falling Mtn, along the Du Cane range, through the Labyrinth & back to Narcissus via The Guardians & Horizontal Hill. Should be a good trip, just wondering if anyone has done this last section, or any seperate info on Horizontal Hill - we are very familiar with cliffs & scrub :D Cheers all.
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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby MJD » Tue 26 Aug, 2008 11:31 pm

I did couple of walks in this area last summer. My original intention was to go up Horizontal Hill and cross over to the Guardians and back out around Gould. I camped near the top of Horizontal Hill - it had been raining and there was water in some rock pools. The next day I scrub bashed my way over to the foot of the cliffs and spent the morning trying to find a way up without any luck. I got quite high but kept going West - you may find my sunhat at the foot of one of the gullies - and eventually gave up. A couple of weeks later I went up round Gould and out onto the Guardians and camped at the lake/tarn near the summit. Brilliant spot. Looking down the cliffs towards Horizontal Hill it seems that straight down towards the ridge leading out to Horizontal Hill would have been the best route. However as the picture shows you can't see all the way down... but the picture from Horizontal Hill looks promising. Have fun.

Another 2 day walk that you may enjoy, especially if you like rock hopping, is the skyline of Olympus. From Narcissus go up to the Byron Gap and then head up to Lamont's Lookout (Northern end of Olympus) using the pads if you can find them. Follow the ridgeline and camp near the summit. From here follow the ridge line to the Southern Summit and then drop over the South Eastern corner and pick your way down through the cliffs/boulders - this is actually quite entertaining and a lot safer than it originally looks. Cross the saddle to Othyris and then back out via the Cuvier Valley.
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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby flyfisher » Wed 27 Aug, 2008 6:35 am

Thats a couple of great pics MJD. Thanks. :D

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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby stu » Wed 27 Aug, 2008 7:52 am

Thanks MJD, definitely looks promising aiming down to the spur, I'm sure with time, good weather & a bit of luck we'll find a route down. Can't wait! I have done Olympus (North & South summits) as a weekend walk, camping at Lake Oenone (awesome spot) & also Othrys as a day walk (along the Cuvier Valley track, up & over & down to the Overland Track back to Cynthia Bay) - both very enjoyable walks.

My favourite in the area tho is the Cuvier - Manfred circuit: from Narcissus up to Byron Gap, most of the way up Byron (summit is one of my faves) sidle & drop down & head towards Cuvier along the long scrubby spur, summit Cuvier, drop down & camp in the saddle between Cuvier & Manfred (a little water from some small tarns), summit Manfred (a truly awesome peak), drop down to Manfred plateau (not at all scrubby on the plateau, a bit of route finding to get down to it) before dropping down to the buttongrass plains (similar descent as from Lake Oenone down to the Overland Track, ie. sandstone belts, open forest) & connecting with the Marion track back to Narcissus - pretty long 2 days (especially catching the ferry each way which shortens the days).

I'll let you know how the other mission goes, very much looking forward to getting away from work for a while. Thanks again for your beta. :D
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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby McPanda » Wed 27 Aug, 2008 9:24 am

Apparently there is a cairn at the top of the descent Stu so I'm sure we won't have any problems
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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby stu » Wed 27 Aug, 2008 10:04 am

Thanks McPanda, I'm sure we will be ok, just interested to hear others thoughts + I was bored at work & wanting something to stimulate the senses :wink: Also nice to see some pics from MJD of the descent, looks better than I expected.
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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby MJD » Wed 27 Aug, 2008 9:39 pm

Can't say that I saw a cairn but sometimes they can be surprisingly invisible when you're not looking for them never mind when you are. Then again, there almost seems to be one in the bottom left of the shot looking down the gully. I'll be interested to know if this is the way down.

I like Stu's description of the Byron - Cuvier - Manfred circuit. I've been thinking about this one. Been up Manfred many years ago and Byron more recently but never Cuvier. Perhaps this summer.
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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby stu » Thu 30 Oct, 2008 7:32 am

I think we found the descent route from The Guardians you described MJD (see my trip report under Falling Mtn. & Mt. Emmet advice).
By the time we got there the weather was slowly packing it in, the descent looked a little sketchy with residual snow & ice still on it, & Horizontal Hill, or more specifically, camp at Lake Marion looked a fair way away & we were pretty exhausted by then. We ended up back tracking from The Guardians down to Pine Valley. Will look at doing Horizontal Hill as a seperate trip staying at Lake Marion - would be a nice 2-3 dayer in it's own right. So, sorry no sun hat to hand back :( The tarn on The Guardians is a great camp spot (see photo), maybe I'll go back there some summers day. Grand stand views. I do love this end of The Reserve. Cheers.
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Looking north from The Guardians plateau.
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Re: The Guardians & Horizontal Hill

Postby MJD » Fri 31 Oct, 2008 8:12 am

I was wondering how this trip went. Thanks.
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