Mt Gould / Pine Valley Loop

[luke_vic]

Hi,

Has anyone walked from Narcissus to Mt Gould to Pine Valley? Was thinking of doing this walk in the coming weeks (with snow cover) and was wondering if anyone who has done this walk had any thoughts/suggestions.

Cheers
Luke

[MichaelfromQLD]

Haven't been, but from what I've heard there's a bit of scrub around the mt. Gould area. The height and extent of the scrub, and if we can expect it to be covered up in good snow conditions are things I'd be interested to know as well.
If it's likely to be frozen, I'd add a visit to Lake Marion to your plans.

[stu]

I have done Mt. Gould from Narcissus as a day trip, I can highly recommend this, tho it was Easter time when I did it so no snow to deal with & magic bluebird conditions There is a short band of scrub (as well as some scoparia along the plateau, especially if you lose the pad) at the northern end of the Gould Plateau (a magic spot to camp, tho pretty exposed) to go through before getting onto the Gould scree slopes - it is quite a steep ascent to the ridge line from here with much boulder hopping (you'd want to hope for enough snow to fill in the cavities!). The ridge is quite long & narrow & may have the potential to be dangerous in icy conditions, especially if you are thinking of lugging a full pack which would be a fairly serious undertaking. I have also done the Minotaur from the Pine Valley side; this would be the recommended route down to Pine Valley - dropping down off Gould into a small saddle between the two. There is a reasonable pad from The Minotaur down to the top of the Pine Valley track, near The Parthenon & a very good track back down to Pine Valley from here. Adding snow & shorter days to this sort of trip obviously makes it more demanding - it is much easier to lose track markers / pads when covered in snow. If serious I'd recommend dropping your packs on the Gould Plateau, summiting, returning to your packs & sidling around the eastern side of the mountain to get to The Minotaur. This area is pretty well written up in John Chapmans Cradle Mtn / Lake St. Clair guide - http://www.john.chapman.name/pub-cr.html.
Hope this helps a little? Have fun & be careful out there. Stu.

[ollster]

I'll throw in my 2c...

Me and a couple of other guys did a similar trip last October:

Day 1: Narcissus -> Pine Valley -> start of the Labirynth -> Minotaur -> halfway along the Guardians (we didn't quite get to the end as we ran out of time...)
Day 2: Up Mt Gould from a gulley on the NE tip of the mountain to directly ascend the summit, then down the Sth end of Gould to Gould's Plateau via the "normal" route
Day3: Out to Narcissus and home.

I would NOT recommend trying to do this in reverse, as the gulley on the NE tip is extremely steep, and would be dangerous when descending. When we did it the gulley was full of soggy snow, but we were going up and it wasn't toooooo bad... hands and feet climbing with not much to hold onto... When you go up the gulley, you reach a tiny saddle where you can look down the western side. It was at this point we weren't sure if we were in the right spot, but the saddle is only a few dozen meters below the summit as it turns out.

There are lots of big rocks up on Gould. It's a bit like Pelion West, in that it requires a scramble across the top.

Happy to provide more details (or pics if I can find somewhere to host them) if you want.

[flyfisher]

Hi Ollster, you could try hosting photos on photobucket.
From there it's easy to post into the forum .
Also as you upload to Photobucket, you can resize to suit forum rules.

Flyfisher

[luke_vic]

Thanks for the info guys.

Ollster - have you been on the low track on Mt Gould as opposed to the track over the summit? This is the track I was thinking of going on to get to pine valley. Is this easier going?

[Son of a Beach]

IHappy to provide more details (or pics if I can find somewhere to host them) if you want.

Note that you can upload your photos to the forums directly, if that suits you. Use the "upload attachment" tab below the text entry area when composing or editing a post.

[Azza]

Hey Olle!

I started reading your summary of the walk and realised it was you..
The route is well cairned, basically you turn off at the top of the climb into the labrinyth where there is a bit of a rest spot. Head over the rocky out cropping towards a good spot to take photos of Gould and you'll pickup some cairns.

Going reverse coming up from Narcissus hut to Pine Valley via Gould you can sidle round the lower eastern side of Gould into the narrow saddle at the northern end and its all pretty straightforward just follow your nose, and you'll eventually pickup some cairns along the way. There are a couple of cliffs on the Southern end of Gould to dodge around. As Ollester said we did the reverse and traversed over the top of Gould. Also the Gully running to the top at the northern end is a bit tricky with packs on, requires some exposed scrambling to get to the top. In reverse I'd probably want to be lowering packs with a rope.

Its worth keeping in mind that with the higher than average snowfalls this season your probably not going to make it to the top easily. The southern side where the marked route goes up has two fairly long and steep scree fields when covered in loose or icy snow are going to be very dangerous. They're well setup for an avalanche or someone going for a slide to the rocks at the bottom. (would have been awesome to ski down) Its going to be very slow going in snow conditions. It took us an entire afternoon to traverse along the top of Gould and down to the Plateau with packs on and we only just made it out of the scrub onto the plateau as the sun was setting. If I was heading up there at the moment I'd be taking my crampons and ice axe, I think there is going to be a bit of snow around until well into summer.

[MJD]

It's a nice walk in summer. I did this in February. The scrub on the East side of Gould was a bit annoying and I wondered if I shouldn't have just gone along the summit ridge. Climbed Gould (up & down) the NE gully. Good deep snow cover going around the side of Gould would probably make this quite enjoyable but a light smattering would be a real nuisance. Went out to the Guardians and then Lake Elysia. Very nice in the sunshine of February.

Here's a shot of the East side of Gould from the plateau and one looking past the Minotaur from under the North East end of Gould towards the Parthenon and the bigger mountains.

[ollster]

Ollster - have you been on the low track on Mt Gould as opposed to the track over the summit? This is the track I was thinking of going on to get to pine valley. Is this easier going?

No I didn't. I assume this route requires walking around the base of the mountain? It would be pretty annoying to have to do, as the approach is covered by rocks (obviously). I don't recall seeing any low cliffs on the east side though, so it shouldn't require any scrambling.

Dropping packs and going up and down Gould via the southern cairned route, and then going around Gould via the low route would be safer than triying to descend the gulley in snow. It will take a while though.

Below you can see the NW side of Gould. The gulley we went up is the corresponding gulley on the NE side to the one you can see in the pic. I don't think the one we went up was as steep, but it was full of snow.

[ollster]

Hey Olle!

I started reading your summary of the walk and realised it was you..

Clever boy! I thought it was fairly accurate, apart from leaving out all the drinking. heh.

I assume you don't mind me posting some pics from our walk? I can't remember who took what (although I can assume I didn't take the ones with me in them... OR DID I?)

Speaking of pics... here's some more:

[Azza]

What you can't see in the above picture is that the slope continues down the side of the mountain for another 50m or so, gets steeper and runs out to a pile of boulders at the bottom. Its on the lower part of the cairned ascent route up the southern side.
That photo was taken shortly before buncho turned around a went for a little slide, luckily for him he was close enough to the side that he didn't go anywhere.
If he'd been out in the middle he might have ended up as a red splat at the bottom.

The thing that struck me traversing across the top was that it looked far easier to descend down to side and meet up with the lower track. btw. there are a few cliffs along the eastern side. Not entirely sure exactly where the route goes, but it doesn't look difficult to find your way. At the time we're up there the snow was really soft, sinking up to our waists in parts and it was far easier walking on the boulders and following the ridge top. If your coming round the lower side and conditions were right you could probably dash up the to the top and back.

The photo with the picture of the gully on the northern side of Gould, you climb up the gully on the other side and when you get to the notch you can then scramble up the fairly steep looking part to the summit. You need to weave around a bit to avoid rock walls. its only really the first bit out of the notch that is tricky with packs on. We used a rope to haul packs, could have probably managed without, but didn't fancy going for a fall at that point or trying to descend the snow gully we climbed.

So if you traverse the lower route, you should be okay.. and can made a decision about whether to go to the top or not. It took us a lot longer than expected due to the snow.
I have a video of us on the summit and the call was 3hrs to get to the Plateau... it ended up being more like 5 or 6 in the end.

[luke_vic]

Thanks for all the adice guys - I ended up going to have a look around Mt Gould on the weekend. We decided there was too much snow to try and climb Gould (without proper gear) however the plateau turned out to provide great views in itself (see pic below). I will try and put some more photos on the gallery also. Thanks again!