Bushwalk Australia

OK I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for this . I recently enquired with the Nomenclature Board in Hobart about how this peak was named. They were good enough to provide me with an informative reply; the substance of it follows:

Wetpants Peak is in the Municipality of Derwent Valley:
Assigned at Nomenclature Board Meeting Number 215, Nov 1975.

Name was originally applied by a Forestry Party including Mr Tom Stephens
Almost certainly to record a very cold and speedy swim by Ken Escott, in the mid 1950's {Ken Escott, xxx – details in correspondence}.

Earlier shown on Hobart Walking Clubs Field West -- Cox Bight sketch as "Snowy 3".

Wayne Smith was probably unaware of this "recent" correspondence when he compiled his latest "Ripper Tassie Place Names", which has promoted a bit of interest in some of the quirkier place names.

Thanks for that.

Was there any more detail about Ken Escott's swim.

MJD wrote:Was there any more detail about Ken Escott's swim.

No, that was all the detail given about his swim. Accidental dip in a creek, tarn etc maybe? I'm only guessing. Would also be interesting to know what Wayne Smith's latest book says. From my research it was only published in 2008 and I haven't seen it.

Perhaps I could write them to rename Little Fisher river for me after my quick lap in it last year

taswaterfalls.com wrote:Perhaps I could write them to rename Little Fisher river for me after my quick lap in it last year

Worth a try (read your entertaining post about that). Coincidentally, a book I've just finished reading mentions that the original formation of the Nomenclature Board included a bushwalker representative. Don't know if that's still the case, but maybe that's where some of the more interesting names came from?

taswaterfalls.com wrote:Perhaps I could write them to rename Little Fisher river for me after my quick lap in it last year

Can we have it renamed sh!tpants river after my reaction once I realised you were almost about to be washed into the lake, and the look of shock on your face?

On wetpants peak - after the pictures of Federation in this topic, I think they should swap names. I wet my pants just looking at the photos!

L8r.

If anyone still follows this thread, I heard the story today at Ken's funeral, I'm his granddaughter. He was working with Forestry in the 50s. His boss's hat blew off into a lake, and as Ken was the youngest in the group he had to strip off to swim after the hat. He decided to keep on his underwear to remain decent! The next peak they came across was unnamed, so his boss named it Wetpants in Ken's honour.

Fabulous to be able to have that story posted here! Thanks so much Jenny. And sorry for your loss - I hope it was a positive and memorable family event.

Ahhh, thank you, Jenny. Wonder if it was one of the tarns at Snowdrift . . . nothing else along the range between there and Snowy North, nothing I can recall below. Interesting that FT staff would be exploring the ridgetop. Not much timber up there.

I believe the tarn directly below to last climb up Nevada is named Lost Hat Tarn

north-north-west wrote: Wonder if it was one of the tarns at Snowdrift . . . nothing else along the range between there and Snowy North, nothing I can recall below..

Perhaps the event occurred at Woolleys Tarn? From memory you can look up and see Wetpants Peak from there.

From Google maps. It appears as though it may be the closest tarn to the summit of Nevada

The name seems to be over the small boggy bit directly under Nevada's summit, not that GoogleMaps are renowned for their accuracy. You'd think it would be the little one next to the moraine.


That boggy bit does have pools, but they don''t seem deep enough to require a swim.


And I just had a horrid thought. What sort of a name would Wetpants have had if the young chap had stripped completely? The mind boggles.

north-north-west wrote:That boggy bit does have pools, but they don''t seem deep enough to require a swim

Maybe not deep enough for a swim, but definitely deep enough to wet your undies

Re naming of Wetpant Peak, I’m Ken’s son. When I was a young boy dad would tell me stories of his forestry trips. He was with different survey parties back in the 50’s with the purpose of erecting trig points on the various peaks including Picton & Hartz for mapping purposes. I think that Dad’s swim was most likely in Lake Skinner as he often mentioned how cold Lake Skinner was and I’m pretty sure that he’d said he’d swam in that lake. Back in those days the only track up onto the Snowy Range was the Lake Skinner track. I think the purpose of that particular trip was to check out Snowy North, so the party would have had to traverse the whole range from and including a camp at Lake Skinner. These blokes, as well as Dad, had quite a sense of humour and would often set each other up. It doesn’t seem to me unusual that Tom named Wetpants Peak (and maybe Lost Hat Tarn?) much further along the range. It was most likely all a bit of a joke. Dad would often tell me how he would set the other blokes up. Cheers, Derek

Love these stories, thanks all for sharing - such an attractive range for its diversity, views and accessibility from Hobart!

...I've been eyeing off a full traverse of the range for a few years (probably from North to South) - I really would like to do it in a good cover of snow (for the adventure, beauty and hopefully softly bouncing over rocks) but feel I probably need to tackle it first on a drier day, albeit rock hopping for much of the terrain.

Any similar attempts/experiences would be great to hear about, thanks...

I've had 12 trips to the Snowy Range in all types of conditions, I haven't traversed it all in one trip, but have day tripped Snowy North via Woolleys tarn. It would be a fantastic traverse with a lot of snow on the tops, the rock hopping isn't that bad with the only real boulders around the summit of Snowy South, most of the walking along the tops is open with a little scrub between Snowy N and Wetpants Peak

RicktheHuman wrote:I've had 12 trips to the Snowy Range in all types of conditions, I haven't traversed it all in one trip, but have day tripped Snowy North via Woolleys tarn. It would be a fantastic traverse with a lot of snow on the tops, the rock hopping isn't that bad with the only real boulders around the summit of Snowy South, most of the walking along the tops is open with a little scrub between Snowy N and Wetpants Peak

Thanks heaps for the intel...now I'm excited!

I've done a full traverse (sort of), but not in a day - camped near Snowdrift, north to Snowy North and back, next day south to Snowy South and back and out. There's not as much boulder ballet as you might expect. The route north of Wetpants isn't too bad, just a bit annoying. There are open leads up and down all the minor lumps, bumps and ridges, but they don't connect on top, so you have to sidle one way or the other to join them.