Prince of Wales Traverse

[stepbystep]

@SBS - for sure (tho I must admit a Franks & Eldons revisit is higher on the to-do list). I was thinking in via rafters route to the Denison, then up Humboldt & go opposite direction (ie. head north). Different perspective

That's sensible Stu. I'm thinking KW Range, raft to below Humboldt and just head up that end with a DP side trip not so sensible haha. Daywalk Yop Yop from the river

[tastrekker]

... Chris Cosgrove from SUBW has some of the history in his article in Press on Regardless - http://www.subw.org.au/archives/POR/Thrash.html He does state this "Reg and Olegas were thought at the time to be the first to bash this ridge, but I have heard of an earlier visit in the late fifties but all details are lost in the mists of time", so that may be the MUMC party?...
Dave

Updated link: https://www.subw.org.au/archives/press- ... al-thrash/

[tas-man]

I have been scanning the Launceston Walking Club's Skyline Magazines while we have been spending more time at home, and thought that this article from Skyline No. 2 (Published June 1951) was worth adding to this thread. It is a trip report of an exploration of the Prince of Wales Range by Chris Binks and Dave Pinkard in January 1951.

Last edited by tas-man on Sat 04 Jul, 2020 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[tas-man]

[tas-man]

Chris Binks allowed me to copy the map that he used for his many trips in the south west in the late 1940/50's, and here is the section with marked up dates and details from the January 1952 trip along the Prince of Wales Range.

[north-north-west]

That's beautiful. Love the misspelling of Lightning Plains. Unless they really did mean Lightening - maybe there was a lot of dark cloud around that didn't clear until they reached that area?
Also fascinating seeing the name changes. Mt Hardy on that map is our Mt Alma. Presumably the "Highest Peak East" near Frenchmans is Philps.

[tas-man]

Continuing my scanning project of the Launceston Walking Club's Skyline Magazines, in edition No. 10 there is an article by Keith Lancaster of a traverse of the Prince of Wales Range in December 1958/January 1959. It is interesting to note that there is no mention of Diamond Peak, just reference to it as part of the three "Southern Needles." They walked over the King Willam's, POW's, Hamilton Ra. ending up at Lake Pedder.

[tas-man]

[tas-man]

[tas-man]

I have arranged these two photos of Southern Needles (Keith Lancaster) and Diamond Peak (stepbystep) taken 55 years apart for comparison.

[danman]

great reading in this thread, some epic trips! getting sick drinking out of yabby holes doesn't sound super appealing i must say. packrafting the denison though sounds awesome.

[farefam]

I haven't looked at this thread for a while, but just noticed that the link on page 3 to the trip I did along the range in 2016 isn't working. So here is a new link. I have also added a couple of photos and significantly expanded the descriptions of the trip that are in the photo captions.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6zYfZQLWXhjxft9HA

[Tortoise]

Thanks, farefam. I love to read about POW Range expeditions, even though I won't ever get there. It's a bit like Everest for me - I've never been fit/strong enough, and don't want to put myself through that much suffering!

[farefam]

You will definitely suffer on any POW trip, which given the acronymn, does seem appropriate. However, by far the worst scrub experience I have ever had was while crossing Calder Pass. The northwest flank of that was abominable.