Bushwalk Australia

Another hut not far off the track to the lower portals is the Catholic Bushwalkers Hut. That name is from memory though and could well be wrong.

The position of the current Drynan's hut matches the location marked on the map (Maroon) but it's not the hut in your photo Ian, neither does the photo hut plan match that showing in Google Earth. The background view of Barney looks about right but the ground behind the hut is rising too quickly - that could be the result of a telephoto lens of course. The track is about 100m away when it passes the hut. As a guess I would say the old hut has been removed and replaced but although nearby possibly not on the same site.

Tom

Phil Box wrote:Another hut not far off the track to the lower portals is the Catholic Bushwalkers Hut. That name is from memory though and could well be wrong.

Phil, you are right about the hut name.

Tom

Phil Box wrote:I've done the East Face route...

that's impressive Phil. I've read a couple of accounts of the climb and that small tree has got a mention each time. I'm certainly nowhere near good enough to climb or even second this route , but I'm not sure if I'd have the 'stones' for it even if I could. Any photos or horror stories?

Far out, now interested in the Rocky to Logan and mid South East routes..thanks for posting the info tomh...

As for the East Face route Phil...what is that? Can you provide some more detail? Sounds way out of my league mind you.

Here are a few extracts from Michael Meadows climbing history blog that I mentioned in a previous post in "Queensland" that mention Barney's East Face. Looks quite a challenge Phil!

and there's this

http://queenslandclimbing.yuku.com/topic/4358

The link to that route on the qurank site is of a newer sport climb which heads up the east face further to the right than the traditional east face route.

No horror stories of Brad and my ascent except that I had the visionary epiphany if you could call it that to link the two pitches before the crux pitch together thus putting Brad on the crux pitch. Dunno if I would have had the cahones to pull through that crux. The climbing up to the crux was extremely pleasant and the climbing after it less so for about a pitch and then it is gardening for a couple of pitches to the top.

No way would anyone ever be able to go anywhere near that route in this sort of climate though. Evidence of dry moss was abundant whilst heading through the crux chimney. I reckon it will be a waterfall nowadays. Anyone contemplating heading up there will need to wait for a drought year. The gardens hanging above the route will ensure that constant water is fed into the chimney which will ensure a wet and slimey climb. That would equate to about grade 26 instead of our estimated 18 for the crux.

A couple of the climbers from one of the uni clubs related that they had pulled through the crux and had gotten to the gardening pitches and decided to rap back down because they thought they would run out of daylight. What the?

Warning, off topic story follows.

Now if you do want to hear a horror story I could tell you about the one and only time I was climbiung with Ted Cais. We were heading up a route called Airtime Over Pumicestone on the front face of Mt. Tibrogargan. Ted led the first pitch and I was to lead the second. I got off route and grabbed a chunk of rock which came off and that pitched me over backwards. I pulled a couple of pieces and came up on a bolt. Fortunately I had been climbing on two ropes.

I fell about 25 to 30 metres, fell right past a horrified Ted and ended up 3 metres below him. I was hitting things all the way down and thought that this is what it is like to be Superman. Arm out in front upside down flying down a mountain but the ride was bumpy to say the least. I climbed back up to the belay and sent Ted out to retrieve my gear and we retreated to the base where I licked my wounds, got myself a stick to use as a crutch and hobbled my slow agonising way down to the east face carpark. I lay there in the grass for about 30 minutes before everyone else in our party turned up. We drove into Glasshouse and got some ice and then they walked me up Ngun Ngun, best therapy ever.

I found out a week later that I also had a broken Scafoid. Didn't stop me climbing though as a week after the operation I seconded Superman And Cereal, an 18 at Redcliffs. I did try to do that one handed though.

isoma wrote:and there's this

http://queenslandclimbing.yuku.com/topic/4358

AWESOME Photos and report! Thanks for that link.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/53583934

That is the link to my garmin record of part of the hike. It is interesting to see the elevation profile on it. Unfortunately the watch turned itself off half way up and I didn't realise until we were almost at the top.

Did I mention that at the start of this thread we were thinking of camping at the top and we are so glad that we didn't. Taking overnight packs whilst possible, would have proven exhausting and detracted from the experience. We are glad we ditched our camping gear at the base and climbed with day packs... photos to come this evening

jetjackson

Like it..what is that garmin gadget and how does it work etc?

The Garmin forerunner is a device I use to measure distance and data in my running training. It is good for hikes if you are trying to pace yourself and cover a certain distance as you have it right there on your wrist. Particularly good with Barney as it has an altimeter so you can tell what altitude you are at straight from the watch. Then when you get homeit automatically connects to your pc when you are in the same room and uploads the data to the web. The link above is what you see from the data.



Climbing up the chimney



At the summit and getting very wet.



Coming up the Chimney

Planning on going up SE camping in the saddle and back down South this weekend. Is the start of the SE track obvious? I remember seeing an obvious track heading off a bit before the Peasants ridge track last time. I've got track notes from bushpeoples and take a walk but the more info the better. ta

?? indicates memory vague - please confirm after visit
GPS trace, using the shortcut - thankyou Greg Long:
http://wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=428249

Great info, thanks. The log across the base sounds familiar.

edit: Went up SE on Saturday. Start of the track was the one I was thinking of and as described by tomh. Will post a photo later. We probably left too late on Sat because it got dark about half way down to Rum Jungle from the East Peak and the cloud had moved in. I didn't adjust my timing estimates after we decided to go up the SE instead of the South. Camped at Rum Jungle and came down the South in the morning. Much better views from the SE but much tougher scrambling towards the top. Great weekend walking though. Nothing like sitting back in front of the computer at work on Monday morning with the aching legs to keep reminding you of the weekend.

I just wanted to say how great all the info is on this area I had considering a walk in that area but there isn't alot of info around. This post has given me some great ideas!

Hey, have any of you guys ever been up Mt. Lindsay or is there any interest in doing so I would be keen for next autumn, probably May, I need some quality scramblers with a love of exposure,please reply

Yes. It's not anywhere near as popular as technically comparable routes on Mt Barney and the rock is very grubby.

You might want some people you've climbed with before if you're planning a belay (we did).

I'm pretty keen to do Vidlers Chimney on Mt. Lindsay at some time in the future. After it stabilises and after all this rain we have been having and after the vegetation resets its roots in the loose dirt chute it will be in prime condition. I haven't been game to go anywhere near it during the drought. I need a couple of photogs to capture the ascent.

Semi-related topic -- with the gully route up Mt Maroon closed, what's the access like from the Lower Portals Rd? I've never been to Paddys Plain, etc. Does it cross private land?

Hi sef,
I'm almost certain that you'd need to cross private lands that way. I'm pretty sure that May/Maroon is a seperate national park to Mt Barney national park.
However, an excellent alternative, starting from the Mt May campsite is the May to Maroon traverse - all within the national park. Longish day with reasonable navigation skills required.

Ah, thanks. Hopefully the weather clears at some point this decade.

Hey All
Planning a Mt Barney assault sometime over the next week or two, hoping to ascend via SE ridge (thanks for the clues in spotting the turn-off) and descend via Peasants. Would ideally like to do it as a long day trip, just wondering what sort of time frame would be a rough guesstimate? The plan is to start as early as possible and looking at the notes posted here and in bushwalkers guide, would 10 hours be about right? I'm fairly fit and although I haven't done Barney before I'm used to long days in the hills. Alternatively would it be worth strapping my TT moment (doesn't add much weight anyhow) to the side of my day-pack in case either the weather or I pack it in?
Cheers
Rafael

Yeah it took us about 6.5 hours from yellowpinch to Rum Jungle via SE. Then just under 3.5 from Rum Jungle back in the morning. That was with reasonably slow but steady progress heading up, about half an hour stop for lunch and not much time spent on top.

sef wrote:Semi-related topic -- with the gully route up Mt Maroon closed, what's the access like from the Lower Portals Rd? I've never been to Paddys Plain, etc. Does it cross private land?

Hey mate,
From memory, head along Upper Logan Rd, than turn right onto Lower Portals Rd. Then I think you turn right again onto Seidenspinner Rd. If you follow this (which I am pretty sure is a public road) across Mt Barney Creek, and park on the other side at the National Park Gate, you're in the best spot to head up Mt Maroon by the South Ridge.

If you're expecting lots of rain, it may be a good idea to park on the barney side of the creek (not the maroon side).

I did a nice day walk from there, straight up the south ridge along the cliffs to the summit, than down the western gorge, which had a lot of nice slabby walking, to paddy's plain, than around the base back to the cars. We did it fairly quickly, but we had a bloke who had recently done it, so we didn't have to worry about route finding. It would probably take longer otherwise.

Thanks Cam for your reply and everyone else for the great thread. Three of us ended up leaving Brissie round 4 am yesterday. Started walking from the car at yellowpinch at 6.30 am and headed up the SE ridge. We had fantastic views early on though soon the cloud moved in creating a beautifully atmospheric walk with maybe 20-30m visibility...perfect walking temperatures too! No real difficulties though the rock was pretty wet in some of the scrambles). Arrived at the summit round 9.30am, faffed about for maybe an hour on top (cloud cleared for a few minutes here and there) and walked down to Rum Jungle and down Peasants. Took it pretty easy on the way back and arrived back at the car at 1.30pm. I had the unenviable job of driving home and as soon as we left both mates were well asleep (though food stop in Beaudesert went down pretty well). Anyway, has me looking forward to trying a few other routes soon, probably still too much water in the creeks and gorges but some of those northern ridges are looking pretty good!

Hey All,
Planning on heading back to Mt Barney sometime next week, am hoping to ascend via Savages and descend via SE. Was just wondering whether the start of Savages was fairly obvious, ie should we just follow Cronan Ck till we cross Egans and then just head up the next ridge?
I've got the topo and Rankins book and it seems pretty straightfoward, just wanted to double check.
Cheers

Few years since I've been up, but I'd ignore the advice in Rankins/Bushpeoples to follow Egan's in the lower sections -- it's pretty scrappy. Just get on the ridge as you've suggested

Off topic but what would be a Mt Barney route similar to Federation in Tasi?

under10kg wrote:Off topic but what would be a Mt Barney route similar to Federation in Tasi?

Possibly Logan's Ridge, as there is some reasonable exposure near the top and careful rock scrambling is required, but ropes only for safety if desired and if descending. Certainly more accessible, and a long day trip to climb Logan's and return via Peasants. Here's a photo of Logan's Ridge from the south.