How many passes are there onto Mt Solitary?

[FatCanyoner]

G'day folks,

I've been far too busy, so haven't had a chance to share this walk from a few weeks back. It follows on from a trip I did about a year back, checking out the two lesser known passes of Solitary, Point Repulse and the Miners Pass. I assumed, wrongly, that there were only four passes onto this amazing mountain. From my searching, it seems everyone else makes that assumption too. But I was wrong!

Some interesting conversations with a bloke from the Bush Club who has been doing a bunch of solo walks to search for new passes on Solitary confirmed there were a few more. We did a fairly hard day walk to search for them, which I've put up here: http://fatcanyoners.org/2013/08/10/solitary-passes/

Interestingly, since then the same guy has found several more passes, mainly around the general area of Point Repulse (which seems to undermine that name even further!). He also tells me there is at least one extra pass on the northern side. Sounds like another trip is in order!

Has anyone else explored these passes, or know of old trips? I'd be very keen to hear their origins, and original names if known. The second pass we did, through an obvious break that even shows up on the topo map, seems far too simple to never have been done before. The first pass on the other hand is quite well hidden, so I can believe how it remained a secret.

Tim

[DaveNoble]

Interestingly, since then the same guy has found several more passes, mainly around the general area of Point Repulse (which seems to undermine that name even further!).

I think the names comes from an early trip - when one party was unable to continue when they got to the bluff - so the names comes from a historic event rather than a general geographic description.

The first pass on the other hand is quite well hidden, so I can believe how it remained a secret.

Tim

I don't think its a question of "secret passes". There are many possible passes through clifflines, whether they are or become useful passes is another question. If they don't go to a place that a bushwalker would want to go to then they really serve no purpose. Eg a pass that takes you to a scrubby area that leads to nowhere interesting.

Dave

[Grabeach]

In most areas I would go along with Dave's view of a pass. However in specific places such as Narrow Neck and Kings Tableland where there is a limited number of places where a bushwalker can ascend, I would consider any new addition a 'pass", provided it is distinct from the existing ones. In the case of Mt Solitary, most only 'knew' about the tracked east and west routes, and even the pros only could add the south buttress and the so called miners pass off the front.

[scout+]

Very interested to read the reports on the passes of Mt Solitary. About 1991 we did a walk of the end of Narrowkneck down the water-board rd and camped at Cedar ck. well inside the prohibited zone. On the following day we climbed the buttress on the south side of the mountain and at one stage had to negotiate a very narrow exposed ledge on the eastern side of the mountain. when I say narrow I mean we took our packs off and literally pushed them in front of us as we crawled on all 4s across the ledge.This ledge was off sloping with a cover of loose crumbly shale with absolute exposure,I still remember that after all these years and I have summitted feder and have no lingering memory of that exposure. Is there anyone out there who can place where I am talking about , one of my buddies that day suggested it may have been called Red Ledge Pass but of course that is One of the passes of Narrowneck

[FatCanyoner]

we climbed the buttress on the south side of the mountain and at one stage had to negotiate a very narrow exposed ledge on the eastern side of the mountain... This ledge was off sloping with a cover of loose crumbly shale... Is there anyone out there who can place where I am talking about

Sounds like you're describing the pass up Point Repulse. It's a stunning trip -- arguably one of the nicest passes in that part of the mountains. A long, stunning knife-edge ridge, then an impressive buttress of rock where you follow the shale ledge under cliffs on the east to an easy ramp up to the top. My trip report from that pass is here: http://fatcanyoners.org/2012/07/08/mt-solitary-passes/

I'm assuming the photo below is the dodgy section you mentioned.

Shale ledge on eastern side of Point Repulse, Mt Solitary

t19.jpg (126.28 KiB) Viewed 7571 times

one of my buddies that day suggested it may have been called Red Ledge Pass but of course that is One of the passes of Narrowneck

This pass follows the exact same band of shale -- Mt York Claystone from memory -- as Redledge Pass. In fact, there's not many passes you can do around this area without hitting that band of crumbly, reddish / purple shale.

[scout+]

Thanks for the info fat canyoner. looking at the photo I can't understand what all the hullabuloo was at the time .Did the cobbers in the photo have o/n packs on, it's hard to say ,looks like lite daypacks. whatever, it is still comforting to know where I was after all these years, now I only have about another 50 to tick off!