Cathedral Plateau

[Taurë-rana]

I went on my first walk with the Hobart Walking Club to the Cathedral Plateau a couple of weekends ago. There were 5 of us, including 2 of the most experienced bushwalkers in Tassie who I felt privileged to be walking with. We walked in late to reach Tent Tarn just as it started raining. It's a nice spot to camp though, apart from the mozzies which threatened to carry us away.

The next day was perfect, and we visited Cathedral Mountain and Twin Spires, which offered a chance to see whether my nerve was still good for climbing with exposure - getting out to the detached spire required some scrambling with likely death from a fall. It was probably some of the scariest climbing I've done for years and I was pleased to find that I was no more (and no less) worried about it than I would have been 20 years ago.

2 of us then went on to Bishop's Mitre and Bishop Peak while the others headed back to camp. The plateau is a fantastic place to walk, varying between open and fairly easy and extremely scratchy, especially when you have shorts on! There are extensive views of the plateau and the mountains of the Lake St Clair - Cradle Mt NP. As has been mentioned before here, you sit on the edge of Cathedral Mountain and look down over the OT. You can also see right back along Lees Paddocks.

We packed up and headed out to the cars, getting out at about 6 after a long but fantastic day. The next day it rained again!

Chalice and Rogoona.jpg (158.43 KiB) Viewed 23573 times

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Du Cane Hut and Falling Mountain.jpg (120.9 KiB) Viewed 23573 times

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[Taurë-rana]

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Looking towards Kia Ora.jpg (114 KiB) Viewed 23571 times

Pelion East and West.jpg (110.48 KiB) Viewed 23571 times

[Taurë-rana]

Rogoona and Chalice.jpg (151.16 KiB) Viewed 23567 times

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Twin Spires 1.jpg (101.18 KiB) Viewed 23567 times

[Taurë-rana]

Twin Spires.jpg (154.89 KiB) Viewed 23566 times

[ollster]

Top photos, an area I'd love to visit soon. I am somewhat dismayed to hear Twin Spires is a scramble though...

[Taurë-rana]

Top photos, an area I'd love to visit soon. I am somewhat dismayed to hear Twin Spires is a scramble though...

It's only a scramble if you want to go out to the second spire - the highest and points one is just a walk.

[ollster]

Top photos, an area I'd love to visit soon. I am somewhat dismayed to hear Twin Spires is a scramble though...

It's only a scramble if you want to go out to the second spire - the highest and points one is just a walk.

Hurrah!!!

[ILUVSWTAS]

Top photos, an area I'd love to visit soon. I am somewhat dismayed to hear Twin Spires is a scramble though...

It's only a scramble if you want to go out to the second spire - the highest and points one is just a walk.

Yeh thats cleared things up for me, I also had not heard it was difficult. That's Paul though!! If it's a peak, and it exists, he will climb it!!

Nice photos Rachel, definately somewhere i'd like to visit soon!!

[frenchy_84]

Top photos, an area I'd love to visit soon. I am somewhat dismayed to hear Twin Spires is a scramble though...

no code brown though

[ollster]

That's Paul though!! If it's a peak, and it exists, he will has climbed it!!

Fixed!

[johnw]

Nice images Rachel. Some those views from Twin Spires look very high and airy, particularly looking down over Du Cane Hut and Lees Paddocks.

[stepbystep]

Nice pics Rachel, love the pic of Pelion E&W and the High Tarn pic.

[Phil]

Great pics Rachel, thanks for sharing!!

I had the same experience of Tent Tarn.......mosquitos!!

[tasadam]

Nice to see you've been up there too. Great spot eh? We camped up top, meaning had to carry full packs up there.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/tasadam ... f-tasmania

http://www.redbubble.com/people/tasadam ... l-mountain

Did you find the cairned route up from Tent tarn? I've heard there's supposed to be one, but I didn't find it. Some good scrub there..

[GerryDuke]

Thanks also Rachel. Nice.

[Taurë-rana]

That's Paul though!! If it's a peak, and it exists, he will has climbed it!!

Fixed!

Well, he actually seems to have found a whole lot more peaks to climb, which is why we went up Bishop's Mitre - Bob Brown's and MJD's list of high places in Tasmania. Only Paul and I went across to the unattached spire, just for fun.

Adam, we followed the cairned route from Tent Tarn some of the way.

And John, the plateau is airy - it's mainly open so you can see a long way most of the time, then on the edge of the plateau you have these amazing views down into the valleys and across to the iconic OT mountains. It would be a good place to get people just starting out hooked on walking - however with no real tracks and high altitude it's still a place to be treated with caution in case of bad weather. I think it would be pretty hard to work out where you were in the mist up there.

[Nick S]

Great photos Rach

[ILUVSWTAS]

Some good scrub there..

Really?? I've heard there's nothing really over waist height??

[Taurë-rana]

Well the trees are higher than waist high, and there's lots of at least waist high scoparia and other prickly type stuff. You probably could walk round it all if you weren't worried about straight lines!

[corvus]

Great Photos Rachel,
Tent tarn is a magic camp site and appreciate your comments as to navigation ,when we did our wee stroll from there up to the gap between Curate and Bishops and down to Lees we had to sit for a couple of hours or so to let the clouds /rain dissipate and even then it was a hairy trip off the Mountain
corvus

[ILUVSWTAS]

Well the trees are higher than waist high, and there's lots of at least waist high scoparia and other prickly type stuff. You probably could walk round it all if you weren't worried about straight lines!

Isnt that a part of being a good navigator?? NOT walking in a straight line??

[Nuts]

Well done Taure:, No4 really catches the rugged landscape well. I also like that view of Geryon, so many are taken from the almost opposite side.

[tasadam]

Some good scrub there..

Really?? I've heard there's nothing really over waist height??

Nothing above waist height HERE either. (Taken from here, description here).
Wasn't that bad though, just a bit more interesting when your pushing uphill through it with full packs.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Yeh sorry to say Adam, that looks like pretty good open walking to me!!

It is always a little harder with a full pack on though. But there's alot of buttongrass in that first shot!!

Try these for some nice scrub.....

Attachments

[ollster]

I'm so disappointed I missed that one! That looks like awesome fun. Sigh.

[Taurë-rana]

Yeh sorry to say Adam, that looks like pretty good open walking to me!!

Must admit, I'm with him although I know buttongrass can be hard work. I've ridden a motorbike over stuff like that, now that was interesting!

The scrub on the plateau is more prickly than difficult, especially when you are wearing shorts

[naturelover]

Hi, I've just read your report two years down the track, as I'm about to go up there, and it was fab to have such an inspiring preview!! Ya muchly. Loved the photos. Now I can't wait to go.

[dplanet]

Adam, we followed the cairned route from Tent Tarn some of the way.

And John, the plateau is airy - it's mainly open so you can see a long way most of the time, then on the edge of the plateau you have these amazing views down into the valleys and across to the iconic OT mountains. It would be a good place to get people just starting out hooked on walking - however with no real tracks and high altitude it's still a place to be treated with caution in case of bad weather. I think it would be pretty hard to work out where you were in the mist up there.

A high sensitive gps might help.

Well the trees are higher than waist high, and there's lots of at least waist high scoparia and other prickly type stuff. You probably could walk round it all if you weren't worried about straight lines!

Isnt that a part of being a good navigator?? NOT walking in a straight line??

Agreeable.

I'm so disappointed I missed that one! That looks like awesome fun. Sigh.

Camped in one of those scrub. Lucky me!