Eastern Arthurs
Farmhouse Creek to Scotts Peak via West Portal, Southwest Tasmania.
December 2023 – January 2024
Grappling with Moss Ridge I am mudded through my fats and proteins. Up down and around the southern traverse, Lake Geeves can’t be seen and the summit just above a greywhite void. New Year’s Eve I wake to snow at Hanging Lake.
The filthy film blows briefly clear over Devil’s Thumb then returns in thick wet grains. I broach Goon Moor and shelter in a sodden Ewok village. A luminescent microcosm beneath The Needles. The sun shrugs off punches from four days unconscious and boils the scum from East Portal.
Lucifer Ridge is closed.
Charging through Rosanne’s scrubby mess in brilliant heat. The Crags of Andromeda, fronting a gnarly silhouette the day before, opens on the tops to a mere stroll. A dash to the summit and a wild camp on West Portal as the last of the light dims pink.
Pulling over Centaurus clouds stir milky swirls into brainshaped Lake Mercury. A bland scoparia knoll before Promontory comes on odd like a generative fill and the walk winds out tomorrow in standard fashion.
Glowing tree fungus at Farmhouse Creek.
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Federation Peak dominates the evening skyline from Crest Camp.
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The intimidating profile of Moss Ridge.
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The southern traverse in scant visiblity: glorious, exposed, and steep as fuck especially near Fedder.
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A precious hour of clearing skies on Thwaites Plateau before the sleet and muck returns.
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Spiders sling hammocks between pandani fronds.
The explosion of flora under the Needles is rendered in vivid colour—phosphorescent lime, burnt orange and glossy Hooker’s green.
My camera lens are fogged over though, save for my telephoto, and this complex garden mostly evades capture.
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The Eastern and Western Arthur ranges from the summit of West Portal.
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