Planning had been underway for quite some time in the lead up to our attempt with various potential team members but in the end it was just Mikey and I that were able to make the start. We met at a pub in Strathfield for dinner on the Friday night. We both could barely contain our excitement as neither of us had ever attempted anything like this before. We got through the meal quickly and hopped in Mike’s car for the drive up to Katoomba. The rain started to settle in as we made our way into the lower suburbs of the Blue Mountains and by the time we passed Woodford it was starting to get foggy. By the time we got to Katoomba the fog was so thick that we needed the gps to get down to Narrowneck as we couldn’t even make out the street signs. We parked the car in a side street and offloaded some unnecessary gear from the packs before getting underway shortly after 9:30pm. Leg one of the journey was intended to be about 30 kilometres and have us camping at the Cox’s River between 3-4am for a couple of hours sleep.
Leaving the streets of Katoomba, our walk
would take us south onto the expansive Narrowneck Plateau. We quickly left the
safety of the streetlights behind us and plunged into darkness. Thick fog with
constant rain and occasional wind gusts made for really tough conditions. The
fog dissolved any ambient light available from the moon so our visibility was
reduced to about 5-10 metres. We felt like we were in a little bubble and
a lot of the time couldn’t really see any more than a metre past the edge of
the firetrail. Normally a very scenic walk along Narrowneck became a game of
trying to work out where we were based solely off of my memory of the firetrail
itself. In the end we walked straight past the huge firetower without even realising
it! It wasn’t until we reached the pebbly section of trail and the wind really
picked up that we knew we were getting close to Clear Hill. Clear hill normally
has excellent views across to the Megalong Valley but that night it was like
looking into the blackness of oblivion!
After approximately 3 hours we made it to
Clear Hill at the very southern tip of the Narrowneck Plateau and swung off the
firetrail to join the single track down to Tarros Ladders. About halfway down
the descent we stopped in a little cave for a 10 minute chocolate break. Most of the descent is reasonably easy
with a few short scrambles but the best part it a set of climbing spikes which
take you down the final 10 metre cliff.
We were both looking forward to the challenge
of Tarros Ladders in the dead of night and wasted little time once we arrived
at the top. It was a quite enjoyable experience but we did need to be fairly
careful as the spikes were a little slippery in the rain. From Here we
traversed over the ridge of Mount Derbert and down into the clearing at Medlow
Gap. After less than a kilometre of walking on the White Dog Ridge Firetrail we
made the turn onto the Katoomba to Kanangra (K2K) walking trail. This was where
our plans started to slowly but surely unravel.
Up until this point we had been making pretty
good time and were only slightly behind were we wanted to be. Once on the K2K
walking track however our visibility was never more than about 5 metres. The
track is very overgrown in some places which meant that even staying on the
path was difficult! The rain although not heavy was constant so between that
and forcing our way through what seemed like an endless number of damp shrubs
we both got completely soaked. Leeches were also very common in the marshes
around Mobb’s Soak. I remember making a comment to Mikey at about 3am that I was glad it
wasn’t pissing down. This promptly had us both in stitches for the next 10
minutes or so as even if we went for a swim we couldn’t have possibly been more
soaked than we already were! We quickly got further and further behind schedule
and by about 4am with a little over 20km covered we knew that we would have to
walk all night to even have a chance at a successful attempt. We passed a few
little campsites and stopped briefly at each one trying to figure out if we should
stop for a quick sleep or not. At that time of the night we were both wired but deep
down the body is keen for sleep so making even a simple decision is a struggle.
Finally after approximately 25km we found a nice saddle near the top of Mount
Yellow Dog and Mikey made the executive decision that this would be where we
stashed our packs.
Proceeding with only day packs the going was
much easier and we made good progress on the descent to the Cox’s River. The world
slowly began to expand as first light approached and we were treated to some
fantastic but imposing views of the surrounding mountains. It was really only
at this point that you start to fathom the true scale of the mountains in this
area. At long last we finally reached the Cox’s River shortly after 7am, it had
taken us almost 10 hours to cover the 30 kilometres.
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| First light on the descent of Mount Yellowdog. Mount Konangaroo on the far side of the valley - 28km mark |
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Crossing the Cox’s River was quite enjoyable but we only got to savour the flat terrain for a few hundred meters. The next big challenge would be the ascent up Mount Strongleg. It was a nasty climb with extreme gradients. It was so steep in some places that we were using the trees and shrubs to pull ourselves up the slippy and loose terrain. Finally after cresting Mount Strongleg the gradient eased off but it was still pretty slow going as the track was often overgrown with shrubs. There were a number of rocky outcrops where we were treated to some excellent views across the valley towards Mount Paralyser (the second peak). The final push to the summit of Mount Cloudmaker seemed to drag on forever but we finally arrived at about 11:30am and slumped down for some breakfast. It was our first proper food since dinner some 17 hours beforehand and as usual Mikey didn’t disappoint with a blueberry & chia pudding!
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| Incredible view accross the Valley to Mount Paralyser from near the top of Mount Strongleg - 33km mark |
Mikey had been hurting for a while and had
been dropping subtle hints by suggesting cutoff times to reach certain spots.
Over the course of the ascent we had both decided on 11am for the Cloudmaker
Summit and we unfortunately missed it by 30 minutes. I must say, my
disappointment in failure didn’t last particularly long. It was obvious that
with better conditions we would have been several hours ahead of where we were
and with the tiredness creeping in we were likely to only get further and
further behind schedule. This meant that we would have almost certainly been
trying to descend down off Mount Guouogang in the dark with no track to follow.
Considering the mental fatigue we would have been carrying after many more
hours on the move it was more than sensible to pull the pin and turn back.
We spent half an hour or so at the summit
signing and reading the logbook. It was incredible to see that there hadn’t
been a single visitor there in almost 2 months. It really highlighted how
remote and untouched this wilderness is and it was and absolute pleasure to
have it all to ourselves. After a while we dragged ourselves up and started the
long descent back to the Cox’s River. I had been firing on adrenalin on the
climb up to Cloudmaker and now that we were turning back my energy levels
certainly took a pretty serious dive. It was however nice knowing that we could
take our time a bit more on the descent. We just plodded along and enjoyed the
views wherever they were available. We also stopped briefly at the Dex Creek
campsite which is a beautiful high camp and well worth another visit. Neither
of us were enjoying the steeper sections as the legs were getting pretty
buggered at this point. It was really enjoyable looking at the different types
of trees and shrubs and how they seemed to vary so quickly depending on the
elevation and exposure to the elements.
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| Finally at the summit caine of Mount Cloudmaker! - 39.5km mark |
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| Mount Cloudmaker Logbook - 39.5km mark |
Eventually we made it back to the Cox’s River
and all that was left between us and camp was the final 5km climb up to the top
of Mount Yellow Dog. We had a short break by the river while we fired ourselves
up for the climb. Once we got started I was determined to not stop until we
reached our packs. The light slowly faded away as we climbed and the ascent
seemed to go on forever. There were a number of little saddles on the ridge
which neither of us remembered from the previous night so there were several
times when we thought we had made it only to have to keep climbing. We
eventually reached our campsite shortly after nightfall. It had taken us about
22 hours to cover the 55 kilometres!
We quickly got the tent setup and somehow
managed to get a fire going despite all the timber being very damp. We boiled
some water for hot tea whilst quickly trying to dry our sleeping bags out as we
could hear what sounded like a pretty big storm rolling in. At long last we got
into our sleeping bags and enjoyed our quinoa monk bowl dinner, Mikey had
delivered the goods yet again! We reminisced over the adventure so far and what
things we could possibly have changed to create a successful outcome whilst
enjoying a whisky nightcap. The rain settled in yet again and despite falling
asleep very quickly it was a pretty rough night. I awoke not long after midnight
to discover a puddle in the tent only inches from my head. We had set the tent up
in a bit of a hurry and positioning of the pegs for the fly wasn’t ideal. Under
the weight of the rain water it was resting on the inner wall of the tent which
was causing the problem. I got out of the tent in the rain with my headlamp and
somehow managed to get it fixed. Fortunately the adjustments worked and after
that we were able to relax and get a few decent hours of sleep.
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| Our high camp in a saddle near the top of Mount Yellowdog - 55km mark |
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| Our high camp in a saddle near the top of Mount Yellowdog - 55km mark |
We had a slow start the next morning as it
was still raining and it was certainly hard to be motivated to get moving
again. After breakfast in our sleeping bags we got everything packed up and
departed camp about 9am. The fog was much milder than the Friday night but the
rain still fell consistently so we were quickly re-saturated. Despite this we
made fairly steady progress along the K2K trail all the while being on the
constant lookout for leeches. It was a big relief to reach the White Dog Ridge
Firetrail knowing that we only had one serious climb up Mount Derbert left
between us and the Tarros Ladders. Whilst only short, the climb up to the Mount
Derbert ridge is brutally steep and we took it at a snail’s pace. Cresting the
ridge we were stunned to not only see a gap in the clouds but actually some
direct sunlight for the first time! The last section of this trail leading up
to Tarros Ladders is pretty smooth and one of my favourites so we really
enjoyed it. We were also excited about the prospects of the views from
Narrowneck which would make for a nice walk back to the car. It was a relief to
be ascending the climbing spikes with light this time and we got some cool
footage with the GoPro. By the time we had gotten to the top of the spikes the
sun that was out some 30 minutes earlier was well and truly gone and all that
could be seen was white fog in all directions.
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| Nothing but fog to look at from the top of the Tarros Ladders - 65km mark |
Once back on the Narrowneck Firetrail the
rain quickly closed in. Leaving Clear Hill behind us we made the climb up to
the fire tower for a final chocolate break. After this it was simply a matter
of ticking off the kilometres back to the car. Slowly but surely we made
progress along the plateau and although we couldn’t see too far, the visuals of
the fog swirling over the cliffs was pretty spectacular. It was great to see
some familiar landmarks as we closed in on the finish. Finally at about 3pm we
reached the safety and comfort of the car. Our adventure had lasted over 42
hours and we had covered 78.5 kilometres with a staggering 3800 metres of
vertical climbing and descending!!!
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| Finally back at the car!!! |
As mentioned previously there was simply no
regret that we didn’t make it to all three peaks. It was such an incredible
experience between two mates in such an epic landscape. It’s funny to look back
on how our friendship begun some 15+ years ago and see how far we have come.
It all started out with late nights playing video games and over the years our
interests have evolved to finally arrive at an adventure like this. The other
exciting thing about not completing the challenge is that there is now more
desire than ever to give it another go. We will reassess what went wrong and
what can be changed and launch another assault in the future. Perhaps the best
thing of all is that you never forget an experience like this. It’s the sort
of adventure we will both be able to look back on in 50 years and although the
finer details will probably be long forgotten there will still be that
lingering sense of epicness that remains!!!
Strava GPS Data
Full Photo Gallery
For more info on the route if your interested in giving it a go, check out Ashley's Burke's brilliant website:
Epic Video of the Hike!
Strava GPS Data
Full Photo Gallery
For more info on the route if your interested in giving it a go, check out Ashley's Burke's brilliant website:
Epic Video of the Hike!
