Winter is coming so I thought I’d go high until I can. I also thought about giving my #52peakschallenge good boost as I’ve been always just a wee bit behind to make it to 52 by the end of the year.
A few weeks back I’ve done Cheesman to Hamilton Peak which was great. This time I thought I’d do the southern side of Craigieburns. I started off at Castle Hill Village from where I followed Hogs Back Track. I passed Long Spur and went up along an eastern spur leading all the way to Izard. It was a good toil there, about 1100m up. But in general easy terrain on a straightforward route. From Izard to Cloudsley the ridge is a wee bit steep at places but in general nice and easy-going travel. It got even easier between Cloudsley and Enys. At Enys I met up with Harish who had 3 hours head start as he’s a wee bit slower than me.
We went down together via Dead Man Spur. It turned out to be a bit tricky on the descent but there is a great scree to go down along. I don’t think that there is any better way to go down on the northern side of Dead Man Spur but the scree that we came down. You can either choose to go down via Eastern side or drop down to Whitewater Stream earlier, somewhere between 1800-1900 contour which could be the most straightforward way down.
At Whitewater Stream, I left Harish behind and went up to the saddle between Leith Hill and pt1556 which was quite exhausting. I knocked of Leith Hill and missed the scree and went down along a steep tussocky slope. When I was looking at the scree I was mad with myself because it looked like a great, much more efficient way to get down! Once back on a marked track, it was just a piece of cake to get back to the car.
It was a fairly long and exhausting trip, I think that doing only Cloudsley – Enys is more sensible option. However, 5 peaks in one day doesn’t happen to me every day!
Tramped on 3th April 2021.
Rough stats: 9h 30m, 22 km, 2800m ascent
Map
Max elevation: 2192 m
Min elevation: 741 m
That was a big day out Michal! I did the exact route only without Izard, going up Long Spur to Cloudsley. That felt pretty big as it was. I just did Izard this weekend with my wife Sophia. Gale force winds and snow slowed us down so it almost took as long as that whole traverse.
I was quite done, I’m not going to lie 😀 But I’d still love to do Craigieburn traverse in a day. Enys to Baldy Hill – wouldn’t that be nice?