Mt Gudgenby – View from geocache | trig | Mt Gudgenby from below | map detail
Sunday 3 April: Mt Gudgenby – L/R. A classic walk with great views. From the Gudgenby car park along the valley to the saddle before Naas Creek, then up to Mt Gudgenby. About 18 km and 800 metres climb, with some very thick scrub and some granite scrambling. Map: Yaouk. Leader: Lorraine T. Transport: ∼ $40 per car. Limit: 10. Book: by 6 pm Friday 1 April.
8 of us drove in 2 vehicles to the Yankee Hat car park.
Summary
Distance: 16.8km | Climb: 880m | Time: 8.00am-2.50pm (6hrs 50mins), including 40 mins of breaks | Grading: L/R; H(14)
Photographs
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Videos
Waypoint and Track Files
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Track Notes
A wedgie of a day – 2 wedge-tailed eagles took off from the side of the road near Half Moon Creek and narrowly escaped plonking their feet on the car windscreen. Then, further along the road between Glendale Crossing and the north end of the Old Boboyan Road, 3 more rose from a tree beside the road. Magnificent birds!
Plenty of cars at the car park, with Sean’s 11 on a sub24 at Hospital Creek hut and other things going on at Frank and jacks hut. A party of three left for Mt Gudgenby just ahead of us – not sure if they made it.
A quick insert along the Old Boboyan Road, then along fire trails, to the spot where I like to head bush, beside the roll of fencing netting. 3.7km in 40mins. Down across the feeder to Bogong Creek and up to the top of the open space where the footpad to Gudgenby Saddle starts. Different views in the party to cairns/taping and, after adjusting the order of march, there may very well be a new pink tape at the top of the clearing.
Lorraine foolishly put me in front. I think I only lost the pad 3 times. There’s a crossing of a drainage line that always bamboozles me – note to self, veer right after crossing, not straight ahead. Anyway, we made the saddle. 2.4km in 45mins. Morning tea. A lone guy went through, heading for Lutons Crutching Shed. We left one of the party there with a bung achilles.
Ian took the lead to the top. Great job for someone who’s never been up before. The going from the saddle to the bottom of the slabs is certainly in the up direction (~360m climb), but is relatively easy going. From the start of the slabs up, not as much granite as on previous trips, I guess we just took a slightly different line. At the last wall we looked up to see the trig above us. Ian investigated to the left. I went right, remembering that previous final approaches were from the north. I found the chimney then the tree trunk and scrambled up. There was Ian a little to the south. So another advantage of a lead first visit is to find that there is another way up. Saddle to the top was 1.6km with 400m climb in 1hr 15mins.
Huge views. Check out the second video. A quick find of GC16F0A Granite Dome – Gudgenby. A bit of bashing to get the jammed lid open.
Whilst the others had lunch at the trig, Lorraine gave me the nod to go just north and around the rock stack to search for GC1KJHZ Base Camp – Gudgenby. Spent a frustrating 15mins searching, GPSr right on 0-1m, but spoiler too small on my phone. I’ll have to log a DNF and come back. So annoyed with myself. I sulked back to below the trig and had a quick bite of lunch.
There had been discussion about some of the party returning via a round. Of course Lorraine had to go back via the saddle to pick up achilles. I signaled that I was happy to go east off the side, so I didn’t have to go back up to the trig.
So Ian and Rowan and I bush-bashed down to the east. No slabs, lots of regrowth till the going leveled and thinned down near Bogong Creek. Very pleasant going from here on, on both the south and north sides of the creek. We eventually popped out at the roll of wire. The descent was 3.8km in 2hrs 10mins. I wouldn’t like to go up this way!
We wandered back to the cars, 3.9km in 45mins. The rest of the party arrived a bit later.
Thanks Lorraine and all. A classic walk on a lovely autumn day. Huge views.
Track Maps
Track overview
Track 1
Track 2
Gudgenby detail
Profile
Party
8 walkers – Mike B, Ian H, Stephen M, David O, Rowan P, Monika P, Lorraine T (leader), me.