13 September 2011 The Onion

Map: Tinderry 1:25000

Getting There

This walk was organised and led by me as an irregular CBC Tuesday walk:

Tuesday 13 September - The Onion - M/R,ptX. Visit 'The Onion', south of Tinderry Peak. In via the S of Roberts Creek, with Linda's tor for morning tea. Out further to the S. Expect eucalypt forest, granite scrambling and huge views if the day is fine. Around 10km and 450m climb. Map: Tinderry. Leader: John Evans - jevans@pcug.org.au, (h) 6288 7235. Transport: ~$10 per person.

9 of us met at Kambah at the unusually late hour of 7am and drove via Michelago and the Tinderry Road to the start of the Round Flat Fire Trail.

Further Information

A chance to check out the Tinderry ridge saddle for 24 Sep 11.

Photographs

You can access all photographs here.

Walk

Track map: thumbnail is active - click for a larger picture

Track

Another tale of poor navigation in the presence of several living legends and alpha females. Some 'interesting' routes were chosen. Still, it was a cracker of a day, weather wise (better than Canberra, hardly a breath of breeze on The Onion) and we all had much fun. Bloody (literally) knees from the granite on the crests!

It all started well enough, wandering in 1.8km along the Round Flat fire trail to the right-angled bend. Even from here there is a discernable vehicle track for a while, heading in the required N-ish direction. All good - not lost once. Crossing the second drainage line, we bent towards the NW, very much the route taken on 9 Jul 11. However, at the 1290m contour, even knowing that Linda had previously come up to the morning tea tor from the S and W, I deliberately (and foolishly) took the 'interesting' route onto the crest of the spur to the E of the tor, approaching from the E. Much granite, much scrambling. At last, the exact morning tea spot was found at 9.20am. The earliest morning tea I've ever called.

Leaving morning tea to the W, the going was again relatively easy dodging tors to the left and right along the ridge for about 1km. Then, for reasons even unknown to me, I turned S and was heading back towards the cars until Peter kindly pointed this out to me. We were well E of The Onion! So W we turned, reaching The Onion at 10.30am. The earliest brunch I've ever called as we drank in the magnificent views. Party members dressed in brightly coloured robes and posed appropriately for photos.

We then took a wander out the little NW spur from the top, which revealed an even better angle for the staggering views. A good view N to Tinderry Peak revealed a belt of green forest providing a probable good route from the top of Roberts Creek to the top for 24 Sep 11.

Leaving at 1.15pm, we headed SE to the top of a drainage line at around 1400m. Some 'interesting' granite scrambling in places, coming off the sides of ridges. A few patches of snow on the cooler, S-facing slopes. The gully and creek line provided an easy hand rail to take us 250m down to pick up the old vehicle track just near the fire trail.

Many thanks to Mark B, Tony B, Karen C, Peter C, Roger E, Eric G, Linda G and Jenny H for direction, banter, Spanish conversation and plenty of laughter.

Distance: 10.1km Climb: 500m. Time: 8.05am - 1.20pm (5hrs 15mins), with 45mins of stops.
Grading: M/R,ptX; M(10)

KMZ file for Google Earth/Maps: The Onion

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This page last updated 28Aug22