Kate did a great job of organising a day trip up Conical Hill in the Hope Range including arranging perfect weather, and then ended up with a nasty cold and sadly couldn’t join us. Fortunately there were enough experienced members in the group that the trip could go ahead, including Kath who had done the trip multiple times before and knew it well.
The morning was chilly but the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We had a beautiful drive through the crisp morning with lovely views of the snow covered mountains. Thanks to Kate’s good directions and Kath’s local knowledge, we took all the right turns through the forestry roads, and navigated our way around some fallen trees and through some deep mud to get to the road end.
From there it was a good climb through some pine trees and quickly into lovely native bush We quickly stripped off the layers, some getting right down to T shirts. Towards the top the ground was frozen hard with some icy patches, and we had to be careful not to slip. There were some neat icicles hanging under banks.
We were surprised how quickly we got to the top, beating the 3 hour track time by about 20 minutes. I’m not sure where the name ‘Conical Hill’ comes from, because it was really more of a slightly elevated point at the beginning of a ridgeline.
The day was still relatively young and the weather and scenery were beautiful, so we continued along the ridgeline for about another half an hour before stopping for lunch, walking through patches of snow along the way.
We looked across to the Robert Ridge to the left, and Mount Owen to the right, all snow covered and looking their best against the blue sky.
There were interesting rock formations along the ridgeline, with even better views to be had from the top of some of them.
After lunch we returned back the way we came. Most people lost their footing a few times coming back down over the icy ground, but we all made it to the bottom with ankles intact. All in all a great day out in a beautiful spot with excellent company. Thanks for organising a great trip Kate, even if you couldn’t join us!
We were: Kath Ballentine, Leah Parker, David and Beth Lowe, Chris Tilley, Sarah Ruth, Oliver Champeau, Simon Coulter, and Michele Cunningham (scribe).
