Barrier Knob, Darran Mountains

Today’s weather was supposed to be a bit iffy, so we decided on a more mellow goal for the day. We’d hike up the Gertrude Valley and on to Barrier Peak via the Gertrude Saddle if the weather looked conducive.

The high cloud shielded us from the sun as we strode up valley on a good track. Above the small section of native bush, the route meandered through low alpine scrub and up to the tussock line. As we walked up the valley, we noted the evidence of massive avalanches from winter past. All around the tussock lay flattened where the debris used to lie. Slightly further on, the snow debris had metamorphosed into a uniform snow sheet.

We were awed again by the sheer walls that flanked the valley. To the west, the Psycopath wall of Mt Talbot, home to a 500m grade 22 vegetated rock climb. To the East, the walls of Crosscut were dissected by numerous amazingly vertical canyons of huge proportion.

When the valley steepened we sidled out of the main watercourse and climbed the true right. Not far above, we weaved back across the stream and onto the true left. Soon we were climbing the immaculate granite slick rock that lead us toward Black Lake.

An old set of cables enticed us up through the steeper bits to our vantage point of the lake. Still brimming with icebergs, the lake was fantastically beautiful.

Continuing up the cables and then up snow slopes, we plugged our way up to Gertrude Saddle. Cindy and I were joined by Charlie Kea for lunch, as we lay back and enjoyed the view down towards the Tasman. Collossal valleys emptied into the main valley before us, Ridges seemed vertical and all ended abruptly. It was indeed an incredible sight.

Barrier Knob is normally a waypoint on the route for serious climbers heading over into Moraine Creek/Lake Adeliade to climb routes on Sabre and other classic peaks. But today, it was our final goal. We walked up easy slabs, Charlie Kea in constant tow until it was time for crampons. Though the snow was reasonably soft, it was all snow up until the summit.

As we continued upwards, the cloud base continued down. Wishing we’d begun our day a bit sooner, we sped up to try and bag the peak before we were whited out. Soon it began to snow and we decided it wasn’t really worth continuing, despite being within 100m of the summit. It wouldn’t take much for us to wander over a cliff or cornice…

Our days adventure was completed as a 4 hour round trip.