Mt. Kate – Sat. 22nd February 2025
We’re not even sure that there has been a Boots N’ All walk to Mt. Kate near Cradle Mountain. We have been to nearby peaks and high places, but here’s an opportunity to visit a rarely accessed location, high above the Dove River and Pencil Pine area.
The walk begins from the Ronny Creek carpark-bus stop, and briefly follows the track east past some cabins, climbing steadily for a little under 1 km before turning north and climbing steeply, gaining 150m altitude over about 800 metres. Once the escarpment is reached, the going is fairly level for the next km, with a further 60m gain over the final 500 metres or so. Total walk distance is about 7 km return.
Most of the walk is off track and people need to ready for uneven ground walking on low alpine vegetation. It can be wet underfoot in places. This walk is rated medium, with long driving distances and steep inclines. Because of the walk distance and steep ascent, a moderately good level of fitness is needed. Energetic older children should cope well with the conditions. Boots and gaiters are strongly advised for this walk. Because of the exposed alpine conditions, walkers must be fully prepared for poor weather, even if the weather forecast is good. Please see the warnings below.
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk leader, Peter Davies, ph. 0414 516 268 to book in. The departure time is 7:00 am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting places if coming from elsewhere could be Sheffield at Claude Rd. turnoff at 7:50 am or Moina at 8:20 am.
The group should arrive at the Visitor Centre by approx. 8:45 am. If you would like to arrange to meet the group at these places or elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time. The leader must be notified of any other people you intend to bring along.
To access this area from northern Tasmania: Roads to Cradle Mt. are well signposted, and the area can be accessed from several directions. From Sheffield, go south along Claude Rd through Gowrie Park and westward down into the Forth Valley (now Cethana Rd.), continuing up the other side to Moina. Turn south into Cradle Mt. Rd. After approx. 20 km, you will reach the Cradle Mt. turnoff. Turn left (still called Cradle Mt. Rd.) and 3 km south, the Visitor Centre and shuttle bus terminus are on the left.
Please note that you will require a Parks Pass (which can be that of the car you travel in) and you will need to buy a shuttle bus ticket at the Visitor Centre – $15 per person.
Warnings:
The following codes [from our 2025 walks calendar] apply:
D Drive distance requires early departure
M Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.
S Steep incline for at least part of the way
E Exposed alpine conditions ; can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped.
For equipment and safety guidelines, Click Here.
Map details:
Mt. Kate: 1:100000 map is Sophia (8014) and 1:25000 map is Pencil Pine (4039)
Map reference: Short ref. 131921
Zone Easting Northing Latitude Longitude
55G 4 13 280 53 92 290 -41.61640 145.95911
Mt. Kate is worth 1 peakbagger point. See Peakbaggers List 2017, which can be downloaded (Excel) from Peak Baggers and The Abel Mountains | Hobart Walking Club. At the time of writing, the website to which we used to link has been taken down, along with the 1983 and 2000 versions, developed from the original 1968 Hobart Walking Club version. We can’t guarantee that peaks you have bagged in the past are still on the current version. You can download the 2000 version from our website here [link]. A parallel and more recent but not identical list system is The Abels – also linked from the HWC website, which also contains some other listings of Tasmanian peaks.
For GPX (.gpx) and Google Earth (.kml) versions of the track: Click here to browse our collection.
Direct links: GPX for this walk ¦ KML for this walk
Right-click on the file and save target as to a location of your choice. (Suggest you click the Last modified at top to sort by date to get the most recent at top to find the file for the next walk).
