Mt.
Roland & Mt. Van Dyke - Sat. 11th October 2014
This Sat. 11th October - the destination is Mt. Van Dyke and Mt. Roland. Your leader for the day is peakbagger extrordinaire Kent Lillico. The walk begins from ONeill's Rd. in Gowrie Park, and climbs steeply over 3 km, then more gently over 1.5 km to reach Mt. Van Dyke (1084m) after approx. 3 km and 700 metres altitude. Depending on the fitness of the group and time taken for the first peak (and other factors such as weather conditions), the group will either return via ONeill's track (about 5 km back to cars) or continue north to the summit of Mt. Roland (1233m), about 4 km walking from Van Dyke, with relatively gentle grades. From there, the walk descends the north face of Roland very steeply to reach the Kings Rd. car park after 2 km (800 metres lower down). The walk is rated "medium-hard" due to the distances and steepness and the need to walk over rough and rocky sections of track on the final descent. Fitness, appropriate equipment and experience of alpine walking conditions are factors you should consider. Mt. Roland, a beautiful, much loved landmark and its smaller partner, Van Dyke, offer great views over north-west and into World Heritage area.
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk
leader, Kent
Lillico Ph. 0428451528 to book in.
The departure time is 7:30am from
the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting place if
coming from elsewhere could be Sheffield at Claude Rd. turnoff at 8:20
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 should always be notified of any other people you intend to bring along, and you should always contact the walk leader if intending to participate in a particular Boots N' All walk.
To access this area
from northern Tasmania: From
Launceston, follow the Bass Highway past Deloraine and turn left into
Railton Rd. just short of Elizabeth Town. Continue for just under
11 km to the Mersey River bridge at Kimberley and turn left just after
the bridge into Bridle Track Road, which will take you through to
Sheffield after approx. 14km. The meeting place is on the left if
approaching from Launceston, and close to the centre of Sheffield.
Gowrie Park is approx. 15 km along Claude Road. O'Neill's Rd. is on
left, about 150m short of the main Gowrie Park junction. The walk begins
about 1 km up O'Neill's Rd. [King's Rd. is in Claude Rd. township, and
about 6.5km short of Gowrie Park]
Warnings:
The highest point of Mts Roland and Van Dyke are almost 1300 and 1100
metres above sea level, reached by crossing exposed alpine ridge and
plateau.
E Exposed alpine conditions – can be dangerous in poor
weather if not fully equipped (You must be equipped for poor conditions
even if the weather forecast is promising).
M Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with
wet feet.
L Long day's walking
If you are
unsure of equipment requirements, Visit the Boots N' All section of the
sutas.org.au website per link below and read "Clothing suggestions for
exposed conditions"
Map details and
references:
For both peaks, 1:100000 map is Forth (Tasmap 8115) and 1:25000 map for
upper area is Cethana (TasMap 4240).
Mt. Van Dyke: Short
ref. 381064
Zone Easting
Northing Latitude
Longitude
55G 4 38 190 54 06 540
-41.49037 146.25954
Mt. Roland:
Short ref. 386095
Zone
Easting Northing
Latitude Longitude
55G 4 38 690 54 09 750
-41.46150 146.26586
Mt. Roland is worth 2 peakbagger points, and Van
Dyke 1 point. For listing of peakbagger points,
see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's Guide
(2000 revision) which can be found and downloaded (as an Excel
spreadsheet) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm The same
web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.