Pinnacles Tramp

Darryn, Brendan and I were planning on tramping up on Saturday, staying over at the hut and back on Sunday, but we discovered on arrival that the hut was completely booked out - a bit of a suprise, I didn't think it would be so popular in the middle of winter (it sleeps 80). So instead we did a bit of a day tramp then drove to Onemana to stay the night, and back early the next morning. The weather was excellent, a pleasant surprise as it had been raining continuously for the previous week. We walked the first stage up to the hut (which was more like a luxury lodge than a hut really), then after a break headed up to the summit. This last stage was short, but very steep, up rocks and ladders. We stopped at the top for lunch and Brendan and Darryn succeeded in making me very nervous by scrambling over rocks walking very close to the edge (there was a big drop). The view from the top was spectacular, especially great since we had a near cloudless day.

On the way down Brendan and I opted to go the short way while Darryn chose the path less travelled (aka the long way). We discovered that the track times were quite generous as we managed to half the estimates given (Darryn was running, but still). The downhill seemed a lot harder than the uphill as the stairs were never ending and they weren't easy on our knees and legs.

On the way back we stopped for a deserved soak in the hot pools at Miranda.