A Scrub bashing Epic: The Successful Ascent of Mt Latrobe, Wilson Prom

With our previous failed attempt echoing at the back of our minds, we spotted a window of good weather at the Prom, and the decision was made – this time, we were getting to the summit of Mt Latrobe (the highest point of Wilson's Prom). Having learnt our lesson from our previous attempt however, this time we came properly prepared. *cue dramatic music*

GARDENING GLOVES!

They were our secret to success. Other important ingredients included light packs – we were going fast and light to make it to Mt Latrobe and back in a day (although we did have enough extras that we were prepared to stay overnight if we had to), and it made the acrobatic manoeuvres required when scrub bashing on steep slopes oh so much easier. We carried plenty of water, M&Ms, jelly beans, as well as some other more boring food (and the emergency tube of army ration condensed milk).

Spending Sunday night at Tidal River, we woke up early and drove to the Oberon carpark for breakfast, before finalising our packing, donning our scrub-proof hiking attire, and setting off finally as the sun rose. There was an early scare as Megan’s large dinner the night before combined with a muesli breakfast obviously hadn’t been enough for her: with plummeting blood sugar she struggled to walk the graded path to Windy Saddle. This problem was solved with an impromptu second breakfast, and all was fine again, the mission could begin.

With memories of thick impenetrable scrub from last time, we found this time round it was comparably easy going. The light packs helped, and we were a bit more canny when it came to picking the best route through the scrub, and the best line up the mountain. In general it was a bit less damp than last time as well, which helped as well.

Having reached Mt Ramsay in about an hour, we quickly admired the view, then set off again. We only made the mistake of sitting down in leech territory once – the saddle between Ramsay and Latrobe is a BAD resting spot people, even if reaching it does feel like a significant milestone. We didn’t feel the scrub in the saddle area was particularly bad. From memory (repressed though they are) the worst scrub patches we hit were near the summit of Ramsay, with a few nasty bands coming up Ramsay from Windy Saddle, and a few more unpleasant bands coming up on the south side of Mt Latrobe.

Finally we reached the summit of Latrobe shortly after midday. There was much rejoicing, photo taking, lunch eating, and claiming of the mountain for the great pirate nation.

Our return journey was relatively uneventful, as we passed by the site of the Great Leech Battle of 2007 (where we had fought of the two leeches Megan had somehow acquired, and there was much singeing of leg hairs), and by the Campsite of the Great Summit Attempt of 2006.

By the time we got to the summit of Mt Ramsay, we felt like we were almost on a graded path it was all so familiar. As the scrub finally spat us out into Windy Saddle there was much rejoicing and consumption of jelly beans. As we walked back to the carpark, the sun sunk lower in the sky, and we had a lovely sunset to watch, silhouetting the burnt tree trunks. We reached the van just before the sun started tipping the edge of the horizon. Aaaahhhhh.

THE STATISTICS

Return time from Mt Oberon carpark: 11 hours 20 minutes

Attached leeches found on person: 3

Unattached leeches found on person: Innumerable

--- Megan and Alex

A short drive in the Hindu Kush

Ok, so my recent five week trip to Afghanistan wasn’t an official LUMC outing, but we did see some impressive mountains and white-water, which might interest some of you. The mountains of Afghanistan, the Hindu Kush, are the western extension of the Pamir, Karakoram and Himalaya and rise up to nearly 7,500 m. Areas, such as Nuristan and Badakhshan (where lapis lazuli is mined), were largely unexplored until the ‘50s and ‘60s, when explorers such as Wilfred Thesiger and Eric Newby became the first Westerners to enter some of the dead-end valleys since Alexander the Great and his armies over 2,300 years ago.

A trickle of hardy (some might say foolhardy) tourists are returning to Afghanistan after years of conflicts put the country out of bounds. Some of the older ones are reliving their trips (literal and metaphorical) from the ‘60s when Afghanistan was a popular stop on the hippy trail to India; many of the others are on overland journeys, across Asia – we met one Aussie who was cycling to Europe! Whilst not wishing to belittle the risks and problems facing Afghanistan, I think that the Western media tends to feed the public’s stereotypes of the country – suicide bombings, drugs, the oppression of women and bearded fanatics. I hope this short blog will give you an alternative picture of the country.

The breathtakingly beautiful landscape of Afghanistan sucks you in, and once there, some of the kindest people you’ll meet anywhere in the world make you want to return. For me, the definition of hospitality is when people scratching an existence from their flocks of sheep and goats share what little they have with you. Such generosity is typical of the Moslem world, in my experience, and almost always impossible to re-pay – they simply won’t accept anything in return.



So what activities could a LUMCer get up to out there? Well, the Minaret of Jam, where we worked in 2003 and 2005, is 65m tall – the spiral staircase up to the top gives you a great cardio work-out! Beside it are the remains of an 800 year old bridge.

Unfortunately, more recent bridges get washed away in the annual snow-melt floods, so you have the choice of attempting to ford the river in a 4WD or taking the ‘slide of death’.



Or...



And there are plenty of opportunities for ‘scree-scrambling’ on the slopes around the minaret, with majestic views if you make it to the top.







This year, however, we weren’t able to go to Jam, for a variety of tedious bureaucratic reasons which I won’t bore you. Stuck in Kabul for a month, we were itching for some fresh air (the city’s open sewers get pretty rank in 40 degree heat), so we drove up to the Salang Pass (ca 3400 m asl) one Friday. En route, we stopped for some delicious mulberries. . The 2.6 km long Salang Tunnel was opened in the 1964, a gift from the USSR; rather less altruistically, the Soviets used it as the main supply-route to Kabul following their invasion in 1979. The Salang was consequently the focus of some of the fiercest fighting during the war. Carcases of Soviet tanks litter the route and many of the valley sides are still being de-mined.



The tunnel is still the main artery feeding Kabul – overloaded trucks trundle backwards and forwards, although some drivers are a bit optimistic about what will fit through.





At the top of the pass, we stopped for tasty fried trout and took in the scenery before free-wheeling down to the village of Doshi. The north side of the pass is quite different from the south – much more humid, with lush rice paddies and irrigated wheat fields, ribbons of green lining the river in an otherwise barren landscape. Stalls of juicy peaches, pots of honey and kebabs smoking over hot coals dot the roadside villages – it’s quite an idyllic scene, until you come across the next overturned piece of military hardware and remember where you are.

Check out the project blog if you’re interested in what else we got up to:
www.dct-mgap.blogspot.com

Photos by DCT, apart from Fig. 2 (Ivan Cucco) and Figs. 6 & 9 (Dr Fiona Kidd)