Peak Hill  

30th MARCH 2025

This is another of the moderate shorter trips the club has often listed that I have never been on over the years. It has a justifiable reputation for its view and from only 1240m, so I was happy to lead. The forecast had NW conditions and cloudy in the mix but otherwise ok so Colin and I were surprised when no one else turned up at Church Corner. Peak Hill is a long drive for a short walk but the draw of somewhere I hadn’t been before was too much, so we took my vehicle and went anyway even though Colin had been there two or three times before, including down the old northern route.

Walking after 9.30am from the DOC access point at the south east end of this impressive bump, there were already two other vehicles there and more people followed us up in a moderate NW. I found the track surface not particularly easy due to the rutted condition caused by extensive use since the south east route was opened up. The massive cairn on top is also no doubt the result of the numbers of people arriving there.

On top at 11.30am we exchanged photos with the two women who followed us up and then continued nor-west following the old track down for a while. But then decided with an unanticipated GPS problem it would be better to return the same way we had come up. So, we returned and stopped for lunch in a shallow basin just before the top. After lunch as we descended the NW died and people continued to come up. Arriving at the car at 2.00pm± the forecast SW had arrived and looked particularly gloomy without actually raining.

Driving home we did another “never been there before” and went in to Terrace Downs for a coffee. We were just Merv Meredith and Colin Wilmshurst.  MM