Australian Alps Walking Track - Mt Buggery to The Viking

Day: 09
Date: Thursday, 25 April 2019
Start:  0.4km south of Mt Buggery
Finish:  1.0km north of The Viking
Daily Kilometres:  14.9km
Total AAWT Kilometres:  183.7
Weather:  Mild and mostly sunny
Accommodation:  Tent
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Muesli
  Lunch:  Trail Mix
  Dinner:  Rehydrated meal
Aches:  Julie now trying anti-inflammatories for her sore ankle and we are both very tired.

Highlight:  After the many missed vistas because of yesterday's fog, we savoured the crystal clear 360 degree views we had atop Mt Speculation (1668m).  It followed a tough climb, but it was well worth it.
Lowlight:  None really.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:

We had another early start (6:40am), somewhat apprehensive about the challenges in front of us.  The guidebook suggested our average speed was likely to be between one and two kilometres per hour and Julie had been avidly reading the trail notes which described steep ascents and descents, and difficult trail and navigation.  And, I had vivid and scary memories of my last climb up The Viking Chimney.  The previous day's weather had also dampened our spirits and there's nothing inspiring about donning wet socks and boots to do it all over again.

However, every day is a new day when you are hiking, and although foggy as we started, the sun soon broke through and our spirits lifted.  The forest brightened and we had great views as we climbed our first named peak for the day, Mt Buggery (1605m).  There followed the aptly named Horrible Gap, a steep slippery descent of a few hundred vertical metres to a notch in the mountains, followed by an equally steep ascent to Mt Speculation (see above).  After admiring the view from the latter for some time, we descended to Camp Creek, our only "reliable" water for the day and had breakfast while drying our tent flysheet in the sun.  We loaded up with 3 litres of water each, enough to get us through the next 24 hours, but not relishing the extra weight.  Our next ascent was the snow-gum covered Mt Despair (1464m) and then followed an, at times, hair-raising descent across wet and slippery rocks, punctuated with superb views of The Razor, a high knife-edge rock mountain.

The trail continued to be challenging and we both had falls, though no injuries, and resorted to crawling on hands and knees in parts.  Balance can easily be lost with 15-20kg on your back.  The Viking (1519m) with its steep rock escarpment was now visible in front of us, heightening our apprehension about its ascent, and we didn't welcome the slippery descent to Viking Saddle which preceded it.  According to the guidebook, the climb from Viking Saddle to The Viking was 1.2km, and Julie timed it as taking us one and three quarter hours.  Initially it was slow because it was relentlessly steep, but then we reached The Viking Chimney, a cleft in the rocks beneath a rock fall, that was literally like a dark vertical chimney.  Kindly, someone had installed a rope suspended from a dead tree wedged at the top of The Chimney, but it was too narrow to climb wearing our rucksacks, so I went up first then hauled up the rucksacks which Julie had tied to the rope, then up climbed Julie.  It was exhausting and scary, but gave us a great sense of satisfaction when we got to the top.

After a short break to take in more spectacular views from the peak, we walked another kilometre before finding a rare spot for our tent in the forest, again right across the trail, and we camped for the night.  We only made 15km for the day, but it was very rewarding and satisfying.