13ODR Silver Peaks Tramp

By Andrew Willmott | Posted: Thursday May 6, 2021

Having done a lot of the preparatory work prior to the holidays it was a matter of quickly getting up to speed again, with what was planned.

Monday and Tuesday were spent hurriedly finalising route details, confirming arrangements for getting to the Silver Peaks (and back) and then organising group gear and food supplies.

The boys did a fantastic job of their planning and arrived for Wednesday morning's gear check well prepared. After this they could finally test their legs... Despite researching the track many of the boys found themselves struggling with the steep technical track, especially being fully loaded up. After the first hour though everyone had accepted that this was going to be hard and just got on with it. Recharging the batteries at Phillip Cox Memorial Hut the boys powered on to The Gap for lunch. A quick diversion up to the ABC Cave was a highlight and inspired a few to perhaps return at a later date for a different camping experience. With daylight savings well behind us we quickly continued on to our campsite at the base on the Devil's Staircase. Approximately 11km in 5 hours, including stops, the boys were ready to eat! Tents were quickly erected and Trangias bought to life.

Thursday morning saw some slow to rise. Perhaps the frost coating the tents might explain the reluctance to get up, and out. Having breakfasted and reluctantly stripped off some layers we started up the aptly named 'Devil's Staircase'. After about an hour we had reached the highpoint of the tramp (767m above sea level) and were enjoying a reducing gradient. Hitting Pulpit Rock the boys found a new lease of life and the pace increased further as we passed Green Hill and out to Mountain Road carpark. A distance only slightly shorter than Wednesday and knocked off in 3 hours!

Arriving back at School the group gear was handed in and rubbish disposed of. Only some damp tents to deal with...tomorrow.

Having done a 1-day tramp, the boys will now begin looking at how this had prepared them for this experience and reflect on their planning successes and short-comings.

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