Mt. Roland & Mt. Van Dyke - Sat. 11th October 2014

This Sat. 11th October - the destination is Mt. Van Dyke and Mt. Roland. Your leader for the day is peakbagger extrordinaire Kent Lillico. The walk begins from ONeill's Rd. in Gowrie Park, and climbs steeply over 3 km, then more gently over 1.5 km to reach Mt. Van Dyke (1084m) after approx. 3 km and 700 metres altitude. Depending on the fitness of the group and time taken for the first peak (and other factors such as weather conditions), the group will either return via ONeill's track (about 5 km back to cars) or continue north to the summit of Mt. Roland (1233m), about 4 km walking from Van Dyke, with relatively gentle grades. From there, the walk descends the north face of Roland very steeply to reach the Kings Rd. car park after 2 km (800 metres lower down). The walk is rated "medium-hard" due to the distances and steepness and the need to walk over rough and rocky sections of track on the final descent. Fitness, appropriate equipment and experience of alpine walking conditions are factors you should consider. Mt. Roland, a beautiful, much loved landmark and its smaller partner, Van Dyke, offer great views over north-west and into World Heritage area.

Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk leader, Kent Lillico Ph. 0428451528 to book in. The departure time is 7:30am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting place if coming from elsewhere could be Sheffield at Claude Rd. turnoff at 8:20 am.

If you would like to arrange to meet the group at these places or elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time. The leader should always be notified of any other people you intend to bring along, and you should always contact the walk leader if intending to participate in a particular Boots N' All walk.

To access this area from northern Tasmania: From Launceston, follow the Bass Highway past Deloraine and turn left into Railton Rd. just short of Elizabeth Town.  Continue for just under 11 km to the Mersey River bridge at Kimberley and turn left just after the bridge into Bridle Track Road, which will take you through to Sheffield after approx. 14km. The meeting place is on the left if approaching from Launceston, and close to the centre of Sheffield.  Gowrie Park is approx. 15 km along Claude Road. O'Neill's Rd. is on left, about 150m short of the main Gowrie Park junction. The walk begins about 1 km up O'Neill's Rd. [King's Rd. is in Claude Rd. township, and about 6.5km short of Gowrie Park]

Warnings:
The highest point of Mts Roland and Van Dyke are almost 1300 and 1100 metres above sea level, reached by crossing exposed alpine ridge and plateau.
E    Exposed alpine conditions – can be dangerous in poor weather if not fully equipped (You must be equipped for poor conditions even if the weather forecast is promising).
S    Steep incline for at least part of the way
M    Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.
L  Long day's walking

If you are unsure of equipment requirements, Visit the Boots N' All section of the sutas.org.au website per link below and read "Clothing suggestions for exposed conditions"
  
Map details and references:
For both peaks, 1:100000 map is Forth (Tasmap 8115) and 1:25000 map for upper area is Cethana (TasMap 4240)
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Mt. Van Dyke:  Short ref. 381064
Zone      Easting        Northing    Latitude      Longitude
55G    4 38 190    54 06 540    -41.49037    146.25954
Mt. Roland
:  Short ref. 386095
Zone      Easting        Northing    Latitude      Longitude
55G    4 38 690    54 09 750    -41.46150    146.26586

Mt. Roland is worth 2 peakbagger points, and Van Dyke 1 point. For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's Guide (2000 revision) which can be found and downloaded (as an Excel spreadsheet) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm  The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.