Tinderry Twin & Tinderry Peak, NSW, Australia

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2015 October: Day trip
   - Tinderry Twin
   - Tinderry Peak
NSW Monaro region, Australia


Prolog

JH from Canberra,
and Ruoran Zhou & I from Sydney,
meet up at Michelago at 6am for today's climb.

By the way, if you know the whereabouts of Ruoran Zhou, please contact me.
Or ask her to contact me.
( My email address: mntviews@gmail.com )
Thank you !

Backgroound:
    Ruoran Zhou studied & worked in Denmark.
    Came to Sydney Australia in 2014 (or 2015) ???
    Hobby in Australia: Bushwalking / climbing / hiking ... That's how I knew her.
    Left Australia in 2016 ... perhaps around Oct/Nov/Dec ???  to Denmark/China ???
    No one in Australia has heard from her since  :-(


Tinderry Peak & Tinderry Twin

Tinderry Peak, 1619 meters, is the highest peak in the Tinderry Mountains of NSW Monaro region.

Tinderry Twin, 1585 meters, is about 2.5 km (as the crow flies) north of Tinderry Peak.

The best way to climb these two mountains is to do a car shuffle, like the way we do it today:
- Park my car at the start of Round Flat Firetrail.
- Then hop into JH's car and take it to the start of Mt Allen Firetrail.
- Then walk from one car to the other, climbing Tinderry Twin and Tinderry Peak in between.


Highlights

1) Highlight of the day is a friendly Jack Russell Terrier who joins us for the climb. She belongs to the house at the start of Mt Allen Firetrail and must have accompanied other climbing parties in the past ... because she knows where we are going and leads us up Mt Allen Firetrail. And she is fast, outpaces even the fast JH by miles  :-)

When we go off-trail to climb Tinderry Twin, we thought she would leave us. No, she accompanies us all the way to its summit, then accompanies us to climb Tinderry Peak as well. She is only a small dog ... really amazed at the amount of energy she has. In the end, we give her a lift in our car at Round Flat Firetrail back to her home at Mt Allen Firetrail.

2) Near the summit of Tinderry twin, there is a face-like rock that stands up like a sentinel ... see Photos #17 & 18. I thought the rock is un-climbable, but Ruoran manages to climb it ... amazing woman !

3) After climbing Tinderry Peak, instead of making a beeline for the car, we detour to visit 2 rocky outcrops. They turn out to have fascinating rock formations, plus great views to the valleys below. It will be worthwhile to arrange a separate bushwaking trip just to explore more of these outcrops.


Maps

- 1:100,000 scaled 8726 Michelago
- 1:25,000 scaled 8726-4S Michelago
- 1:25,000 scaled 8726-1S Tinderry

The relevant part of the 1:25,000 scaled map can be downloaded from:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B877-h5SCJaSQ0taNmR2ZlZ0RGc/view?usp=sharing

For what it is worth, I have reproduced the map here.
But you are better off to download the map from the above link.

GPS tracklog file & Route

Our GPX tracklog file can be downloaded from:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B877-h5SCJaSVzZkWWhoVjh3Znc/view?usp=sharing

The 1,25,000 scaled map with the tracklog superimposed on it can be downloaded from:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B877-h5SCJaSTnhxRkhJTXBGNDg/view?usp=sharing

For what it is worth, I have reproduced the map here (tracklog in brown).
But you are better off to download the map from the above link.
Of the 2 red circles:
- Upper circle: 1st rocky outcrop visited by us after climbing Tinderry Peak.
- Lower circle: 2nd rocky outcrop.

Summary of our route:
- Park my car at junction of Tinderry Road and Round Flat Firetrail.
- Park JH's car at junction of Burra Road and Mount Allen Firetrail.
- Walk up Mount Allen Firetrail.
- 3.2 km later, turn into West Tinderry Firetrail and walk eastward.
- 1.8 km on the West Tinderry Firetrail, and at the highest point of the trail, veer off-trail and bushbash in a south-easterly direction towards Tinderry Twin.
- Climb Tinderry Twin.
- Bushbash south to climb Tinderry Peak
- Visit 2 rocky outcrops
- Get onto Round Flat Firetrail and walk to my car at the junction with Tinderry Road.


Timeline & Distance

06:54   0.0 km  Start at Mt Allen Firetrail trailhead (junction with Burra Rd)
07:42   3.2 km  At junction of Mt Allen Firetrail & West Tinderry Firetrail
08:06   5.0 km  At highest point of West Tinderry Firetrail

Rest

08:10   5.0 km  Leave West Tinderry Firetrail, start bushbashing to Tinderry Twin
09:26   6.6 km  At Tinderry Twin summit

Morning Tea

09:54   6.6 km  Leave Tinderry Twin summit
12:20   9.4 km  At Tinderry Peak summit

Lunch

12:56   9.5 km  Leave Tinderry Peak summit
13:51  10.8 km  At 1st rocky outcrop

Slowly passing through

14:02  11.1 km  Leave 1st rocky outcrop
14:22  11.6 km  At 2nd rocky outcrop

Explore around and take a rest

14:39  11.7 km  Leave 2nd rocky outcrop
15:45  13.9 km  At Round Flat Firetrail

Rest

15:50  13.9 km  Resume walking
16:06  15.0 km  At where the dog chases a wild goat

Watch dog chases wild goat

16:09  15.1 km  Resume walking
16:19  15.8 km  Finish at Round Flat Firetrail trailhead (junction with Tinderry Rd)

==============================================

Total:  9 hrs 25 mins
           15.8 km  Distance is from Google Earth
           18.4 km  Distance is from Garmin GPS


Pictures - Mt Allen Firetrail & West Tinderry Firetrail

1)  The start of Mt Allen Firetrail ~~~
There is a locked gate, otherwise JH could have driven his car up.
The board behind the locked gate says:
    Tinderry Nature Reserve
    Authorised vehicles only
    All flora and fauna protected

2)  Nearing the end of Mt Allen Firetrail and looking back ~~~
The mountain in the middle of the pic is Mt Michelago. I have not climb it. As there is a trig at its summit, it should be worthwhile climbing. (But it seems to be in a private property, hence climbing it maybe a hassle as one needs to get permission from the property owner.)

3)  Now on West Tinderry Firetrail ~~~
This pic is funny ... JH is tall, but not such a super giant compared to Ruoran  :-)

4)  Having a quick rest - now Ruoran stands taller  :-)  ~~~
About 1 hour 15 minutes of walking (5 km, and 550 meters gain in elevation), we reach here, the highest point on the West Tinderry Firetrail. After the rest, we'll veer off the trail and bushbash towards the south-east.

Bushbash to Tinderry Twin

5)  Bushbashing towards Tinderry Twin ... the peak in the pic.

6)  Passing by this slab of rock ~~~
In the lower pic:
- Tinderry Twin is directly in front.
- JH is taking photos ... see Photo #7.

7)  The slab of rock also gives us a good view towards the west and south-west.
The arrows point to, from left to right:
- Mt Clear (red arrow), 1603 m, right on NSW/ACT border
- The small township of Michelago (green arrow)
- Booths Hill (red arrow), 1583 m

8)  We are closer to Tinderry Twin.

9)  Passing by a bunch of rocks ~~~
Ruoran loves climbing up rocks. She is having fun ... like a toddler finds a jar of candies.

10)  If there is a rock, you can't stop Ruoran from climbing it !

11)  Close to the top of Tinderry Twin ~~~
I thought once we climb up these rocks, we would be at the summit.

12)  We've climb up the rocks of the previous pic ... but no, this is not the summit.

13)  The summit is in front ... so still is a bit more of climbing to do.

14)  Philotheca myoporoides (Long-leaf Wax Flower) ... near the summit
(Previously known as Eriostemon myoporoides)

Tinderry Twin summit and a face-like rock

15)  We are there ! At the summit of Tinderry Twin, 1575 meters ~~~
- Upper pic: Ruoran.  The green arrow points to the small township of Michelago.
- Lower pic: Me!  The red arrow points to Mt Michelago, the mountain we saw in Photo #2.
- The blue circle is a rock that looks like a face ... see photos #17 & #18.

16)  JH and the Jack Russell Terrier ~~~
- The red arrow points to Mt Michelago.
- The dog belongs to the house at the start of Mt Allen Firetrail and must have accompanied other climbing parties in the past ... because she seemed to know where we were going and led us up Mt Allen Firetrail. When we went off-trail to climb Tinderry Twin, we thought she would leave us. No, she accompanied us all the way to here. She will accompany us to climb Tinderry Peak as well. She is only a small dog ... really amazed at the amount of energy she has. In the end, we give her a lift in our car from Round Flat Firetrail back to her home at Mt Allen Firetrail.

17)  Still at the summit ~~~
Typical Ruoran, leaving no rock unclimbed ... she manages to climb up this rock that looks like a human face and which I thought was un-climbable.
- The green arrow on the left points to the small township of Michelago.
- The red arrow points to Mt Michelago.

No one has ever mentioned about this interesting face-like rock at the summit. Wonder why?


18)  Closer look at "the face".

19)  Still at the summit ~~~
This is Tinderry Peak with a rocky top - we are going there next.

Bushbash to Tinderry Peak

20)  We are now bushbashing to Tinderry Peak, the red arrow.

21)  Plenty of rock scrambling

22)  Plenty of Oxylobium ellipticum (Common Shaggy Pea) throughout the slopes of the Tinderries

23)  Getting closer to Tinderry Peak

Climbing up to Tinderry Peak summit

24)  Now climbing up to the summit

25)  The yellow arrows indicate how I climb up to the summit. (Click on the image to enlarge it.) I have trouble in climbing up the cliff just below the vertical yellow arrow on the right ... I keep on slipping down. In the end I make it !
The others are much better rock climbers. They are ahead of me, so I don't know which way did they climb up.

Tinderry Peak summit

26)  At the summit of Tinderry Peak, 1619 meters ~~~
- Upper pic: Judging by the big metal bolts on the rock, at some point in the past, there must have been a large trig planted right here.
- Lower pic: Ruoran and the dog which accompanies us all the way here !!! (JH helped the dog to climb up some the steeper cliffs.) We have lunch at the summit and I gave her a quarter of my salmon sandwich. She eats it with relish.

27)  JH and I

28)  View from the summit of Tinderry Peak is fantastic ~~~
Towards the north is Tinderry Twin, the triangle-shaped mountain in the centre of the pic. It is always a pleasure to see a mountain you've just climbed ... we came from there 2 hours 15 minutes ago.

29)  Towards the east is an rocky outcrop pointed to by the red arrow. We'll be heading there next. The rocky outcrop turns out to be a very interesting place ... see pics later on.
But first, we have lunch here at the top.
After lunch, we'll descend the summit in the south-east direction, follow the yellow arrows. Once we climb down the rocks, we'll go east to the rocky outcrop.

30)  This is a continuation to the right of the previous pic: (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
- Left red arrow points to Mt Clear, 1603 m, right on NSW/ACT border.
- Right green arrow points to the small township of Michelago.

31)  We are now starting to climb down the summit.
- Left arrow: The summit ... Photos #26 and #27 were taken there.
- Right arrow: Tinderry Twin.
- JH is carrying the dog ... there are a few tricky areas which are difficult for the small dog to climb over.

1st rocky outcrop

32)  About to enter the rocky outcrop mentioned in Photo #29.
The large boulder in both pics are the same boulder.
I'm standing in the middle and looking at the boulder in both directions.

33)  There is this large flat slab at the rocky outcrop.
The large boulder here is the same boulder as previous pic.
In the previous pic, I was at the right side of the boulder looking at it side-on.

34)  A nice view from the flat slab (I'm standing at the same spot as the previous pic.)

35)  Lots of boulders around the flat slab

36)  Ruoran posing

37)  Next, we walk towards the red square.

38)  The upper pic is the red square of the previous pic.
The large round-ish boulder in both pics are the same boulder.
Next, we walk towards the red square in the upper pic.

39)  This place is the red square of the previous pic.
There is a large long rock broken into several segments.

40)  This is the same broken rock as in the previous pic.

41)  Looking back ~~~
The red arrow points to Tinderry Twin.

42)  More boulders in front

43)  Another large boulder split in two ~~~
This rocky outcrop is a really fascinating place!

2nd rocky outcrop

44)  We are now at the 2nd rocky outcrop, about 20 minutes away from the 1st rocky outcrop. The mountain in this pic is Tinderry Peak.

45)  At the 2nd rocky outcrop

46)  Plenty of large boulders at this rocky outcrop too.

47)  Nice view from the rocky outcrop

48)  We take a short rest here.
From satellite image, this rocky outcrop is large.
It is worth another trip just to come here and spend a day exploring around.

To car at Round Flat Firetrail trailhead

49)  Heading to my car at the trailhead of Round Flat Firetrail ~~~

Around here, there are wild goats.
The dog chases them around.
Amazing that after climbing up two peaks, she still has so much energy to chase the goats !

50)  The dog runs down this goat.
I don't think it is dead ... there is no blood.
Probably it is either fainted or pretending to be dead.

After this incident, JH puts the dog on a leash.
Don't want her to chase more goats.
Want to make sure we can give her a lift back to her home at the start of Mt Allen Firetrail.


Post Script - Please help to locate Ruoran Zhou

If you know the whereabouts of Ruoran Zhou, please contact me.
Or ask her to contact me.
( My email address: mntviews@gmail.com )
Thank you !

Backgroound:
    Ruoran Zhou studied & worked in Denmark.
    Came to Sydney Australia in 2014 (or 2015) ???
    Hobby in Australia: Bushwalking / climbing / hiking ... That's how I knew her.
    Left Australia in 2016 ... perhaps around Oct/Nov/Dec ???  to Denmark/China ???
    No one in Australia has heard from her since  :-(

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