By Ruth
Distance: 18 km
Today we tackled the most challenging section of the Richmond Ranges, Mount Rintoul. When we left the hut this morning we still weren’t sure if we were going to go for the summit today, but we hoped we would be able to.
We began the two-hour walk to Slaty hut with the sun still low in the sky. There were some clouds but they quickly cleared and it was another beautiful day. From Slaty hut we could see the ridge line that we were about to walk high above us. We filled our water bottles there since there would be no more water for the rest of the day. We took 2 litres each which turned out to be a good amount.
Soon enough we were on the ridge and the views were amazing. It was great walking too with a fairly wide stony path leading us along the ridge.
After a while the ridge took a turn and we had to climb some steep loose rocks to a mini peak. This was just a small taste of what we would see later on. From there, we started going “down”. It was a lot of up as well as we had to scramble over a bunch of rocky outcroppings which was slow going.
Eventually we reached the junction to go down to the next hut. This was where we would make our decision whether to stay there or continue on past the summit of Mount Rintoul. Despite neither of us having slept that well last night, we were having a great day with the fun walking and the beautiful views, and it wasn’t even 1pm yet, putting us an hour and a half ahead of schedule. So we stopped there for lunch and continued on to the summit!
Most of the day we were above the tree line, so we had continuous views to all sides as we walked. It meant that even though today had a lot of elevation gain, it rarely felt like a slog because the views were such a great distraction.
The way up to Mount Rintoul was no exception. It was steep but went quickly and soon enough we were on the top of Little Rintoul, the smaller peak before the main one. Views from there were pretty amazing but I was still excited to get to the main summit.
But first we had to drop 250 m into a saddle. On the way down we bumped into a couple that we had met once before, in Ngunguru (way back in Northlands)! We stopped to chat and catch up for a bit as we all stood on the side of the steep slope. The rest of the way down from there was a bit dicey. The trail was pretty exposed and was entirely comprised of loose rocks of varying sizes. It continued in that vein as we began climbing up the other side of the saddle. It was slow going and very tiring, and then we noticed some clouds starting to roll in. By the time we reached the summit it was a whiteout. A bit of a disappointment for sure, since there was no view, but also we were nervous about being up on the top of the mountain with visibility rapidly deteriorating. That, combined with more loose scree to navigate on the way down, had us very relieved to get back into the trees. Soon enough we reached the hut – before 6 pm! The hike here ended up going faster than we expected, and even though today and yesterday were big days, it was worth it to get the amazing views we did (for most of the day anyway!). Plus we had fun!
Tomorrow there is still lots of rain in the forecast, so we may just stay put and have a cozy hut day and recover from the exertions of the past couple of days. Overall we are really proud and happy that we were and to do those big days, and also that we enjoyed them. So far the Richmonds have been great for us.
