The Bluff was a peak I had been looking forward to hiking up for a while, because I heard it was a bit of a scramble to get up on top of and amazing views once there. Well i’m happy to report it is a great walk, with a fun scramble, however I have know idea what the view looks like haha. Unfortunately the weather forecast didn’t like me and the Bluff was completely covered in cloud the day I summited, but it was still a fun hike, even though a short one.
I stayed the night before at our family farm just out of Mansfield and drove to the Howqua Track early in the morning. The sky was looking pretty gloomy, and I did have plans to hike from 8 Mile Flat to the top and then back via 16 mile, but the weather just wasn’t cooperating for such a big day. I could of done a return trip from 8 Mile Flat, but one of the teachers from Timbertop said you can drive right up to Refrigerator Gap in a 2wd. So I was going with the plan to maybe do a quick summit of The Bluff and if the weather cleared like it was suppose to, I could do Mt Buller as well. However, the weather didn’t like that Idea. It is 40km from the turn off onto Howqua track past Sheepyard Flat, 8 Mile gap and all the way to Refrigerator Gap. The road is pretty good, but it does get rougher the further you go along and higher you climb, so some part you have to drive pretty slow. There is one turn off along the way (well sort of), when you get to the saddle where Eagles point walking track starts, you veer left and head down Bluff Links rd instead of following Brocks Rd. This junction is not long after you have finished a series of switchbacks, coming up from 8 Mile Flat. About 5 more kilometres along you then come to refrigerator gap where, the track from 8 mile flat comes up. From here you need to continue up the road for little bit more, then you come to the car park and trail head up to the bluff. The sign says 1.5hours to the summit, I ended up doing it in 1 hour 45mins there and back, including lots of stops for photos and even a snack break.
It was quite cold when I left, and the cloud was very low. I took a map and compass just in case and lots of wet and warm weather clothing. The first 200m lulls you into a false sense of ease, cause the trail is quite flat even down hill for a bit lol. But don’t worry, once it head ups, it doesn’t stop till you reach the bluff. The trail climbs gradually for the first part but soon gets steeper as you head up. Being in the cloud, the trail also became a small creek, and quite slippery. As you leave the bigger trees and head into the snow gums the track becomes quite fun. A few sections you need your hands to climb up and over big steps or rocks. I’m not sure about others but I love this type of hiking! It was only really challenging because of how wet it was. Within no time though I left the trees and came out up on top of the bluff. It was very windy, cold and wet. I found the track which, and headed to the east (left) along the bluff to its summit. This was harder than normal as I couldn’t see more than about 5 metres in front of me. So I had several false high points, and upon further investigation the next rise was higher lol. It wasn’t until I came across a rather large pile of rocks (cairn) did I realise I was at the top. A few difficult photos later I turned around and headed back down.
I actually think it took me longer to get down than it it did to climb up. It was nice to get out of the wind, but super slippery as the trail had become a creek bed lol. Glad I had my walking poles as they saved me a few times, as well as helping my poor knees hehe. Back in the trees and protected for the wind and wet, I stopped and had a feed, then headed back to the car. I gave my mum a bit of a fright as she wasn’t expecting me for another hour. We hung around for the bit in the hope the weather would clear a bit so we could see the top, but it never did, so we drove back down. It took us nearly two hours to get back to Mansfield as we stopped and looked at tunnel bend and a few other places. I had already decided not to do Mt Buller today, as I wanted good weather for the ridges and the forecast said it should clear up.
All in all it was a great like hike/scramble that I thoroughly enjoyed regardless of the weather. Its one I will definitely come back and do, including the whole circuit. Regardless if you have one day or two, its still worth doing.
Mount Buller (Via West Ridge)
Waiting a day later to do this, was a stroke of genius, cause despite it being a little windy, it was almost a bluebird day (in complete contrast to the day before on the bluff). Woke up early again this morning and headed into Mansfield to get a scroll and donut from the bakery. Then continued towards Mt Buller, until we got to Sawmill settlement. As you pass through this little community, there is a small turn off to the right onto a dirt track called Dougherty Rd. This road actually continues all the way to sheepyard flat between Buller and Timbertop, although I believe it turns into a 4wd track. About 5 kms up this road you come to a bend with a sign on a tree that says ‘ Cheries Corner’. The road naturally continues uphill and to the right but, don’t follow it. Instead take the road that goes straight ahead (if you can that is. There is a big gutter and a 4wd speed bump and a tree half covering the road lol). I got my mother to drop me off at the corner and walked the 200ms up the road to the start of the trail. You can make it up in a 4wd easy. As you follow this road up past the fallen tree it flattens out and does a big hairpin turn. At the start of the turn on the right you will see two paths that head into the bush. They both join 5 metres up, so you can take either.
I must admit I was a little hesitant about this walk, because the reports I had read about it beforehand said that it was often hard to find the trail and took many many hours and made it sound like it was quite difficult. Mind you many of these reports were a few years old. But hearing things like you needed a GPS to find where you were, i was like ummm … will a compass and map do? lol (sorry I’m a bit old school). Anyway I was pleasantly surprised that I needed none of that. The Track is well defined and easy to follow, even has the occasional orange arrow on a tree (although not too many). As you approach the ridge itself the track sometimes gets a little thin, but your on a ridge so you can get lost lol. The day I went up, it seemed that some motorbikes had gone up the day before as the first few hundred metres of the track was quite torn up by bike tyres. They had made a nice deep tyre width groove in the middle of the track that was quite deep and awkward. You follow this up for about 5mins (if that), then you will see an orange marker on a tree on the left hand side of the track that point, in what appears to be pointing in the wrong direction at first, towards the left. At this point the quite big trail you have been on, definitely goes straight. On closer inspection though, there is a small trail that veers off to the left through the bushes and this is the one you take. The bigger trail with the motorbike tracks on it, heads to a logging coup (makes sense) and on the time of writing there was some paper signs in plastic pockets hanging from the bushes to say the logging coup was straight ahead.
After turning onto this smaller track another orange marker appears on a tree just to confirm you have gone the right way. From here on the trail graduals climbs up and around to long flat hill called Round Hill. The trail is easy to follow and walk on and you cover this first km or more in pretty quick time. As you get up onto the hill you get your first views of Mt Buller and the Ridge and it is spectacular. This flat hill is followed for about another half a km and you pass many many broken dead trees that have been blown over in the wind. Maybe not a good spot to set up camp. There is a better spot just after the turn from Round Hill down onto the ridge itself. You head downhill a little after the turn onto the ridge and into a nice grassy saddle where there is quite a bit of room to set up camp. Not sure about the water supply, but in winter it would be nice. From here you start heading up.
The first part of the ridge is quite easy, it is undulating and not too difficult. You are still in the trees and protected from the wind at most parts. After a little while you come to the bottom of the first of three big hills along the way, the last being Buller itself. Its here things get steeper and as you leave the safety of the trees windier (well on this day it was lol). The trail zigzags quite steeply up to the top of the first hill. At a few points the steps are quite big and may need some hands to help, but I found my sticks helped me get up quite nicely, without having to hang on to anything. At the top there is a small cairn and a sign that says not motorbikes or horses from this point. I would be impressed to see someone try though lol.
The downhill side of this first hill is very much like the uphill side. Steep, zigzag with some lose rock, but pretty straight forward. The second of the big hills becomes way more fun. Here a little bit of scrambling is required and a lot more rock. In some places its quite steep and involves using your hands, and in other places its quite exposed on either side. In saying that though its all quite easy scrambling. What makes it potentially dangerous would be if its wet or icy. This morning the weather was perfect, although cold and windy and anything on the south facing side of the ridge was in the shade and wet. So at times it was quite slippery and some care needed to be taken. A couple of time I had to let my poles hang and use my hands just to get past a few awkward spots. But, as I have mentioned before, super fun and really enjoyable walking/scrambling. The second hill was my favourite section.
As you cross the top of this last hill and join up with Mt Buller proper, the track takes a long long uphill route on the southern slope towards the summit (as seen in the last photo in the pictures above). As I started up it, it became very rocky on the trail (as in loose rocks) and very wet, especially the bushes and being in the shade quite chilly. On my last trip to the summit, I noticed a beautiful looking chute or couloir at the very end of the summit ridge and where the west ridge joins onto the Buller Massif. So I decided to get off the trail and make my way up this steep chute and into the sun and eventually onto the summit ridge. Although windy it was way warmer, and an easier trail. I saw my mum at the fire lookout (she had driven up and then walked the summit stairs, which for a 78 yo was an awesome effort, go mum!), and headed towards her. All up it took two and a half hours to do the walk, which included lots of stops for photos and bites to eat. At the top I showed my mum around, including having a look at the ridge I had just walked, then made our way back to the car. We had lunch in Mansfield with one of my old schoolmates then made the journey back home to Melbourne. Big shout out to my mum who joined me on this trip, waited around for me to finish and drop me off and pick me. Feels like I’m back at school lol.
I have to say that this has to be one of my all time favourite short/day walks. It was varied, fun, spectacularly beautiful and threw in enough of a challenge to keep you on your toes. Will be definitely be doing this again, although might try it in the winter next time, in the snow.
30peaksin30days 
Last time we did the West Ridge we walked from the summit down McLaughlin Shoulder (lovely untracked spur) to join the Klingsporn track leading to Mirimbah. Definitely the way to do this walk. Definitely keen to do this in Winter (one option I had in mind when we spoke the other day)
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