Lake MacKenzie – Lake Nameless – Lake Ironstone – Mt Ironstone- Norms Hut loop

Another trip to enjoy the Central Plateau and having found all the pre-requirement Geocaches, find our last Geocache in the Gauntlet series on top of Mt Ironstone. My (Colin) second trip up Ironstone but it was in the snow last trip, fine clear conditions this time and Sharon along as well.

Started out at Lake MacKenzie and walked around the lake to a messy crossing of Explorer Creek. Quite a lot of phaffing around getting Sharon across this trip (she is heaps better now crossing creeks). Up a nice valley and around Lake Explorer on the wrong side. We should have taken the SE side but followed the NE side into a short section of scrub and uneven walking. We used the other side on the way back. Past Snake Lake where a few tents stood and on to the empty hut at Nameless for a quick stop. I stayed here last time on a -10° night and that saved packing up a frozen solid tent. Cross country to a nice campsite at the Northern end of Lake Ironstone under the NW end of Mt Ironstone.

Made camp and had a wander around looking for any trout and what other campsites are in the area. Not much of a sunset and off to bed for an early start. Not too early start and on our way up the gully around the NW end of Ironstone taking a few photo's of the area on the way up. There is a randomly marked track up this route with the occasional cairn here and their but you generally just follow the path of least resistance to the end of the gully and across the scree. The main peak is quite a way along the plateau and there are several cairned routes to get their once on top proper. The main plateau is very flat and wide with the trig perched on the Northern end.

Great views up here right through to the Walls and every where in between. After exploring, grabbing the Geocache and some photos we followed the route I had last time I was up here down a steep gully directly next to the NW peak and in a direct line to the Hut. It was thigh deep snow last trip but this time we picked up another sparsely cairned route down to the main track. A couple staying in the hut were very friendly and they had caught a nice size trout a few meters from our tent at Lake Ironstone earlier in the day. On returning to our tent any hope of getting the fly rod in the water was dashed by the fierce wind blowing straight off the lake and into the entrance of our tent. We managed to turn the tent around easily enough for a much more comfortable evening.

The walk out the next day was uneventful. We took a route around the other end of Lake Nameless and especially easier taking the right way around Lake Explorer. The other route probably exists for when you are unable to cross the outlet creek in times of high flow. A very large cairn marks the turn off point here to the crossing. A great sunset over Devils Gullet on the way out finished off the 3 days nicely.

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