Federation Peak

Feburary 2006 Walked East Arthur Range from Farm House Creek up Moss Ridge, Beecheves Plateau, Southern Traverse,Thwaits Plateu, Goon Moor, Suart Saddle back down Luckmans Lead and out along the Arther muddy Plains to Scotts Peak Dam.

Our party of three under took this journey over 10 days. The first three days was reasonable weather. The morning we left Beecheves Plateau the sun was out and we thought we would have a good chance at Fedder but not for long. As we climbed the wall up from Beecheves the weather began to close in. As we entered the gully on the Southern Traverse we got a very breif veiw of Lake Geeves below as the wind and rain began.

We had lunch under the rock at the saddle above the direct accent route. Leaving our packs here we headed up the direct accent with visibility now down to about 5 meters, raining and windy. We made our way slowly up the peak as it became more difficult to find the route. On several occassions we had to climb back down a bit to find the route and evetually about 4PM we made the dicision to turn around without reaching the peak. The time and elements had defeated us. Estimate that we were somewhere about 50M from the peak. When be broke camp that night somewhere about 8PM we were wet and cold and looking forward to a hot meal and warm sleeping bag.

The first glimps we saw of the peak was some three days later from somewhere down near the bottom of Luckmans lead as the sun finaly broke through.

Great trip but dissapointing to not achieve the peak.