The summits were hidden in clouds as our group of nine Ramblers assembled at the base of Mt Cory. As co-ordinator I could see right off that keeping at the front of this fast group of people would not be possible for long. Luckily four of us had done the peak before, so the fast people could lead the way and wait for the whole group to reassemble periodically. We started at the road pull-out suggested by Alan Kane and found the ridge in about 10 minutes. Gary knew from a previous ascent that the best trail from the road goes too far west –probably to some climbing routes. Once on the ridge the trail is well defined and leads relentlessly up a steep grade. We stopped for our first lunch at a large plateau about half way up the mountain.

At this point it was cool and windy and the surrounding peaks were in the clouds. Right after lunch we came to the only major dip along Mt Cory’s ridge, from where we could see the summit area in the clouds. The ridge is quite wide here and offers some route options.

On the way up we took the westerly route through some rock bands behind the cave in the picture. Descending we opted for the tourist route through yellow and grey scree on the right-hand side of the picture. From here on the ridge provided us with a delightful mix of walking and easy rock scrambling. Some pillow-like rock formations (possibly formed by erosion along cracks) were amazing to look at.

At one point I saw the whole group ahead of me on what looked like a causeway on the sky line.

Finally we came to the summit ridge with impressive near- vertical rock layers. Here a choice of routes is possible: the shale slope to the right (East) of the ridge is an easy way to get to the summit when there is no snow. The more interesting way is to follow the ridge. It looks much more difficult than it is from below, but up close there are easy scrambles between rock slabs (very little exposure) alternating with meandering paths through the protruding rocks.

Quite a few cairns have been built along the entire ridge by previous parties. Right below the summit we still managed to evade most of the snow by sticking to the rocky part of the ridge.

It was cold and windy at the summit. Mt Cory was cloud-free just then, but there were lower clouds and signs of rain or snow both east and west of us. A few people thought of hiking over to Mt Cory’s equally high eastern summit. This is an easy 15 minute walk in dry conditions. With cornices and steep snow, however, and only one person having an ice axe, I was happy to be able to talk them into doing it some other time in better conditions. Given the threatening weather all around us we only had a quick summit break before heading back down.

We felt a few hard snow pellets, but the rock stayed dry. By the time we reached the plateau half-way down the weather had improved considerably. We took a nice long break here and finished the rest of our food. Most of us then retraced our steps down the ridge along the trail. Three people descended a scree gully to the west of the ridge and got down slightly faster. Thanks to all the participants for accompanying me on my first high-altitude scramble this year: Zorica, John, Gary, Susan, Joe, Jeannine, Ron, Molly and Rita (c/s)

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