Mt Twynam, only third highest, but the best views

Yesterday I returned to Charlotte's Pass to take a walk up to Mt Twynam, which is about 9 kilometres away along an easy to find route. You basically walk along the main range track in an anti-clockwise direction until you reach the pass below Carruthers Peak, where you take a sharp turn to the right and walk up along the ridge in the opposite direction to the main range track. There is an easy to identify track that was used by the Soil Conservation Service when they stabilised the slopes of Mt Twynam to stop erosion and the silting up of Blue Lake below. 

The Soil Conservation track is easy identifiable all the way

Looking back down to the saddle with Carruthers Peak behind it

Along the way to Mt Twynam you get good views either side of the ridge, but nothing like the views from the top. Because it is the third highest mountain in the range, and set apart a few kilometres from its colleagues in the "high league" you get uninterrupted views in all directions, with a splendid display of the highest peaks towards the south-west. I tried to name them all for you in a couple of my photographs (the green ticks are the ones that I have walked to over the last couple of weeks and published photographs in earlier posts).

Left of Kosciuszko

Right of Kosciuszko

Of all the summits I climbed so far I spent most time on Mt Twynam. The weather was perfect, with hardly a breath of wind, and the views in all directions made me feel on top of the world.

The trig point on top of Mt Twynam

The view towards Guthega and Blue Cow

The view towards Charlotte's Pass with Headly Tarn in the foreground

The view to Mt Jagungal and the ACT ranges

The one thing that you can't see from the summit of Mt Twynam is Blue Lake, which is directly at its foot and hidden by an outcrop above the steep rocky cliffs that fall down to the lake. On the way back to Charlotte's pass, along the same track, I took the short detour down towards the lake to take a picture with Mt Twynam in the background. The difference in elevation between the lake and the top is about 250 metres.

Blue Lake, backed by Mt Twynam and Little Twynam

Having done all these walks since I got to Thredbo seems to have had some benefits for my fitness. I dreaded the steep ascent from the Snowy River up to Charlotte's Pass at the end of the walk, but I didn't have to pause once and hardly raised a sweat.

"Heart Attack Hill" was easier than I expected