Cradle Mountain-Lake Saint Clair National Park Travel Forum

4 women are wanting to climb cradle mountain in January. We would like to venture on trip up to 7 days long, carry our own stuff, all gutsy, fit and adventurous and would like some tips and advice from others please.

I dont know much about climbing Cradle Mountain itself as I have only done the 2hr walk around Dove Lake (at its base) but most people with seven days at their disposal would want to walk the famous Overland Track between Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair.

This is an amazing wilderness walk of around 65 kilometres taking six days and is only accessible between November and April. A good level of fitness is required as the track is quite steep in some places but very well maintained and mostly "duckboarded" in order to protect the pristine environment.

There are huts all along the route and bookings are taken in advance as there are strict limits about the number of walkers on the track each day.

For information about the track and bookings go to:
www.overlandtrack.com.au

For information about Cradle Mountain go to: www.parks.tas.gov.au/natparks/cradle.

Hi, I walked the overland track last December, though I did it the cushy way. It was fantastic. I belieive you need to book throught the tasmanian NP service as they only let a certain number of people on the track at one time. The facilities at all the camp sites are really good. Huts with gas cookers, clean non-smelly enviro toilets etc and if you get there first you can sleep in the bunks inside. Cradle mountain is on the first day of the walk and is definately the hardest bit, the trail goes up the side of the mountain and around the back, not to the actual peak itself, but you can do that as a side trip (it will take an extra couple of hours)but you can leave your packs in the shelter hut while you do it. The high light of the trip for me was climbing Mt Ossa, the veiws from the top are spectacular. I still havent got around to finishing of my tasmania pages but I have a few photos if you want to check them out. Drop me an email if you need more info.