2022-05-30 Chewings East Exploratory SBW 8.5 days (Chewings Range)
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 60.84 mi
- Elevation gain
- 12,743 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Very difficult
- Elevation loss
- 12,300 ft
- Max elevation
- 3,936 ft
- TrailRank
- 50
- Min elevation
- 2,053 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 7 days 23 hours 59 minutes
- Coordinates
- 6421
- Uploaded
- June 29, 2022
- Recorded
- June 2022
near White Gums, Northern Territory (Australia)
Viewed 173 times, downloaded 8 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
A wonderful circuit through varied and occasionally challenging country. After the second day we had three days of cold, rain and mist - 25mm estimated rainfall - then lots of sunshine for the rest of the trip.
Highlights included climbing Mt Conway, finding a steep and direct pass to Stuarts Pass, Macrozamia Amphitheatre, the canyons of the three upper branches of Hugh Gorge, a day-trip around a skyline ridge, looking into Hugh Gorge from the cliffs above, swimming through the slot at the south end of Fringe Lily Creek, locating the elusive Luge Gorge, camping near the top of Paisley Bluff, exploring a gorge running off Brinkley Bluff, and climbing Brinkley Bluff by its northwest spur.
Highlights included climbing Mt Conway, finding a steep and direct pass to Stuarts Pass, Macrozamia Amphitheatre, the canyons of the three upper branches of Hugh Gorge, a day-trip around a skyline ridge, looking into Hugh Gorge from the cliffs above, swimming through the slot at the south end of Fringe Lily Creek, locating the elusive Luge Gorge, camping near the top of Paisley Bluff, exploring a gorge running off Brinkley Bluff, and climbing Brinkley Bluff by its northwest spur.
Waypoints
Waypoint
2,103 ft
Good water
Waypoint
2,208 ft
Usable water
Waypoint
2,322 ft
Good water
Waypoint
2,323 ft
String of tiny pools with good water
Waypoint
2,329 ft
Small pool of usable water
Waypoint
2,392 ft
Water and reed bed
Waypoint
2,409 ft
Trickling water
Waypoint
2,316 ft
camp 1
Waypoint
2,407 ft
Plenty of usable water
Waypoint
2,379 ft
waterhole
Waypoint
2,398 ft
Waterhole
Waypoint
2,462 ft
waterhole
Waypoint
2,373 ft
camp 2, lots of water
Waypoint
2,537 ft
camp 3, small usable pools
Waypoint
2,764 ft
Good pools after rain
Waypoint
3,620 ft
c12
Waypoint
3,482 ft
c2
Waypoint
3,370 ft
c2
Waypoint
2,612 ft
Good water trickling after rain
Waypoint
2,544 ft
camp 6
Waypoint
2,699 ft
Big pool of good water after rain
Waypoint
2,877 ft
Deep shaded rock pool
Waypoint
2,223 ft
Lots of big pools
Waypoint
2,276 ft
Birthday Waterhole full
Waypoint
3,182 ft
c6
Waypoint
2,461 ft
c8, water from small spring
Comments (6)
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Hi Ribuck. Do you think it's possible to descend the gorge on the north blank of Brinkley from the summit?
Hi lamamu, we climbed part way up that gorge earlier, but were stopped by cliffs. The ridge we climbed from Stuarts Pass to Brinkley was a steep but spectacular route, and problem-free.
Great, thank you. I'm planning on heading out that way in a few weeks :)
Hey mate, I've just come back from the trip and visited Luge Gorge for the first time. Incredible place! Do know anything about when it was first identified/named? I've not found any other reference to it apart from your post.
I'm glad you had a great trip. Luge Gorge is stunning isn't it?
I am only aware of one previous visit, by a group from Canberra Bush Walkers in 1996. From their trip report: "We climbed out to a saddle. Here we had views of Paisley Bluff to our south, Brinkley Bluff and beyond to the east and right through to Hugh Gorge to the west. We tried a new route, finding a creek which led into a narrow gorge with two pools of water. By now it was hot weather again, so the clean pool provided us with a cup of tea for an early lunch and we had a quick dip in the other, rather smelly, pool to cool off. This gorge became an almost vertical chute with the shape of a Winter Olympics bobsled track - which we now call "Luge Canyon".
The CBW group didn't record its location, so one of the objectives of my 2022 trip was to rediscover this feature. After spending many hours studying aerial photos, one stream seemed possible for the location, and fortunately when we got there we found Luge Gorge.
Oh wow. Excellent sleuthing! I've often looked down on that gorge from the Larapinta and wondered what's there, but never imagined it would be something as cool as Luge. I might need to read up on CBW reports for more trip ideas!