Mt Barney - Eagles Ridge, SE Ridge Circuit
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 9.71 mi
- Elevation gain
- 5,682 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Very difficult
- Elevation loss
- 5,774 ft
- Max elevation
- 4,446 ft
- TrailRank
-
59
5
- Min elevation
- 715 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 10 hours 53 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2423
- Uploaded
- October 14, 2012
- Recorded
- October 2012
near Bigriggan, Queensland (Australia)
Viewed 9754 times, downloaded 235 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
This route follows the entire skyline of Mt Barney when viewing the mountain from the east and is extremely long but spectacular hike so don't let the length of only 16km fool you. Eagles ridge starts from the end of the lower portals (LP) track at the creek crossing after the gate and this takes about 50min from the start at the LP car park. Look for the exposed rock and scramble up. There is a rough track to the top of the first knoll which has your first views of the day. If you can make it the top of this by sunrise it will give good pictures and a good start to the day. It took us 1hr25min to here from the start of the hike. Remember it is 7 hours to the top of east peak at a good pace. This hike was done without a rope and there is a minimum of two spots you will have to detour off the ridge to avoid cliffs. When you come to any exposure over the entire trip retrace your track 20-30m and look for a route to the east. The first detour is at the top of the first Tom-Tum down to the next saddle and the second detour is down to the isolated-leaning saddle. We followed the ridge as close a possible which climbs all 3 Tom Tums directly. This calls for some exposed scrambling up the middle Tom Tum; however, this climb can avoided by following the base of the cliffs around to the east until a gulley is found and will lead you to the back side of Tums were you can bag the peak. The best route up Isolated is to stay west as possible where there is more rocky scrambling rather than scrub. As you approach the isolated-leaning saddle look for a gulley to the east 50m back from a cliff line which will block your travel unless you have a full length rope. The route up eagles is straight forward and follows an obvious route; however, there is a few exposed scrambles so don't take your new girlfriend up this for her first hike and I definitely would not recommend this entire route if wet. As you can see from the photo's it worth taking the 50m side trip to view leaning peak at the top of eagles. The route up to north follows the ridge but is thick with scrub. From north peak there is a gulley at the top on the south side. The best way down is to follow the top of the gully west until an obvious route is found. There is a better route up to east peak in the higher section than this gpx trace, stay as east as possible to avoid thick scrub. We choose SE ridge as for the descent as it follows the entire skyline. However, North ridge or Rocky creek will get you back to the lower portals car park which will save the need for a car shuffle and can be used if you are running out of time. Note: this route follows SE ridge proper in the lower section and does not detour down to camp site 10, not that we needed another hill to climb.
Waypoints
Campsite
1,175 ft
B.Gorge Camp
Summit
0 ft
Bippoh Peak
Summit
3,438 ft
Leaning Peak
Summit
0 ft
Lower Leaning Peak
Campsite
0 ft
Lower Portals
Campsite
-4 ft
Mt Barnay Camp 10
Campsite
-4 ft
Mt Barney Camp 9
Summit
0 ft
Mt Barney East Peak
Summit
0 ft
Mt Barney West Peak
Summit
0 ft
Isolated Peak
Summit
3,780 ft
North Pinnacle
River
781 ft
Rocky Creek
Summit
2,257 ft
North Tom Tum
Summit
2,326 ft
Middle Tom Tum
Summit
0 ft
South Tom Tum
Comments (8)
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Hi Shatkins, I’m looking to try a new route up Barney and would love some advice. Would like to try eagles or short leaning, but not sure if they are too difficult. I’ve done most of the other routes (usually following your Wikiloc trails), including S, SE, Logan’s, north, barabool, Barney gorge and mezzanine. Do you have an idea of how much more difficult eagles and short leaning are compared to these? Which one is harder technically and which would you recommend?
Eagles is a classic route and should be on your bucket list. Both routes are awesome. Eagles is long with some good exposure and challenging route finding. Short or Long leaning is technically more difficult. No one move is difficult. However, there is multiple hours of exposure where a slip would not end well. Also there is the require abseil off the top. I would give the direct absent of eagles a crack before leaning. This would be a nice stepping stone to leaning
Awesome, I think I’ll do exactly that. Appreciate your advice
Went halfway up today, as time was limited. Very little scrub after the fires. We got about 1/4 up south toms tum before turning around, as we didn’t want to have to climb straight back down it.
I wanted to ask if it gets any more challenging (technicality/ exposure) after south toms tum? It was nearing the edge of what we were comfortable with, so we would not want to have to turn around and climb all the way down eagles if it got too tough
Hi mgrant, not sure exactly where you were. The first high point with the first views of the day is an unnamed peak. After a short scramble down you will arrive at the base of the first (north) Tom Tum and has the hardest (compulsory) scramble of the entire trip. The holds are a bit better on the left end of the wall with a traverse up and to the left. However, can be climbed directly. At the next Tom Tum and after the detour east due to cliffs, the 2nd Tom Tum has the hardest direct climb of the entire trip. However, can easily bypassed to the east walking around he base of the cliff and scrambling up a srubby gulley on the back side (south). There is no further climbs until Eagles slabs which has exposure; however, not hard with decent holds the whole slab. There is also a vegetated section far left. However, this climb is the highlight of the trip. The only tip needed is that as you climb up the ridge towards eagles slab, the slabs are off to the left. You need to move left 50m to the base of the slab. You can, by mistake, climb too high up the ridge until you hit a vertical cliff blocking your way. This will be roughly at the top of eagle slabs. You can traverse left, around the base of the cliffs. However, it is more difficult with more exposure and you would be missing the eagles slab climb. There are many spots to bail to the east using any of the gullies or ridges and easy off track walking using a campus bearing to the lower portal track and Rocky creek intersection. I have a few routes listed sowing easier access and descriptions 'North peak via eagle slabs', 'Isolated Peak via Tom Tums', ' Eagles-North Ridge' I have also exited off Barney east down the gulley from the Isolated / Eagles saddle after a failed Leaning Ridge attempt due to rain.
Hi Shatkins, love your work. Have you ever exited off the southern Toms Tum to the west down the ridge to the waterfall? Ridge contours are steep immediately west of the southern Toms Tum but maybe hikeable.
Hi tomhat, I haven’t gone west from the any of the Toms. Not sure about a waterfall. ‘Barney Waterfall’ is fed by the gorge running from the saddle between Isolated and eagle’s slabs. That route is called Moonlight Slabs
I have followed this trail View more
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Scenery
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I did this with a hiking buddy. This was an epic day out and such an achievement. We took south ridge back down so we could grab the first-to-find honours on a geocache. Had some knarly sections on Toms Tum and the Eagles slabs which took some negotiation. Not convinced we'd found the easiest routes but we got through it.
I've pulled a more detailed log from the Geocache log.
Geocache Log with all the gory details:
This FTF was a pleasant bundle of serendipitous events.
I've had a hike planned to do Eagles Ridge on Barney for about 3 months. I had a couple of friends booked in to do this walk and we were all set to go.
The week before, I met Captain Terror at an Ocean Crusaders event. We were talking and he mentioned that there was a FTF on Barney. I checked out the details and it would be a small diversion from our original planned route but possibly doable depending on how we were going.
My group of buddies dwindled down to two of us which was the necessary quorum. I got up at sparrows fart 4AM to drive down to Barney. Picked up my hiking buddy at Yellow Pinch to do the car shuffle across to Lower Portals. Who should we meet in the Lower Portals car park? Seffnjarah!
My immediate thought was that there was going to be a race for the FTF. Seff assured me that the bromance team was there for some cache maintenance rather than some epic mountaineering scramble for an FTF prize. Seff declined our offer to join us on our quest and we set off as we had a long day ahead of us.
The plan was to hike out to lower portals and take the Eagles Ridge up to East Peak and then down SE ridge or South Ridge if we were up to it. David and I are fit and keen bushwalkers with a little bit of experience in rock climbing. Boy did we meet our match on Eagles Ridge. This route is relentless and is THE most challenging day walk I have EVER done. The vertical exposure is extreme and should only be attempted by very fit, skilled and experienced bushwalkers / climbers. Our total ascent for the day was 1700m over 17km and took us almost 12 hours to complete. It was punishing.
We started at 06:30 which required a 04:00 wake up and drive down. The walk out to lower portals was quick and after reaching Mount Barney Creek we left the comfort of a travelled path and began our ascent onto Eagles Ridge. Initial progress was slow as there was a lot of regrowth/undergrowth after the fires a couple years ago. Once we started getting higher on the ridge, the shrubs gave way to more granite boulders and outcrops. Our first negotiation was Toms Tum. My buddy Dave was braver than I, lead the climb up Tum South, I followed with the aid of the rope that he had secured in place.
Our climb off Toms Tum and on to Isolated Peak was a persistent scramble down and then back up. The weather was patchy with heavy clouds intermittently passing over. The clouds would pass over, wet the grasses and the rocks which would make our footings slippery. We had to continually monitor our dynamic risk assessment. Luckily the clouds would pass over and the dew would dry out before we had to attempt any of the more challenging slabs. We were not going to attempt any of the harder sections with moisture on the rock and we were ready to pull the pin if there wasn't a clear window in the weather.
From Isolated peak we tried to pick out the route up the Eagles slabs. Sitting on Eagles it was unnerving seeing the Barney Massive spread out in front of us in all its glory. We downed a snack and pushed on. We were keen to give it a shot knowing that we could turn back if we needed to. The first half of the Eagles slab was straight forward with some scrambling. Getting up to the main slab was fine. Upon reaching the main slab we realized after 6 or so hours that we had reached the crux of this route.
We took a bit of time assessing the climb to find the best way up. After a fair amount of routefinding,