Mount Somers

Descargada 30 veces

 -43.6277931, 171.41777152

Si
1658 m	1688 m
1652 m	468 m

			Total
	5.45 km	10.1 km	15.55 km
	2h 36min 34s	3h 27min 41s	6h 4min 15s
	2.09 km/h	2.92 km/h	2.56 km/h

  Descargar track gps

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

This hike goes up Mount Somers (1688 m), and also Hookey Knob (731 m), Staveley Hill (1085 m) and Duke Knob (739 m), in a circular clockwise way.

It starts from Mt Somers car park, at the end of Flynns Road. This is a quite ample car park with toilets available. Tracks around this area are very popular so if you come late you may find the car park full and have to park somewhere along the road.
Just a few meters from the start you'll find the junction to choose which direction you would like to do it. I took a left to go straight to the Mount Somers summit following the Mt Somers Summit Hike from DOC.
Quite a lot of people do it the other way around but that's because they do it in two days, sleeping at the Pinnacles Hut. If you are going to do it in one day it's a much better option to do it clockwise since it's a lot shorter to get to the Mount Somers summit.

The Mt Somers Summit Hike follows the South Face Track for about 3.5 Kilometres when it makes a right turn at Staveley Hill when it leaves the South Face Track to face the last 2 kilometres of steep ascent to Mount Somers summit. Up to this point the ascent is constant and steep but from this point onwards it gets steeper and also the terrain changes to more rocky. It's about two kilometres of hard work until you reach the highest point.

The views from Mount Somers summit are really wonderful and worth the effort to get up there.
The day I was there it was quite windy so I didn't stay long at the summit.
To go down, instead of turning back, we continue beyond the summit where the descent is gentle and quite enjoyable. You will find orange poles marking the way even though this part of the descent, until joining Mt Somers Track, is not an official DOC track. The descent is gentle and enjoyable at the beginning but it turns into steep and slippery after about 2.5 kilometres. This steep section with loose rocks is not long, about 500 metres, but it's better to descend carefully to avoid slipping.

Once down to Mt Somers Track the descending slope gets easy again. After another 2.5 kilometres on this track you will get to the Pinnacles Hut.

From the Pinnacles Hut back to the car park the track is winding, with lots of ups and downs, roots and rocks. Even though the progress is slow it's also beautiful because you often walk along rivers with nice pools where you could have a refreshing swim if you fancy.
Keep in mind that you still have to do a last effort to go over Duke Knob. From Duke Knob is all down until getting back to the car park.