Federation Peak is a

Tasmanian Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th ...

mountain with a sharp spire-like shape, which marks the southern end of the Eastern Arthur Range in the

Southwest National Park Southwest National Park is an Australian national park located in the South West Tasmania, south-west of Tasmania, bounded by the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to the north and the Hartz Mountains National Park to the east. It is a ...

. The peak, approximately south-west from

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

, was named after the

Federation of Australia The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Wester ...

. With an elevation of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

the last stretch of the route up is extremely steep and

exposed Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to: News sources * Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism * '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website * '' Exeposé'', a student-run newspaper of the University of Exeter Film and TV ...

, involving rock climbing moves above Lake Geeves. Its reputation is such that

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached th ...

declared it "Australia's only real mountain".

History

The first westerner to sight the peak was the surveyor

James Sprent James Sprent (1808 – 22 September 1863) was a Surveyor General of Tasmania, (then the colony of Van Diemen's Land, now a state of Australia). Early life Sprent was born in Manchester, England and was educated at Glasgow University (M.A., 1825) ...

who was carrying out a trigonometrical survey of Tasmania. He described it as "the Obelisk". It became known as Sprent's Obelisk, however in 1901 it was officially named Federation Peak in honour of the

Thomas Bather Moore Thomas Bather Moore (1850 1919) was a pioneer explorer of Western and South West, Tasmania, Australia. Biography He was born at New Norfolk, Van Diemen's Land and died at Queenstown. He was buried at the graveyard Strahan overlooking Macquar ...

while cutting a track from Hastings to Port Davey via Old River. It took almost 50 years after the first western sighting for the summit to be reached, a testament to the harshness of southwest Tasmania. Challenges include thick horizontal scrub, ancient cool temperate rainforest, exceptionally steep and harsh terrain on the surrounding ridges and highly unpredictable weather generated by the

roaring forties The Roaring Forties are strong westerlies, westerly winds that occur in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40th parallel south, 40° and 50th parallel south, 50° south. The strong eastward air currents are caused by ...

. After several unsuccessful attempts by various groups in the late 1940s, a party from the

Geelong College The Geelong College is an Australian independent and co-educational, Christian day and boarding school located in Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria. Established in 1861 by Alexander James Campbell, a Presbyterian minister, ...

Exploration Society led by

John Béchervaise John Mayston Béchervaise (11 May 1910 – 13 July 1998) was an Australian writer, photographer, artist, historian and explorer. He is especially notable for his work and achievements in Antarctica. Career Béchervaise was educated in Melb ...

reached the summit on the 27 January 1949. The exposed and technical nature of the usual route that is usually climbed unroped has resulted in a number of fatalities; most recently on 30 December 2024 when a bushwalker fell to his death.

Notable accidents

;2007 : Tasmanian Michael Skirka, 38, fell to his death in April 2007. ;2016 : Tasmanian Melissa Fisher, 32, fell to her earh in March 2016. : Statement from Inspector Riley: "It appears over the last 10 years we've done approximately 20 recoveries around Federation Peak and there have been six deaths." ;2024 : A 27 year man from New Zealand, living in Victoria, fell to his death in July 2024. : A Victorian man in his 30s fell to his death in December 2024.

Climate

The highest elevations of the mountain experience alpine conditions with most of the weather patterns determined by the wind. The mountain receives large amounts of snow in autumn, winter and early spring, with the summit area frequently layered in ice. Unseasonal snowfalls can be seen in summer though many of them don't settle.

Climbing routes

There are a number of graded

rockclimbing Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in guidebooks, and o ...

routes to the summit, most notably ''Blade Ridge'' (grade 18), which is a steep knife edge ridge rising out of the cool temperate forest at the foot of the mountain. The ridge joins the main face of the peak a few hundred metres beneath the summit. The climb from the end of the ridge is then up an exposed but well-protected face to the summit, some above the valley floor. Blade Ridge was first successfully used as a route up Federation Peak in February 1968, by Peter Heddles, Rod Harris, David Neilson and Jack Woods Most bushwalkers with minimal or no climbing gear take the exposed 'Direct Ascent' scramble from the Southern Traverse of the peak above a drop of into Lake Geeves (approximately Australian climbing grade 5). Access to the base of the peak is generally from

Geeveston Geeveston is a small town in the south of Tasmania in Australia near the Huon River, south west of Hobart, making it Australia's most southerly administrative centre. The town takes its name from William Geeves, an English settler who was giv ...

via Farmhouse Creek and Moss Ridge or Scotts Peak via the Eastern Arthurs. The first route is the shorter of two - generally three days to the peak. The Eastern Arthurs via Scotts Peak Dam takes at least 7 days finishing at Farmhouse Creek; up to 10 days with bad weather.

Winter ascents

The first ascent under true winter conditions was made by Faye Kerr and Max Cutcliffe in September 1954, while a Tasmanian group led by Kevin Doran climbed the Mountain in severe weather over two weeks in August 1978, a trip which cost Doran a toe from cold injuries. The first, and only, winter ascent of Blade Ridge (a steep sharp ridge on the northern face) was made in 2016 by Mick Wright and Mark Savage, on an expedition led by Andy Szollosi. Their journey is featured in the documentary ''Winter on the Blade''.

References

http://www.thesarvo.com/confluence/display/thesarvo/Federation+Peak

External links

Federation Peak - John Chapman
{{SouthWestTasmania , state=autocollapse Mountains of Tasmania South West Tasmania