What is it like to hike to Foggy Peak

Foggy Peak has some of the most beautiful views, but I’m not going to lie, it’s quite a slog.  It’s about 2.2km uphill and the hike is all climb. Those few nice metres between orange marker poles, that was your warmup and then it’s time to get your climb on.

If you take a look at the big hill from the bottom you’ll see two humps (that’s the technical term)  You are heading to the top of the furthest mountain and the closer one is what I’m going to call the false summit.

The details of the Foggy Peak hike: I broke this into three sections

Section 1: The start, the small stones to the tussock

The track is quite hard to follow for the first section.  There are some marker poles however they kind of disappear and there are many paths that look like trails.  I imagine most of these are made when people are scooting down the scree and just taking that path of the least resistance.

I could see a route on my Garmin and we often seemed further to the right of the trail, so in general, I’d say stay to the left and don’t head too far right or you’ll just cover a whole lot of extra ground.

You should be able to find some rock cairns on the way up that are quite helpful in lieu of marker poles.

This section to the bottom of the tussock took us about 30 minutes, but I swear I checked my watch at 7 minutes.  It’s not too bad but your muscles haven’t really warmed up yet so it feels harder than it is.

Section 2: The big scree to the false summit

There are much bigger pieces of rocky scree here and this section is the steepest part of the climb and more awkward.  It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes from the scree to the false summit.  This included a few decent stops as I was shooting some brand photos along the way.

You start to get some great views from this point. If you look across the main road you will see Lake Lyndon and the outlines of the Trig M Track.  This is a great alternate trail that has lovely views too and is not nearly as difficult.  It’s a great hike for beginner trampers, whereas this one is not.

Section 3: The false summit to the real summit

The false summit is a great place for a break if you need it as it’s the only piece of flat ground you will find on the whole Foggy Peak track.  There’s a big rock cairn and a line of rocks that my kids called the red carpet, leading to the final push to the top.

From the false summit to the real summit it took us around 30-40 minutes.  We found snow along the way, some puddles of it so there wasn’t too much and of course, a wee snowball fight was inevitable.

I didn’t find this as difficult as any of the other sections, however there are a lot of endorphins about when you know you are almost there.

The whole walk took us 2.5 hours but I think if we didn’t muck around so much it would have only taken us 2 hours.

What I liked about the Foggy Peak Hike

• Great views
• Walking up to the ridgeline near the summit was fab
• You can see Lake Lyndon and Trig M and all towards Castle Hill Peak, that you’d never see from the road.  The Torlesse Range is pretty cool.
• There’s a big summit area which is flat, ideal for lunch but it is exposed and can be very windy up there.