Mt Wellington @ Dawn

Well for some crazy reason there was a dawn trip planned up to the top of Mt Wellington to see the sunrise. Always up for the challenge of waking up early we ascended in the nice warm car to the beauty of the sun rising over Hobart. It was well...

COLD!!!!!! AARGGHH my god it was so cold and windy even with 45 layers on. Mind you the fact that all I had on from the waist down were a pair of King Gee's that dont stop much wind. I forgot my tripod but that didn't matter because if I wasn't holding on, my camera would have been blown all the way to Port Arthur.




The stairs down to the lookout. The observation house was locked (Damn you rangers!).



Almost...



Looking back at the nice warm windprooof shelter before the sun came up...



So close...



Here she comes... Sorry about the wobbly horizons, it was windy and I forgot how to correct it in photoshop (read - lazy)...



Bring on the warmth!



The rocks atop the mountain glowing red...



There was still snow and ice buried between the boulders...



Even warmer now with the sun hitting the shelter... Still locked though...



A little exerpt from the NPWS:

"Block faulting is in part responsible for the main landform trends of eastern and central Tasmania. Mount Wellington and the Derwent Valley were formed some 150 million years ago by block faulting. This has influenced the erosional development of the size and form of the Wellington Range. Individual faults have vertical displacements up to 600m.
Erosion has since exposed the 350m thick horizontal sheet of dolerite, featuring the Organ Pipes on the eastern face of the Mountain. This area has been eroded back approximately two kilometres since the escarpment was produced 10-15 million years ago. Some of the faults are considered significantly older than this."