Hartz Peak & Mount Snowy Track, Hartz Mountains NP Tasmania
The route to Hartz Peak (1254m) and Mount Snowy (1160m) makes for excellent alpine walking, with a variety of alpine plants, rugged peaks, and extensive views.
The weather put on a bit of a show for us when we climbed to Hartz Peak and Mount Snowy, situated high up in Hartz Mountains National Park about 90 minutes from Hobart. Starting off in sleet, we ascended through a thin layer of snow into thick atmospheric mist, which then cleared to reveal excellent views of the surrounding area. This is a classic Tasmanian alpine day walk.
The route we walked was a partial circuit, but the return track from Mount Snowy was sometimes indistinct to non-existent, and in sections we either stomped on alpine plants or got caught in thick scrub, so you might consider walking back over Hartz Peak, or indeed stopping at Hartz Peak would be a decent walk and covers most of the views. It’s on the hard side of moderate if you do the walk as depicted here. Track notes at the end.
Hartz Peak & Mount Snowy Track: The Scenery
Snowing at the start. Quite cold at 3 degrees Celcius considering it was mid summer at 11am, and only about 850m above sea level. Proper alpine. Sophia at a boot cleaning station. The Devils Backbone, (with panorama glitch). Hartz Peak with summer snow. Possibly Ladies Tarn, or if not then Lake Esperance. Sophia backed by the Devils Backbone, and Ladies Tarn to the right. Hartz Lake. The later pictures of this are in much clearer weather. Quite a bit of snow at this point. It didn’t last the day. Sophia huddling in one of two very handy stone shelters on the summit of Hartz Peak. I insisted we wait out the weather so I could take some pictures and also see the way forward. Sophia doesn’t like the cold. Sophia’s small snow man that she made while waiting for the weather to clear. A misty view of Mount Snowy and Emily Tarn, but it soon cleared. Mount Snowy (1160m) and Emily Tarn viewed from the summit of Hartz Peak (1254m). A clearer view of Hartz Lake. Me on the summit of Hartz Peak (1254m). Sophia took a lot of cajoling (begging?) to take this photo. She’s not a willing photographer, especially when cold. You can just see Sophia descending the ridge that runs from the summit of Hartz Peak down to the saddle below Mt Snowy. Looking back at Hartz Peak from the summit of Mount Snowy (1160m). Distant Peaks in Tasmania’s remote Southwest Wilderness. Hartz Peak and Emily Tarn left, and the Devils Backbone distant centre, and just to the right Ladies Tarn and then Lake Esperance. It was a long time ago, but there were glaciers in Tasmania’s mountainous areas. Alpine flowers. Interestingly shaped peaks in the distance. Emily Tarn backed by Hartz Peak. Cushion plants are really cool, but very delicate. I’m afraid the track was so indistinct that once committed to walking past Emily Tarn we had to stomp on various alpine plants, (but hopefully we didn’t trample on these).
Emily Tarn with Mount Snowy behind. Arthur Tarn. Arthur Tarn with Sophia posing at the outlet. Arthur Tarn with Hartz Peak behind. Looking towards the Devils Backbone and Ladies Tarn. The scrub was very thick here and it was easy to lose the track. We had to double back a few times.
Hartz Lake taken on a short side trip. You can apparently walk down to it, but there’s some bush bashing required and we’d done quite enough of that already, so I was satisfied with this view. Pandani lining the track near to the start.
Track Notes
It’s a straightforward marked track to Hartz Peak. There was only a faint route to Mt Snowy and back via Emily Tarn, and my dotted line is approximate, especially after Arthur Tarn (the small tarn near the saddle). There’s bush bashing required here.
As for all of our Tassie walks so far we used the track notes in Tasmanian Day Walks. I don’t think this full walk is described online, but getting to Hartz Peak and back is straightforward: there’s information on the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Website. From Hartz Peak to Mount Snowy requires some boulder hopping, keeping to the right (west) and below the top of the rocky ridge that leads down to a saddle below Mount Snowy. You’ll eventually pick up on a track but then its up through rocks to the top of Mount Snowy.
To do the full walk with a circuit gets a bit tricky around Emily Tarn where the track is indistinct, (the tricky thing is to pick your way through the delicate alpine plants), and the track is hard to follow with intermittent bush bashing through thick and tall scrub when you pass Arthur Tarn and head back over to the main track on the saddle between Hartz Peak and the Devils Backbone. You’ll want to get good track notes for this section, and I just realised when re-reading ours that we walked to the wrong side of Emily Tarn: the route shows that you keep right of Emily Tarn (we went left), and climb up to a saddle to meet the more distinct track down to Arthur Tarn. Exiting at the tarn outlet, you descend for a while along the creek bed, then you have to follow cairns to the left and through scrub back to the main saddle; the track in this section often splits and some routes will lead you to impassable sections of scrub so you may have to double back. The start of the walk is marked below…
