Mt Barney day 1: West Peak and exploring the south face of West Peak.


Exploring Bird Balcony:
Descending down the chimney on the south-west side of West Peak, perhaps 80m in elevation from the summit, I detoured left off the Savages Ridge trail, following the rockface around to the south-west corner. At the corner there was a large, nearly flat platform of grass and tiny shrubs with leaning boulder that looked somewhat like a moai statue from Easter Island. Continuing around the corner to the south face of West Peak, I was greeted by another boulder, this time looking like it was giving me a "middle finger solute". Incredible, I've never had the mountain flip me off before. See the photo I've included.

I continued traversing the slightly slanted ledge, which reached perhaps 3-4m at its narrowest, that skirted out along the south face of West Peak. Now properly beneath the mighty rockface, the ledge brought me to a steep ramp of loose dirt, with a little scree strewn in, held in place by the roots of grasses and half-rotten trees that had been burnt to death in the 2019 bushfire. I would be skeptical of how well the grasses and shrubs would hold the land in place if many more people ventured here. A landslide seemed possible. For this reason, this is as far as I recommend going.

For the sake of discovery—and because I didn't have a drone to scout for me—I grabbed fistfuls of grass and hoisted myself up the ramp to see how far along the south face of West Peak this "balcony" (a viewing ledge with a sheer drop from a story up and to a story below on the mountain) could be followed. At the top of the ramp, I believe I was directly south of the West Peak summit and had a good view east along the rest of the south face. Although the ledge continued eastward, it was more slanted and looked prone to landslide. I could see the ledge taper off around 30m ahead, so I was content not going further. Also at the top of the ramp was a small cave in a cleft in the rock, possibly 5m deep, which was a nice reward for my efforts. I then carefully made my way back down the ramp and along the balcony.

With the landmark boulder's uncanny resemblance to a middle finger flipping me off, I am naming this ledge "Bird Balcony", and not because of the fauna.

Some great drone footage I used to confirm where the rocks I was looking at were:
https://youtu.be/OCo_3hV97OQ?t=215
https://youtu.be/UfpU8AOhlSU?t=133
https://youtu.be/TNLihh_9ozk?t=72