7 Peaks - Mt Buffalo (3/7)

Following on from my 7 Peaks Falls Creek ride on the Saturday, Dale and I did the Mt Buffalo climb the on Sunday 8th November.

I read during Saturday night that many found Mount Buffalo to be an enjoyable climb (some even quoted it as their favourite go-to climb within the Alpine area). I was looking forward to this climb and getting my 3rd stamp on my 7 Peaks Passport.

We decided that we would leave Dave's house at 7am. For some reason, I didn't pay too much attention to the distance of the climb or maybe because I have been doing too much reading on all these climbs that I muddled up my distances. For some reason I thought the climb was 17km but it ended up being around 26km from the house.

The aim for this climb (and from reading other people's write up) is that you should be able to maintain a steady cadence as the gradient is pretty manageable. I wanted to work on my cadence and I actually paid attention to my pedal strokes. Happy to report that I was able to maintain it > 60rpm for 90% of the climb.

I found the scenery of the climb amazing. The waterfalls and the frequent flow of water along the side of the road made the experience much more enjoyable - something which I wouldn't have taken in if I had only driven the car. There were a few switch backs which I knew that I would have to take it easy on the way down but I didn't have any anxiety around it.

It took me just over 2 hours to ride up to the Rangers Office from the house in Porepunkah and under 30min to ride down and back to the house.

One of the places where we could get our 7 peaks stamps

Some stats

The ride down was not as manageable as Falls Creek. I held on to the brakes more for this as the roads were pretty rough and I couldn't comfortably see ahead of me to adjust my body position quick enough. I still managed it fine but the level of confidence on descending didn't get better during this event.

Ranking the 3 climbs of the 7 Peaks from hardest to easiest....

1) Mt Hotham
2) Falls Creek
3) Mt Buffalo

Lake Mountain is next on the cards - 15th November with the Domestique crew. Stay tuned for the write up!