The ridge trail is steep and quickly gets your heart rate up. After a while the rocky ridge is encountered.

From the ridge we saw the Sun trying to break through the clouds, lighting up the landscape below.

Navigating through the rocky ridge was tricky. Looking for the line of least resistance meant some exploring before deciding which route to take, knowing going to far right meant it would be increasingly difficult to regain the ridge top.

Some rock scrambling and technical climbing moves were required to pass rocky slopes and walls. At this stage, Nicole was contemplating a retreat and even I had the thought creeping into my head. The weather was not ideal for an ascent on Logan’s Ridge, the cloud was low, the wind was howling and it was very cold. However, a retreat meant going back down sketchy impasses and it seemed we had gone past the point of no return.

When we reached a rocky ramp, a large tree proved helpful to climb over the top. As we gained more height, it became increasingly difficult with the rock scrambling.

A couple of sections in the middle was over mixed ground, a welcome relief from the rock climbing. A fair way up, we reached The Notch which is between two large deceptive pinnacles. We followed a trail leading between them where two large gum trees were present. At this stage, the wind was fierce, blowing straight up the mountain. I thought that was a good thing (as opposed to fighting it if it was blowing from above), but the straps on my pack kept whipping my face!

After further bush bashing and only a couple of hundred metres below the summit, we were presented with a rock wall. There are two popular ways to negotiate with this wall, talk your way up the exposed wall or go around the right towards a vegetated gully that will eventually lead to the summit. We decided on the easier option.

So here we were, Nicole, Shane, Brock and I somehow bouldering along a wall trying to reach this gully until we got stuck. Thankfully, we were able to back track and decide to go up the nasty looking rock face we had earlier decided was "not negotiable". We did get up one by one, and the person in front would offer a helpful hand in lifting the person below onto the ledge.

We proceeded further up the ridge which involved more scrambling. While Brock, Nicole and I took an easier route, Shane decided to test his skills on a difficult section. Despite his success, the rocky terrain split us up where Shane was above us and the rest of us reached a nasty wall with a very nasty drop right next to us, straight down the East Face. There were two obvious lines up, one was above the drop and the other slightly away from it. There wasn’t any hesitation in which route to take despite both being rock climbs.

Meanwhile, Shane traversed his way in our direction and found himself directly above us. This proved very helpful and his long reach enabled us to grab his hand for the final haul onto the small ledge. Shane’s other hand was gripping a rather small tree. At one stage, he found himself dangling with two hands on the tree and offering his foot to Nicole to grab onto! "Your insane" was Nicole’s response. Shane repositioned and extended his free hand to Nicole who sucked it up bravely, stepped up and reached for safely. In hindsight, a short rope would’ve proved useful.

The summit was now just a quick bush bash through a thicket of bushes. After 7.5 hours we had reached the summit of Mount Barney via Logan’s Ridge in not the best weather conditions. Despite the wind, the clouds had risen above the mountain and only mist was covering the smaller peaks below. While  enjoying lunch, Brock took some extra sustenance in the form of some energy pack called Hammer gel. Shane’s knee was holding up well and a couple of ibuprofen were taken to ease the pain for the relentless downhill slog that was ahead of us.

We knew it would be dark before we reached the base of Mt Barney and decided to take Peasants Ridge (also known as the South Ridge) for the descent. Originally we had planned to descend via the South East Ridge, but with bad weather and darkness approaching this was not an option.

The descent was uneventful. The only route finding exercise was getting off the summit towards Rum Jungle. We didn’t find any Rum . Shane took out his new hiking poles which proved very helpful on the rocky steps. The gel had kicked in, and Brock was now in Hammer-time mode. He bounced his way down the mountain, almost at one stage taking a big stack, but thankfully a tree was present to grab hold off. I did stack it, landing on my bum and sliding towards a tree that stopped just short of the crown jewels.

Nicole took the lead most of the way, and at several stages pulled back to check on me who was at the back taking it slow. The last of the rocky ascent is marked by a rocky ramp with a crack going down the middle. Nicole descended this section with much ease despite her last visit on Mt Barney. Compared to the rocky scrambles and climbing on Logan’s Ridge, this was a breeze.

It started to drizzle again and the light was now dimming fast, but we were on a much wider and stable trail. I found it much easier to just take my foot brake off and let gravity make me almost run down the track. We reached the Yellowpinch trail at the base and by 6pm were at the car park.

The next day I was walking around like I had done a thousand squats – my thighs, calves and back were aching. Thankfully Jenesse pampered me all day.

Living up to their team name, Team Insanity went on another big walk that Monday!