I have been looking at this loop for a year or two with Rudi's exceptionally fast time looking like a hard one to crack. I finally got the chance to run a recon in late December and was stoked with how good it was, so when a cool day in January came up I knew the game was on.
Starting at 6:14 on the 25th January I made it to the car park in around 33 minutes feeling good. The goal was to meet my mate Damien at the top of bluff with my pack which had about 3L of water, food and emergency gear in it and refill water at a stream after descending Ellen peak. I met Damien about 3/4 the way up bluff, grabbed my pack and was off. Hit the top of Bluff Knoll at around 1:04 still feeling good and in some surprisingly wet and windy conditions with low visibility. Felt great across to Isongerp peak which I made it to in around 2:06. Onto Ellen I started to fade, getting there in around 3:11. I made the descent from Ellen peak and had run out of water. My last 15km which I was hoping to do quite fast ended up being a slog in warm conditions - there was also no water left in any of the streams that connected with the track leaving me pretty dehydrated. Overall I had an awesome time up on the ridge and I will definitely be back here in the future - maybe even change up the direction for another crack!