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How Jacobs Ladder, one of Tasmania’s scariest — and most photographed — roads, was built

When John Richards was asked to climb into a bulldozer and clear the road for Jacobs Ladder in the early 1960s, he admits it was a daunting task.

“At the start, it was just a lot of rocks and a steep mountain,” he recalls, adding that local road builder Roy Bugg marked the course out on rocks to show where the mountain needed to be cleared.

“Roy was adamant we could get up there and he knew what he was about. I was fairly pig-headed, I wouldn’t have liked to say I couldn’t get up there.”

But the process proved to be slow going because of the large boulders on the intended path and the steep incline.

Yellow digger building road in rocky steep landscape
Construction of Jacobs Ladder was completed at the end of 1964.(Supplied: Robert Diprose)

“We had a lot of other people there blasting the rock too so that we could move it,” Mr Richards says.

“A lot of the rocks were too big to move with one machine and, if you did move them, they went right down to the bottom and wiped everything else out that you had already done, so they had to be broken up.”

Red tape and steep inclines

The road to the edge of the Ben Lomond plateau at 1,500m in the state’s north east was government-funded, and the Northern Tasmanian Alpine Club, the most established ski club at the time, was the main driver of the process.

Mr Richards recalls that authorities remained reluctant to provide all the money in one payment though.

“They just allowed a bit of funding at a time. It took us a while to get up the Ladder — probably three or four attempts,” he says.

a historic map of the Ben Lomond snow field, showing peaks and heights
An early Ben Lomond ski resort guide showing the area’s snow-capped plateau above 1,200m.(Supplied: David Harvey)

The road was eventually finished by the end of 1964 and construction teams then carved a quick path to the growing ski village at the bottom of Ben Lomond.

“There wasn’t any celebration when we got to the top,” Mr Richards says.

“The next step was to get across to where the village is now across the plain.

“Once we got on top, we were probably a kilometre-and-a-half from where the village is, so we had to put that in too.”

Four people drinking wine in the '60s.
Bill Mitchell (second from left) was one of Ben Lomond’s major power players by the 1960s.(Facebook: Friends of Ben Lomond)

controversial beginnings

Jacobs Ladder was the long-standing idea of ​​Bill Mitchell, a car wrecker by trade, who was one of the key figures in Ben Lomond’s early development.

His suggested route was controversial because there was already an alternative hiking path onto the Ben Lomond plateau that was less steep.

But Mr Mitchell was a persuasive personality and pushed for the new route, not least because it was protected from the elements and its aspect faced north, allowing any ice on the road to melt.

Black and white photo of two skiiers with skis on shoulder walking to summit of snowy mountain
Early visitors to Ben Lomond often walked 2 kilometers up to the plateau to ski.(Supplied: David Harvey)

In the decades before, most tourists would drive to Carr Villa at the bottom of the plateau and carry their skis and supplies 2 kilometers up the mountain.

David Harvey’s book The Ben Lomond Story even tells the tale of how, on one occasion, a group of men carried two heavy metal frames for a rope tow up to the summit on their backs.

But as Tasmania’s ski scene grew, it became clear that road access was imperative for the area to fulfill its tourism potential.

Black and white picture of skiier completing aerial jump
By the late 1960s skiing at Ben Lomond was popular and winter tourism was booming.(Supplied: David Harvey)

Six hairpins and minimal fencing

Launceston-based former surgeon Berni Einoder started visiting Ben Lomond in the 1960s and remembers early forays up Jacobs Ladder.

“I drove up there the first time in my Volvo; I made it approximately halfway then turned around and walked up,” he says.

“The road was fairly dangerous without fences on either side, and when it was wet and full of snow and ice in patches, it was quite treacherous.”

Skier on horseback in the snow.  Historical black and white photo.
Ben Lomond ski pioneers Fred Smithies and ET Emmett didn’t have the luxury of vehicle transport in 1929.(Supplied: Karl Stackhouse)

Geoff Foot says the Ladder still poses challenges for drivers today. The former owner of Ben Lomond Snowsports drove shuttle buses daily along the road until recently.

“We used to get people stuck quite regularly. In a lot of cases, running the buses, we didn’t have time to stop and help them.

“We just pushed them across to the side of the road so we could get past and deliver people to the top of the mountain.”

Historic yellow snow mobile in a snow field.
Before Geoff Foot, Robert Diprose drove a Bombardier snow bus on Jacobs Ladder.(Supplied: David Harvey)

still going strong

Jacobs Ladder can take scores of cars each day, although they are required to carry snow chains in the winter and four-wheel drives fare the best.

The road is still gravel, as that helps with traction, and stopping to take selfies is a no-go, even if the hairpins have been enlarged.

There’s a parking spot at the top where visitors can pull over safely and take a photo back down the mountain.

For John Richards, seeing his handiwork intact nearly 60 years on is very satisfying.

“It’s actually quite spectacular when you look at it from afar. It’s beautiful scenery up there, it’s well worth the trip up,” he says.

Windy, steep road through a snow capped mountain
Modern drivers still find Jacobs Ladder an awe-inspiring drive.(Supplied: Alex Weir Photography)

Mr Einoder says while tourists do grumble about how hard Jacobs Ladder is to drive, the road’s condition is now “very good”.

“The road has been improved a lot. It is scary if you have not been there before because it is one of the steepest zig-zags in the world,” he says.

“But the other thing worth remembering is that it is one of the only roads that goes within 500 meters of the top of a mountain.”

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