A Beautiful World
Mount Rufus tells a quieter, stranger geological story
While she may appear fairly unremarkable from below, the formation of Mount Rufus is anything but bland. Unlike the dramatic peaks carved by ancient glaciers, her softer sandstone slopes were shaped over time by chemical weathering—a much slower process involving water and air rather than smashing ice and howling wind. This geological patience reveals a different kind of beauty in Tasmania's alpine landscape.
The Quiet Story of Mount Rufus
While she may appear fairly unremarkable from below, the formation of Mount Rufus is anything but bland. In fact, her slopes tell a quieter, stranger story—one of slow transformation and geological patience.
In most alpine environments—like Mount Field, Ben Lomond, and the Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park—the dramatic landscapes we admire are shaped by physical forces. Long-lost glaciers once crept across these mountains, grinding down the rock beneath them and even plucking entire chunks of mountain away to form lakes and tarns. Wind, rain, and freeze-thaw cycles further sculpt the peaks and ridgelines, leaving behind the stark, jagged silhouettes we often associate with alpine terrain.
But Mount Rufus, with her softer sandstone slopes, looks and feels different. That's because she wasn't carved by glaciers, but instead shaped over time by chemical weathering - a much slower process involving water and air, rather than smashing ice and howling wind.