Federation Peak is a lone quartzite mountain possessing a menacing sharp spire on the Eastern most tip of the East Arthur ranges, nearly 90km south-east of Hobart, overlooking Hanging Lake and 600m above Lake Geeves in the middle of the south west wilderness of Tasmania. When it comes to defining wilderness, you can't get more commanding of the name than this dramatic and imposing monolith. It was named in 1901 after the federation of Australia. With a total elevation of 1224m, and requiring 600m of almost vertical rock-climbing skills to the summit from Lake Geeves below, Sir Edmund Hilary declared that Federation Peak was “Australia’s only real mountain”. Van Dieman’s wanted to pay homage to this captivating monument to Australia’s history and Tasmania’s wilderness.
Federation Peak's terrifying 600m high North Face, which has claimed more than one fatality.
This ink is a dark ash grey ink with a silvery black-gold sheen. It arguably one of our most vibrant and versatile greys. It is darker than Eclipse from the Midnight Series, and contains more sheen as well. Cradle Mountain Grey from the Original Colours of Tasmania differs noticeably in that Federation Peak is a single dye ink, with little to no chromatography, while Cradle Mountain Grey is a composite of three separate dyes which bleed out into a wide and beautiful chromatography on absorbent paper and when watered. But this makes Federation Peak more useful when shading with water. In medium to wet pens it appears almost black, but van shade down to a very light cloudy grey and even further when watered in artworks.
It flows excellently in any pen, producing different shades depending on pen flow and width. In the wettest pens on good quality paper, you can expect to see a decent sheen appear, as in the pictures above.
Federation Peak is our ink of the day for the 6th of January, 2021, and is available to try for free until 11:59pm.
Try it for free here.
Van Dieman's Wilderness Series is ten fountain pen inks inspired by the majestic, beautiful and ofttimes humbling wonders that await in the Tasmanian wilds. As an extension of our original Van Dieman's Colours of Tasmania, and as a series unto itself, we created the Wilderness Series to encapsulate the natural colours of this awe-inspiring and untouched southern land. Try the other inks in this series:
- Azzure Kingfisher (Shimmer)
- Black-Tongue Spider Orchid
- Devil's Kitchen
- Eucalyptus Regnans
- Federation Peak
- Firetail Finch
- Hanging Lake
- Hastings Caves (Shimmer)
- Huon Pine
- Spotted Sun Orchid