Rumours were true; a brand new viewing platform does exist situated right next to the summit trig. It definitely upgrades this peak in terms of excitement and reason for doing (or maybe that then is actually a downgrade as the reason for doing it used to be that there was no good reason to do it???)
I have been up here well over 10x now over the last 2-3 years and this was a very enjoyable day trail running. A lot of work has been done on the track and you are now able to easily avoid 90% of the mud that the top section of this track was famous for. Even the very boggy pools of mud near the summit are now bridged with board walk and stairs also take care of most of the slippery hill sections
The day we were up there (Aug 14 2011) was the day before the snow came in. Even so it was very cold, windy and blustery showers so it meant with kids a bit of care was required in climbing the ladder but all good.
Lunch at the hut avoided the only notable shower as we dodged incoming weather all day
Geocache bagged too and I didn't see Guanos name in the log book. How can you sleep at night dude with that on your mind?
Video of our trip up here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq7_T-6uTD0