Currawong
Gold Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2012
- Messages
- 2,258
A cold front came through south-east Australia yesterday, and I wanted to experience the first serious snow of the season. So I did the walk to Australia’s highest peak - Mount Kosciuszko - in the Snowy Mountains National Park.
The walk starts at Thredbo, a small skiing village. You catch a chairlift up to the high country. It's normally a pretty easy walk (13.5km round trip), but in this weather it would be harder. The temperature was supposed to be max 1 degrees celsius and with 50kph winds - in Thredbo. But the walk was 300 to 600 metres higher in elevation and completely exposed, so should be much colder and much windier than that.
The chairlift up. The woman selling the ticket said “We are recommending people don’t do the walk today because we’re expecting a blizzard.”
Up the top.
Plenty of footprints going to the edge of the ski lift station, but then they stop….
After that there was only one set, and they were coming back out. Probably an over-nighter leaving before the weather. There was no one else on the Thredbo trail that day.
The view along the walk. The trail was pretty icy and slippery.
Climbing the peak. It started getting much windier and colder as I got higher.
Made it to the top! 2,228 metres. The wind was so strong here it was hard to stand in place. I took my gloves off to take some pics and my hands started to burn and seriously hurt after only about a minute - had to get them back on fast! I huddled up there and ate a couple of power bars and tried to hide from the wind and stinging snow.
These two got carried with me. Nice light-weight hiking pair. At that moment they were the highest knives in Australia. You'll notice I'm half-way through stripping the B11, using the 'beat it until it falls off' technique.
Decided it was time to head back, but - it was 3pm !! - and the chairlift closed at 4pm !! If you miss it you have to walk back down - it's basically an extremely steep, 5km-long ski run. Not much fun at the end of a walk - I know, because this is exactly what happened to me when I did the same walk a couple of weeks ago, it did my knees in.
So I decided to run back, to try and make the deadline. It’s 6.5 km each way, with about 400m elevation change. They say the round trip takes 5-6 hours (so 2.5 hours each way), and that’s in good weather. I had less than an hour to do it in the snow, with a strong head wind, carrying a big day pack!
The sun came out for about two minutes along the way, the only time I saw it.
Made it to the chairlift with ten minutes to spare! Feels good man.
On the way back down... the snow started falling off my clothes... I felt a bit lighter... it started to get a bit warmer.
Back out of the clouds, Thredbo in sight. And then home is only a four hour drive away.
All in all it was a great walk, I ended up soaking wet despite all the rain gear but feeling happy and not overly cold.
Bonus pic: all the edged tools I was carrying in the car on that trip. I don't carry this many deliberately, they just kinda build up in there and I forget about them. Anyone else this crazy with their car carry?
Bonus bonus pic. While I was doing the walk my mate texted me this photo of a pig he caught directly across the road from my place while I was away. I missed out going with him and getting a few good pork roasts !!
The walk starts at Thredbo, a small skiing village. You catch a chairlift up to the high country. It's normally a pretty easy walk (13.5km round trip), but in this weather it would be harder. The temperature was supposed to be max 1 degrees celsius and with 50kph winds - in Thredbo. But the walk was 300 to 600 metres higher in elevation and completely exposed, so should be much colder and much windier than that.
The chairlift up. The woman selling the ticket said “We are recommending people don’t do the walk today because we’re expecting a blizzard.”
Up the top.
Plenty of footprints going to the edge of the ski lift station, but then they stop….
After that there was only one set, and they were coming back out. Probably an over-nighter leaving before the weather. There was no one else on the Thredbo trail that day.
The view along the walk. The trail was pretty icy and slippery.
Climbing the peak. It started getting much windier and colder as I got higher.
Made it to the top! 2,228 metres. The wind was so strong here it was hard to stand in place. I took my gloves off to take some pics and my hands started to burn and seriously hurt after only about a minute - had to get them back on fast! I huddled up there and ate a couple of power bars and tried to hide from the wind and stinging snow.
These two got carried with me. Nice light-weight hiking pair. At that moment they were the highest knives in Australia. You'll notice I'm half-way through stripping the B11, using the 'beat it until it falls off' technique.
Decided it was time to head back, but - it was 3pm !! - and the chairlift closed at 4pm !! If you miss it you have to walk back down - it's basically an extremely steep, 5km-long ski run. Not much fun at the end of a walk - I know, because this is exactly what happened to me when I did the same walk a couple of weeks ago, it did my knees in.
So I decided to run back, to try and make the deadline. It’s 6.5 km each way, with about 400m elevation change. They say the round trip takes 5-6 hours (so 2.5 hours each way), and that’s in good weather. I had less than an hour to do it in the snow, with a strong head wind, carrying a big day pack!
The sun came out for about two minutes along the way, the only time I saw it.
Made it to the chairlift with ten minutes to spare! Feels good man.
On the way back down... the snow started falling off my clothes... I felt a bit lighter... it started to get a bit warmer.
Back out of the clouds, Thredbo in sight. And then home is only a four hour drive away.
All in all it was a great walk, I ended up soaking wet despite all the rain gear but feeling happy and not overly cold.
Bonus pic: all the edged tools I was carrying in the car on that trip. I don't carry this many deliberately, they just kinda build up in there and I forget about them. Anyone else this crazy with their car carry?
Bonus bonus pic. While I was doing the walk my mate texted me this photo of a pig he caught directly across the road from my place while I was away. I missed out going with him and getting a few good pork roasts !!
What's the blade below your silky saw?