First overnight hike in the Vic Alps - advice requested!

[rascalrabble]

Hi everyone,

A couple of us are looking to make our first visit to the Vic Alps this December. We're pretty fit and have a little bit of hiking experience elsewhere (have hiked Routeburn in NZ etc) but we're brand new to this area and it'll be our first overnight with tents.

Our initial idea was to hike the 'Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing'. When I started reading the forums to try and prepare though, I found lots of posts that suggested it might not be the best option (despite the glossy brochure!)

Does anyone have any suggestions about alternatives? We're really flexible, but since we'll only have one car would probably prefer a circuit. 3 or 4 days sounds about right. Any advice very gratefully appreciated. (And if someone could clarify whether you need to pay the camping fee for all overnight stays, or only those using the 'camping platforms' that'd be grand - the info on parkweb is really ambiguous).

Thanks thanks thanks!

Rascal

[andrewa]

What about Howitt Plains to Vallejo Gantner Hut and then to Howitt, Cross Cut Saw, Mt Speculation +/- The Viking and back if you want 3-4 days, although have to camp all the way.

Otherwise for a single night, maybe Hotham to Feathertop via Razorback? ( or have a slow one and walk out, camp near Twin Knobs, walk to top and back to campsite for the second night,then back the 3rd day?

A

[Lophophaps]

Rascal, welcome to the Forum. This is a good place to seek information.

The weather could be anything, light snow and below zero to over 30 degrees. I'm tending towards staying on tracks and easier open ground until you get a feel for the place. Citing Routeburn is useful. The Bogong High Plains has some excellent walking. As a general rule, if not doing a circuit, leave the car at the end of the walk. This means that you finish the walk and drive off, not spend time retrieving the car.

Drive to Falls Creek and park near the dam wall.
1 Pretty Valley, Tawonga Huts, side trip to Mt Jaithmathang. 10 km plus side-trip.
2 Mt Jim, possible side-trip to Youngs Hut, Possible side-trip to the waterfalls at 220118, Mt Cope (can go up several ways, light scrub), camp near Cope Hut. 10 km plus side-trips
3 Wallaces Hut via the track north of the AAWT, Fitzgeralds Hut, Edmondson Hut, side-trip to Nelse. 15 km plus side-trips.
4 Heathy Spur, dam wall, home. 10 km

It's mostly flat, there's a number of side-trips, plenty of huts to hide in, not too far each day, and a short day at the end. There's some easy off-track sections so you can see what it's like for a short burst. The car is about half a day away so you can easily get back early if you wish.

The camping platform advice is ambiguous. There is no need for a permit or to pay anything if you camp 100 metres away from the platforms. The platforms at Cope Hut have nice views but are quite exposed.

It's best to leave written information about your trip at home so that if you are overdue someone knows. Allow a few hours after your return time before panic buttons are pressed, and worry more in good weather. Bad weather means that a party may be stopped, okay, just delayed. In good weather it's different.

[Xplora]

Andrew's walk is a good one but maybe not for a first overnight. Work up to that and sort your gear out on easier trips like Lops has suggested. The Crosscut cut and back would be fine without the Viking circuit. Working on Andrews other walk suggestion as a circuit you could do Harrietville, Bungalow spur to camp, Mt. Feathertop, the Razorback, Bon Accord Spur back to Harrietville. Probably only 2 days in that but it is a circuit almost back to the car. There are lots of options on the Bogong High Plains as Lops has mentioned. Howman's Gap is always a good start leading to Spione Kopje and Mt. Nelse. Heathy Spur another, from Falls Creek to Fitzgeralds Hut and then to Wallace's, Cope, Mt. Jim, Tawonga Huts, Pretty Valley and back to Falls Creek. Lops is spot on with the camping platforms. Other than Cope hut there is not need to pay and 100m away from the platforms is all you need to avoid that anyway. You are bound to get lots of advice from your question regarding gear and weather. My advice is to keep it simple. Go somewhere with good exits points and don't try to bite off too much. It can take a while to get the gear, food and weight sorted and if there is a problem you may need to get out quick or find some solid shelter. That is why BHP is so good and also why the schools use it so much for outdoor ed. BHP is also well marked and mapped. Water is also not generally hard to find. Once you have a plan then get back to us with it for review and I am sure there will be plenty of advice if there is a problem.

[rascalrabble]

This is all enormously helpful. Thanks so much for your generous tips - and especially the thoughtful advice about exit points in case there's a problem with the gear. I will pore over the map again with all this in mind.

Sounds like I was right that the 'Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing' probably not the best we could do??

[Lophophaps]

The Falls-Hotham walk was borne out of ideology and flawed maths. There's a very long thread on this at
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=21730&hilit=Hotham
It's a nice walk but nothing special. Major errors in the advertising do not assist. Form memory the map is upside down and advises about walking at 2000 metres. Funny, most peaks there are about 1800 metres. The hyperbole is amusing.

Providing you camp 100 metres from the camping platforms then there are no fees. Also, the chance of being booked is quite slim. Then there's the hassle of sorting transport. It can be done, but it's tricky.

As Xplorer said, make a plan and submit it here. If you keep the distances reasonable, mainly on tracks (but certainly venture off tracks in some places) and take in some peaks you can't go wrong. Heaps of water, good campsites below the treeline, nice indeed.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

I second the Bogong High Plains. Following the snow poles and aquaducts also helps newbies find the way in the Green season.
The Harrietville / Bungalow Spur/ Mt. Feathertop/ Razorback/ Bon Accord spur loop is a good one. The Bon Accord spur gets much less foot traffic than the Bungalow spur does. The Log crossing over Washington creek at the bottom of the actual Bon Accord spur is always an adventure. I'd rather go down the BA spur than up it esp. in summer.

Any walking in The Mt. Howitt / Mac. springs/ Cross Cut Saw/ Upper Howqua river area is super. The MacFarlane Saddle/ Wellington Plains/ Nyimba Camp/ Lake Tali karng/ Millers Hut/ Mt Wellington/ Moroka Gap/MacFarlane Saddle hike is a cracker.
Hiking routes involving Mt. Bogong will always be memorable.

If you can manage to leave a car at each end you can start at Watchbed Creek (near Falls Creek) and head for Roper's Hut. Day two go down the AAWT along Duane spur to cross Big River and head up the T Spur( T is for TORTURE! ;-P ) for Cleve Cole hut. The third day is a walk over the summit of the Big Fella and down either The Eskdale or Staircase spur to the other car at Mountain Creek campsite.We did this in March 2016 . It was scenic, challenging and memorable.

Another hike which I did in Jan.2016 was Mt Loch Car Park/ Mt Hotham Summit/ The Razorback/ Federation hut/ Mt. Feathertop/ Diamantina Spur track /Dibbins Hut/ Swindlers spur/ Derricks hut/ Mt Loch summit / Mt. Loch Car park. That will keep you fit !!!.
The Hike in campsites at Mt. Buffalo at Mt McLeod and Rocky Creek can be combined with THE BIG WALK up and back via Lake Catani to make about 3 nights of camping /walking with some great sub alpine scenery.

[rascalrabble]

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for your advise on this. We have decided to take Lophophaps' suggested loop from Pretty Valley and I think we're just about ready to go. I got a lot of gear advice from the other threads on the forum so feeling pretty good to go and expect to head off next Saturday or so, depending on the weather. Just a couple of questions that I hope someone might be able to chime in on:

1. I hear there's plenty of water around this season. If we stay in the places where Lophophaps has suggested will it be pretty easy to find? Or do we need specific info in advance about where to find it? Are there any particular water sources up there we should be avoiding?

2. Is this route fairly well signposted, or should we expect to be navigating by compass?

Thanks heaps...! Super excited to be heading off!

Rebecca

[Lophophaps]

Rascalrabble, I just noticed your initials, RR, as in Rolls Royce. Nice.

Except at the end of a dry summer there's always plenty of water. The longest dry section is Pretty Valley to Tawonga Huts, and there may be a soak on the way. In most places just head for a gully a few hundred metres below a ridge, easy. In general, don't get water below huts where the water is too close. Tawonga Huts should be okay, never had any problems. There's a few creeks at TH. if you go to the north of the clearing it's flowing quite well. Take a drinking tube, 5 mm craft tubing a metre long, coiled.

There should be good signposts. It's all on tracks, so just follow them. Take a map and compass and use them - it's the best way to learn navigation and the area. Stand on a mountain, lay the map out so it points north, and find the bumps. After a while the peaks will become known, and this assists with later trips. It's also nice to stand on, say, Nelse, and look back at Cope, Jim and other peaks.

In the last few days it has been snowing up there, very cold, so take warm clothing. If all else fails, shiver faster.

One easy off-track option. From Ryders Huts go down to the creek and up the other side to the aquaduct, about NE. Pick up water here and head up Mt Cope. It's easy navigation - up! This takes maybe 40 minutes and there's a nice track to descend on the other side. There's a few good campsites on the summit, but you have to cart water from the aquaduct. From Cope watch the sunrise and then downhill after breakfast.

[damoprz]

I like the Bluff, Billies, Clear, Mac loop with a car shuttle.

[rascalrabble]

Hi again everyone,

Just a quick question about our first day. Per Lops' proposed route:

1 Pretty Valley, Tawonga Huts, side trip to Mt Jaithmathang. 10 km plus side-trip.

Looking at the map, it looks like it might be about 10ks including Mt Jaith (unless we're wrong about exactly where we're starting from at the dam wall, which is possible!) We're thinking we're likely to want to go a bit further, and were wondering about continuing the loop north from the peak, joining up again with Fainters, and then back south down to Tawonga Huts.

On our map the north leg between Mt Jaith and Fainters is marked as 'undefined walking track'. So we were just wondering - is this bit worth doing? Or, if we feel like pushing on, would we be better off heading south after Mt Jaith and visiting perhaps Weston? Or Dibbon?

Any thoughts much appreciated!

Best,
RR

[rascalrabble]

Looking at the map, it looks like it might be about 10ks including Mt Jaith (unless we're wrong about exactly where we're starting from at the dam wall, which is possible!)

OK, I see what I've done - I thought there was a dam wall at the Pretty Valley site, but actually we start from the Dam Wall right in Falls. That finds the missing 5ks!

We'd still love any advice on extending Day 1 a bit though - so excited to get out of the city and raring to get going...

Thanks again for all of your help.

Best,
RR

[Lophophaps]

Ah yes, the missing link. Both bodies of water have dams. If you get going early enough and walk briskly, from Tawonga Huts there's a nice loop over Mt J then north to Fainters, back along the road. From Mt J it's light scrub with a bit of route finding around the rocky bits, nothing hard. The only place to take care is getting off the Mt J summit, a lump of rock. From memory, go west for maybe 10 metres and down a gully. There may be other ways down but that's the way I went up. Also, from the saddle west of Tawonga Huts and south of Mt J, the track goes down when going to the summit. It confused me the first time. But I confuse very easily.

Consider camping at Pretty Valley. The driver and a passenger go to the Rocky Valley dam wall and walk back with day packs. It's through the village over ruined castle, nothing special.