Bogong Early Season Snow Walk

[Hutchie]

Last weekend i joined others from the YHA Bushwalking club for an early season snow walk over Mt Bogong. With 20+cm of snow falling in the week prior we were set for rare chance to walk on snow soo early in the year. I wont write too much and just let the photos tell the story.

We made our way up the Staircase Spur with light snowfalls starting just bellow Bivouac Hut. After a short regroup at the hut we continued on with the wind picking up as we reached Castor and Pollux outcrops. The clouds were caught low on the mountain and were being blown all over the place by the strong wind, it felt great to be walking within it all.


Looking to the Summit from just above Bivouac Hut


Looking up the Staircase Spur


Just bellow the top of the Staircase


Looking across to Eskdale Spur


Snow poles leading to the Summit Cairn

Once we made it to the summit ridge the wind was really blowing making it a bit challenging to trudge along the crunchy snow. Fortunately as a result of the wind, the visibility was fantastic. The views in every direction were fantastic.


Quartz Ridge down to Cairn Creek, Feathertop in the distance


The Summit


Icy snow pole


Looking to Mt Wills

We carried on through the icy wind and eventually made it down to the protection of Cleve Cole Hut. With tents pitched and the fire going a few from the group headed down to Howman's Falls to kill some time. We were rewarded with a decent flow of water and some nice ice formations.


Cleve Cole Hut


Ice on the gutter at Cleve Cole


New Hilleberg tent getting its first taste of snow for the year


Ice at Howman's Falls

Back at the hut the group settled in for a cold night with most choosing to camp in tents. Although the temp dropped to -5 overnight it was dry as bone with no snow to be seen in the morning. On Sunday morning we broke camp and headed back to the summit hoping for some gentler winds. We were luck that things had died down significantly making the view from the summit even better than saturday.






Looking towards the BHP and Falls Creek


Heading back to the Summit


The summit ridge


The summit cairn

After photos and what-not at the summit we made our way back down the staircase and returned to the mountain creek. An excellent weekend had by all i think.
A big thank you to members from the YHA Bushwalking Club for organising the trip and good company over the 2 days.

[gmac]

I can see why you let the pics tell the story, some good ones there. I was there in Jan in sunny conditions its a good contrast. Out of interest what model is the new tent and how did it handle the cold ( I am thinking of upgrading to a Hilleberg tent)

Gary

[Hutchie]

Hi Gary the tent is a Hilleberg Soulo. The soulo is Hilleberg's expedition weight solo tent. They have 2 other solo models which are lighter but sacrifice some of the strength of the Soulo. Having said that, i have found this tent to be excellent and i wouldn't expect any less of their other models.

There are soo many clever design features present in the Soulo that (IMO) really do make it the ideal 4 season solo tent. It might not be the lightest around but i am confident that it will stand up to anything i (or the weather) can throw at it. It has enough size to make it liveable for extended periods. It breathes excellently. It pitches poles on the outside. It's 3 pole design makes it solid as a rock, with the guys out it's even harder to budge. All the poles clip, no need to thread. I could go on forever. It just works better than any solo tent ive used or researched before.

The pain with the Hilleberg's is that im not aware of any stockist in Aus soo you have to buy them sight unseen from overseas like i did. But having used it for a while now i cannot speak any higher of it, and would definitely look at another Hilleberg tent in future. Not that i expect to need one for a while though.

You can checkout a full review i did of the Soulo here if its of interest
http://ozhiking.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/hilleberg-soulo-hiking-tent/