Jagungal access in winter

[paidal_chalne_vala]

I am considering scouting out the Nimmo Hill to Cesjack's hut route this Easter 2021 . I will leave my soft roader AWD RAV 4 at the top of Nimmo hill and go on foot until I reach the hut.

Whats the aim of the trip? I ask this because I think there are far more enjoyable ways to get to Cesjacks than trudging along the Snowy Plains FT from Nimmo. The beauty of the Snowy Plains FT is that it gets you right up close to Cesjacks with your vehicle.

The off track walking in Jagungal is the best in the whole park. I would suggest you build a route around that rather than fire trail walking the whole time.

Thanks for the tips. The main aim is to scout that route out for XC ski access in white season.So by doing a green season trip by that route I will come to know the terrain even in heavy snow and fog.

[rcaffin]

by doing a green season trip by that route I will come to know the terrain even in heavy snow and fog.
A sadly misguided youth.
Clearly, you have never been there in heavy snow and fog. Even with a LOT of experience and knowledge of the area (I do have the latter), you will not have the faintest idea of where you are in bad weather. Even a GPS has some problems in a bad snow storm.

I recall one time we crossed the Toolong range to go out onto Strawberry Hills, S of Jag, in thick fog. My wife was NOT amused when we reached the Jag cairn by mistake!

Be very careful and rather conservative. KNP can have some of the worst weather in the world when a storm blows up the Murray valley and hits the W wall. Australian (& NZ) winter tents are light years ahead of even the best American tents.

Cheers

[Lophophaps]

Roger, excellent comments.

I've visited KNP since 1973 (summer walking) and 1976 (winter XC skiing). In fine weather I've done trips in the Jagungal region with scant reference to a map or GPS. Like you I know the place well. Bad weather is another story. There are too many small bumps, gullies and ridges, all very confusing. Major features are needed, and if these cannot be seen then it's hard. On the AAWT we had just skied over Magdala, terrifying in a whiteout, major plunge potential. I incorrectly identified a summit and was sacked as leader and navigator. A short time after that, still whiteout, the rest of the party had the map out, plotting the next bit. They had the map upside down, and I picked that.

Careful and conservative is good. It's critical to camp out of the wind, which usually means terrain on the west side as a minimum. Terrain on the south and north sides is desirable. Make sure that tents have solid inners, not mesh.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Thanks for your remarks. What I meant really was in fair XC ski season weather it interests me to go to Cesjack's hut via that route. So visiting it in green season and recording the route on a GPS could be of some benefit. The storm I endured on the Main range in Feb. a couple of summers ago was more than enough to wish I had stayed at home with my cat .
:-0
At age 51, my days of misguided youth are running out !

[rcaffin]

No, no - we can be misguided to age 90.

Cheers
Roger

[peregrinator]

By 91, we might be smart enough to avoid misguided activities. Let's hope we still have the energy to climb Jagungal.