Snowy North - 27th June 2020
Posted: Fri 10 Jul, 2020 2:11 pmBlog -> http://www.benderandxing.com/2020/07/05/snowy-north/
Video -> TBC
Snowy North has a reputation for being a relatively short but tough, steep, scrubby climb, and for being a little tricky to get the trail head.
Our trip started with a late Friday night dash across the state and past Maydena, out into the black, endless abyss that is Styx Road. The Abels suggests South Styx Rd as the starting point, with a decent road walk required from the Road Closed sign to the actual trail head. We thought we could do better, accessing the other side of Waterfall Creek Rd from past the Big Tree Reserve. Navigating the endless, deteriorating road at 10pm at night was an, ahem, experience, especially as gravel turned to grass and muddy ruts, but eventually we got to the fork with Ted Ransleys Road. From here the road is technically closed, so we set up camp and called it a night. The morning light confirmed we probably would have made it ok past the minor drainage collapse, but we weren't keen to risk a very expensive recovery for the sake of an extra 500m.
We followed the now-impassable forestry track for a bit over 2km up to an obvious cairn and pink ribbon marking the start the route. The scrub encroaches briefly before making way for fairly open forest which, save for several steep pinches, made for good walking. The pad is minimal but the taped route was easy enough to follow, though a few spots do require a little careful scouting.
Cresting the first plateau landed us into wonderfully dense pandani forest that we literally had to push through in places, quite a thing, and our first views of the mountain itself. Visible sprinklings of snow excited us. The reprieve in elevation was brief though as the next steep climb began, again through mostly open forest. Here we were led astray by an errant ribbon that sent us south-west instead of north-east - you want to find the route through the dense, dark patch of pandani. Avoiding them resulted in a good 45 mins of horrible scrub bashing until we reunited with the track further up the hill.
Another minor plateau is reached before the real climb up to the main Snowy Range begins. This was seriously steep and slippery climbing in places, push through and up the scrub and, later, over rock.
Eventually we came over the plateau to a healthy covering of snow. Not enough to walk "on" but enough to cover the vegetation and make picking out the pad near impossible. The inclination was to make a bee-line over the minor hill between us at the actual summit. The advise from a mate who'd been there a few weeks before was to follow the plateau around until a clearer route to the top could be seen. We attempted to split the difference; with a bit more snow, it would have worked, but judging the vegetation under 3-4" of snow proved very much hit and miss and we soon retreated back down off the minor hill and followed said mate's advice - which was followed more rigorously on the return trip.
The final approach was steep, rocky and thus slippery in places, but ultimately offered minimal resistance as we crested the gently rounded summit and the trig point came into sight. Low mist in the surrounding valleys hid a lot of the view but the peaks of Anne, Mueller etc. could be made out. Alas our clear skies lasted all of 20 mins before the fog rolled in, perhaps as gentle reminder to not waste time getting ourselves back to the safety of cover.
Definitely not a first Abel (especially in winter) but an awesome mountain nonetheless. And great to enjoy it in such fine winter weather.
Cheers, Ben.
Video -> TBC
Snowy North has a reputation for being a relatively short but tough, steep, scrubby climb, and for being a little tricky to get the trail head.
Our trip started with a late Friday night dash across the state and past Maydena, out into the black, endless abyss that is Styx Road. The Abels suggests South Styx Rd as the starting point, with a decent road walk required from the Road Closed sign to the actual trail head. We thought we could do better, accessing the other side of Waterfall Creek Rd from past the Big Tree Reserve. Navigating the endless, deteriorating road at 10pm at night was an, ahem, experience, especially as gravel turned to grass and muddy ruts, but eventually we got to the fork with Ted Ransleys Road. From here the road is technically closed, so we set up camp and called it a night. The morning light confirmed we probably would have made it ok past the minor drainage collapse, but we weren't keen to risk a very expensive recovery for the sake of an extra 500m.
We followed the now-impassable forestry track for a bit over 2km up to an obvious cairn and pink ribbon marking the start the route. The scrub encroaches briefly before making way for fairly open forest which, save for several steep pinches, made for good walking. The pad is minimal but the taped route was easy enough to follow, though a few spots do require a little careful scouting.
Cresting the first plateau landed us into wonderfully dense pandani forest that we literally had to push through in places, quite a thing, and our first views of the mountain itself. Visible sprinklings of snow excited us. The reprieve in elevation was brief though as the next steep climb began, again through mostly open forest. Here we were led astray by an errant ribbon that sent us south-west instead of north-east - you want to find the route through the dense, dark patch of pandani. Avoiding them resulted in a good 45 mins of horrible scrub bashing until we reunited with the track further up the hill.
Another minor plateau is reached before the real climb up to the main Snowy Range begins. This was seriously steep and slippery climbing in places, push through and up the scrub and, later, over rock.
Eventually we came over the plateau to a healthy covering of snow. Not enough to walk "on" but enough to cover the vegetation and make picking out the pad near impossible. The inclination was to make a bee-line over the minor hill between us at the actual summit. The advise from a mate who'd been there a few weeks before was to follow the plateau around until a clearer route to the top could be seen. We attempted to split the difference; with a bit more snow, it would have worked, but judging the vegetation under 3-4" of snow proved very much hit and miss and we soon retreated back down off the minor hill and followed said mate's advice - which was followed more rigorously on the return trip.
The final approach was steep, rocky and thus slippery in places, but ultimately offered minimal resistance as we crested the gently rounded summit and the trig point came into sight. Low mist in the surrounding valleys hid a lot of the view but the peaks of Anne, Mueller etc. could be made out. Alas our clear skies lasted all of 20 mins before the fog rolled in, perhaps as gentle reminder to not waste time getting ourselves back to the safety of cover.
Definitely not a first Abel (especially in winter) but an awesome mountain nonetheless. And great to enjoy it in such fine winter weather.
Cheers, Ben.
