A WALK THROUGH WINTER
It all started on the way home from a great week of backcountry skiing at the Bogong Rover Chalet. We’d taken an alpine tent and spent a night camping out in the snow. And aside from numb toes in the chill of the morning, it was an amazing experience; a way of camping that we’d never experienced before in our previous years of scouting and adventuring. It was the tipping point; the final incentive for us to plan another, and even more exciting, expedition.
DAY 1 - THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
Two months after our snow camping, Samuel Abdilla, Chris Shaw and I found ourselves back in the town of Mount Beauty, ready to embark on the type of hike we’d been dreaming about for years. The early September weather was nothing like the mountains surrounding Falls Creek had experienced for many years. At least two metres of snow still lay across the ski resort, and (locals estimated) at least four metres of snow was higher up the mountain. The mountains that we were planning to climb.
The weather was terrible to say the least. Our clothes were already beginning to get wet as we stowed a few final belongings into our packs before setting off. Avalanche warnings were all over the mountain websites, and an ominous fog hung low throughout the town. The mountain ranges were enveloped by thick dark clouds.
We’d woken at 5am that morning to finish the drive from Adelaide to the base of the mountains. It was 3pm by the time we reached the Mountain Creek trailhead. We slung our 28-kilogram packs onto our backs and started drudging along the narrow trail through the thick forest that would eventually lead us to our destination, the summit of Mount Bogong, Victoria’s highest mountain.
We carried eight days worth of food, that could be rationed out even longer if needed, special
