BIG FELLA AND THE HILLS OF DOOM
What began in darkness ended in darkness. And between these gloomy mantles of pre-dawn and dusk were four days bathed in conditions as benign as you could hope for in the Australian Alps. Just as well. Because having to battle extreme weather while unlocking the mysteries of Grey Hills and Whiterock Falls, or balancing across the giddy exposure of West Peak and Howman Falls, or traversing what I like to call the Hills of Doom, well, that would have been a stretch too far.
Previous attempts to complete this 75km loop of Mt Bogong, the northern Bogong High Plains, and their connecting spurs and ridges, had been scuttled by fire, snow and COVID. Blessed are the patient. And blessed are those fortunate to inverse freefall into these alpine Elysian Fields, an archipelago of ‘fortunate isles’. In truth, though, for me there was nothing ‘free’ about reaching this high country, although ‘fall’ perhaps seems apt, because the walk’s welcome and farewell was the torturous ascent and tumbling descent of Mt Bogong.
Known by some First Nations people as the ‘Big Fella’, the brooding massif of Bogong, Victoria’s highest peak at 1,986m, defines the experience geologically, physically, and—cue thunder and lightning—psychologically. The peak’s prime channel of access/egress is a seven-odd kilometre, 1,300m ascent/descent known as the Staircase. A better name, I think, would be the Beast. As tough as I found the Staircase, though, it was T Spur and Duane Spur that were the real eye-openers. Heading down, my knee joints felt as smooth as sandpaper; going up, my adductors twanged like a demented orchestra. Less fraught were my wanders over the rolling plateaus of Mt Bogong and its High Plains.
If the weather was kind on my trip, it’s been an omen of
