Mawson’s Hut - How To Get In There?

[glenpandrews]

Hi Team,
Mid January I’m hoping to get in to Mawson’s hit, after coming off the main range at Whites River Hut. Might go to Valentines Hut or Grey Mare first.
Does anyone have a recommendation on how to get in to Mawson’s hut? My brother tried from Valentines last year, but gave up (they were tired, had bush bashed up the falls). They may not have been on a good route.
What are the good ways in to Mawson’s hut, if any?
And a very very outside chance idea, is there a decent way to get from Mawson’s to Tin Hut? I don’t think I’d try that if it was a mega bush bash (eg Pretty Plain to Grey Mare via Old Strumbo kind of bash).
Thanks!!
Glen

[snowygreybeard]

There are many good ways to get to Mawsons Hut. From Whites River a good way is to go Schlink Pass->Gungarten->The Kerries Ridge. If going from Valentines Hut do NOT go up the Valentines River, go a few hundred m South from the hut, then East up watercourse to saddle at 249902, then NE, SE to Mawsons keeping out of the trees.
From Mawsons to Tin I suggest going East from Mawsons to the Divide, then along the Brassy Mts. Or just go up Valentines Creek. Or go along the Kerries to Gungarten Pass then across to Tin. All these routes, although off track, are fairly easy, no Strumbo country here.

[crollsurf]

There are many good ways to get to Mawsons Hut. From Whites River a good way is to go Schlink Pass->Gungarten->The Kerries Ridge. If going from Valentines Hut do NOT go up the Valentines River, go a few hundred m South from the hut, then East up watercourse to saddle at 249902, then NE, SE to Mawsons keeping out of the trees.
From Mawsons to Tin I suggest going East from Mawsons to the Divide, then along the Brassy Mts. Or just go up Valentines Creek. Or go along the Kerries to Gungarten Pass then across to Tin. All these routes, although off track, are fairly easy, no Strumbo country here.

That pretty much covers it, although you could reach it via the Snowy Plains Firetrail, and then cross-country it from Cesjacks Hut and Tarn Bluff.

[glenpandrews]

Thanks guys. That makes sense looking at the map, I can see where to go.
I don’t think I can use that grid reference, 249902, in the mapping apps that I have, but should be able to find a converter to lat-long.
Thanks again

[snowygreybeard]

There's an old app that works quite well - paper.

[glenpandrews]

Ha! Spent 15 mins last week googling how to convert grid references to lat long, and didn’t realise they were printed on my map (Khancoban). Very useful for quickly pointing out a spot to someone with the paper map also!

[johnf]

Pretty much any mobile phone app can display UTM coords instead of lat lon Di into the settings.
you just need to be able to convert the 6 digit GR to the full UTM grid by adding 2 zeros to the end and whatever number as a prefix depending on the map you are on.
Alternatively many mobile phones can be set to MGRS Coordinates which are are 10 digits using the same system So six digit 250900 is just 25000 90000 in MGRS (ignoring the map reference figures)
If you go to Tom B map site, it has a coordinate for the location of the cursor with six digit GR, Full UTM and Lat Lon maps.ozultimate.com

UTM reference is in metres and six figure reference is in 100's of metres so with a bit of Pythagoras, easy to measure distances. eg between 250900 and 251901 is about 141m ( √20000 ) or 100 m to the east and 100 m to the north.

Use Lat Lon if you want to call in the helicopters, UTM or abbreviations for normal maps.

[glenpandrews]

Great lessons in how to use GR etc, sorted!
Thanks, can't believe I've never used that in all these years, and my map is so old it has Eastwood Camping stamped on it and the phone number is only 7 numbers

[Lophophaps]

I agree with the above advice. From Schlink Pass, Dicky Cooper Bogong is roughly SW, west and NW. Do not go straight up, rocks. To Gungartan follow the red line SEish and the curve to approach from the south. There's a good campsite immediately east of the trig. The routes to Tin and Mawsons Huts are marked. From Schlink Hilton there's a nice ridge NE to The Kerries, then mainly open ground north to Mawsons Hut. The last bit is scrubby. The second map shows the bridge near Valentine Hut. This is all open alpine scrub, quite nice. Pretty Plain to Grey Mare is very scrubby. I skied that in the 1970s!

Schlink Pass routes

Valentine Hut bridge

[johnf]

Just in regard to

my map is so old it has Eastwood Camping stamped on it and the phone number is only 7 numbers

The map grid from a map that old is likely to be based on Australian Geodetic Datum 1966 (AGD66) was the standard datum used in Australia until 1994.
If you try and use that with your GPS (Which will be set to WSG 84 or GDA94 or GDA 2020 [all about the same for bushwalking]) you will be about 200m out.

From viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2660 it mentions add 112m to the Easting and 183m to the Northing to convert to GDA94/WGS84 That sounds about right but slightly differnt in different areas.

[rcaffin]

Eastwood Camping
Now there's a memory.
The owner, Jack, was a friend of mine. Also his wife.
Yeah, I have a 'few' maps like that.

Cheers

[glenpandrews]

Thanks everyone for your help RE Mawson’s hut. Got in there on Sunday using your guidance, and it was sensational. And easy walking in. Thanks a million!
I’m typing this from O’Keefes but which has 1 bar of Telstra!

[Lophophaps]

Excellent. When you return a brief trip report would be nice.

[glenpandrews]

You bet. Will do a trip report, is the best practice a brand new thread in this same location?
Doing the Farm Ridge FT tomorrow.
Cheers.

[Lophophaps]

Trip reports should be in the NSW area
viewforum.php?f=47
Send me a PM if you need advice. A few hours north of the Farm Ridge ruin the track goes west, then north to the Tumut. On the west section at around 1600 metres there may be water. I use a bark runner to access this water. Could you please take a few pictures of the Round Mountain Hut site? Someone asked if there was camping there away from the hut, which seems to be in mid-rebuild.

[snowygreybeard]

"......A few hours north of the Farm Ridge ruin the track goes west, then north to the Tumut.....". ?????? At the Farm Ridge ruin the track goes north to the Tumut.