Bushwalk Australia

Hi,

A friend of mine is planning on accompanying me for a six day section of the AAWT around the Kossy main range in early November. The start of the walk for him would be Thredbo and the finish would be Guthega Power Station, leaving him with an interesting dilemma...where to leave the car, and how to get back to it? There are no options for a car shuffle.

Can anyone help with this puzzle?

Questions:
Are there any bus services running between perisher and jindabyne or thredbo and jindabyne in early november? How friendly are the hydro workers, would it be possible to hitch a ride with them from Munyang to Jindabyne? Has anyone walked from Munyang to Thredbo, how long does it take?

What are some of the other possible options?

Thanks,

Six days is a long time for this stretch - probably three, with some sightseeing thrown in - would be a more typical time frame (at a guess.)

One option would be to keep walking from Munyang to Smiggins Holes via the link road, where hitchhiking would be more likely to succeed. Alternatively, he could return to Thredbo via Perisher-Charlotte's - summit road. Two days from Munyang, he could even get a room for a night in Perisher or Charlotte's.

Walking straight through normal AAWT style from Thredbo across the Main Range to Schlink Pass is 2 days with time to descend to GPS. Assuming you part ways at Schlink in the afternoon, he should descend to Horse Camp or Aqueduct Hut for the night and walk out to GPS first thing the next morning (about 1 hour). Then there are two options:

1. Hitch down to Jindabyne and back up to Thredbo. Getting a lift out from GPS may take quite some time. The only transport between Jindabyne and Thredbo is the school bus in the late afternoon. I don't know whether this is an option. From memory, GPS to the Perisher Road near Sponars Inn is about 15km while heading up to Smiggins is 7km. Once on the Perisher Road getting a lift shouldn't be too much of a problem.

2. Walk/hitch through to Smiggins Holes and up to Charlotte Pass (he should be able to get a lift from around Smiggins if not before). Then walk up to Rawson Pass and back down the boardwalk to Thredbo. It may be worth dropping the pack at GPS and returning by car to pick it up.

With six days in November you could do a very long loop starting at either Munyang or Dead Horse Gap. Why bother worrying about transport when you can walk?

Dead Horse Gap, old pad up to the Ramsheads, Kosciuszko, Townsend, Northcote, Carruthers, Twynam, Anton, Tate, Rolling Grounds, Dicky Coopers, Gungartan, Disappointment Ridge, Munyang, short road section to Guthega, Illawong, Back up to Twynam, Crummer Spur, Hedley Tarn, hit the circuit track at the river crossing, up to Stilwell, Kangaroo Ridge back to the Rawson Walkway and down the track back to the Gap. Also plenty of extra sidetrips you can do, like the Sentinel and Watsons Crags.
Unless the weather really fouls up it's an easy six days.