Snow Mountain 10 peaks in Winter!

[andrew_b]

Hi all,

I've just joined this forum as I'm looking for a bit of guidance on a trip I'm planning. A while back I came across this website - http://www.aussie10.com/ - and have been inspired to do the same, except during winter. So that's a 55 km hike through snow, during dead winter - should be a challenging trip. I'm hoping to assemble a team of 4 so we can take two 2-man tents, and I'll be looking to get a GPS and EPIRB for navigation and safety (along with a topo and compass of course).

So a couple of points:

1) .. I actually haven't had any snow hiking experience before. I've gone on numerous hikes before, but not in snow. I have skied a couple winters. I'm planning on doing the route during Easter, and will also look to put in one or two other hikes leading up to it. Is this enough preparation? Do you think I need more? I understand this is a very serious challenge, so I've gotten over my desire to "wing it" - I know I need the right level of preparation.

2) What GPS do you guys recommend for alpine conditions? From my research it drops to -20C, so it'd need to be a very hardy GPS. Is it feasible to keep the GPS in hand while doing the route, or will I have to keep it in my jacket and take it out only occasionally?

3) For doing the journey, do you recommend me mapping up detailed waypoints during the Easter trip in preparation for the Winter trip, or should I just put in the summit co-ords and sort out our own route in Winter?

4) Would it be beneficial to bring a sled? Given that the mountains aren't particularly steep, I figure it'd make carrying our packs easier and the downhill more fun!

5) Any other thoughts, comments? Has anybody done a journey of this difficulty in the Snowy Mountains before?

I'm really excited to do this trip, imagine the view! I'd be sure to bring a camera.

[sef]

1. Physically, yes. It's not much of a distance and the terrain is fairly forgiving -- some ice, the occasional cornice and bit of wind loading. The thing you should be most mindful of is the weather up there, as it is very exposed and the escape routes are relatively few in winter. Definitely only head out if you're confident that you have the backcountry skills and gear to handle any reasonable eventuality. If you'd like a chance to play about and build those skills, the network of huts and tops above Munyang Power Station are great.

2. It's very unlikely to get that cold. If it does, you sure as hell won't be going out in it. Lithium batteries are expensive, but work in the cold. They're 5-8x cheaper on ebay if you've a month to wait for them. Don't ever rely wholly on the GPS working.

3. Looks a bit different in winter, depending on conditions you might find that the route is significantly different. The walking track disappears under snow and has (for the past few years anyway) been cut up by sets of cornices all the way from Kosci through past Lake Albina. I'd not rely on the GPS that much and do things onsight.

4. It's not at all good terrain for sleds.

5. One or two I suspect

Good luck with your planning!

[Tony]

Hi Andrew,

I did the highest ten twice last year, the first time in January and the second time was in August on snow shoes, both times we started from Dead horse Gap, on both trips we had very good weather and we took three days.

First, I would second everything Sef wrote in the previous post, it is very good information.

I have many years of experience XC skiing, snowshoeing and camping in the snow and any time of the year the mountains can be challenging but in winter it can be very unforgiving, very cold, very windy, very foggy etc, I would suggest you have a trial snow overnight trip in the area before you try the top ten.

Most GPS’s will handle the cold, it is the batteries that will fail, Lithiums are the way to go.

Tony

[andrew_b]

Thanks for the replies! Sounds like you guys reckon it's feasible then, good to hear.

1) So I'll definitely need to do a couple trips beforehand then, hopefully some cold and snowy ones.

2) Will grab some Li batteries off eBay then. I'm thinking of getting the Garmin eTrex Vista H as my GPS - this has high sensitivity GPS reception and a barometer-based altimeter (no microSD card though). Would this be fine? It's around $200 new, so it's not bad.

3) Alright I won't be too fussed about making an exact route, but it'll still be good getting a feel for the geography.

4) Won't bring it then!

Tony, so you managed all 10 peaks in 3 days, in snow? How many km's a day was that?

[PiniPowPow]

Great idea, while I have skied just about every peak in the top ten, doing them in winter, in one trip, is a goal of mine. Second to what others have said, conditions can be pretty bad on the MR.

Check out this trip report from the ski forums of a recent Aussie 10 trip.

http://forums.ski.com.au/forums/ubbthre ... ost1548575

[andrew_b]

Nice trip report! Looking forward to making my own. The range is going to look awesome in the snow!

[icemancometh]

If there's enough snow I'd ski
but then if you want to bag peaks, ski boots would suck but doable

No sled, you shouldn't have anywhere near that amount of gear.

Have done it in October with snow cover in old shoes and ski poles...easy nav and little height gain easy terrain not very physical at all, though with some snow and wx it will be different of course. Pick a full moon night and you won't even need headtorches and it's warm enough you could be out at night...maybe not take overtnight gear depending on your tolerance level...the best part of the day was at night as it's so nice

There's no tree cover so takes skis unless you don't know how, then get snowshoes but you'll be slower and have less fun esp if your mates are skiing.

Again, the only thing that would make this hard would be if you got heavy wx.
Just pick your wx window and be patient rather than rush out in the crap and have a miserable trip where you don't see anything.

[icemancometh]

I also think bagging the peaks isn't that fun, if you got the right snow you may as well pick some of those short slopes to rip some turns down...there is a face I had my eye on last time I was down there.