Falls Creek -> Mount Hotham Winter Trip (Questions)

[bailz66]

Hello Guys

Following my trip down in Tassy I am looking to step things up a little more and do a trek through the snow with snow shoes on July 28th this year.

The aim is to leave from Falls Creek in late july following the numbered posts and stay overnight in Youngs hut or one of the other huts on the trek. We have chosen this hike because we have all walked it before in the summer and therefor know the way, the difficult and easy bits. We will take the falls express to the top of the mountain and walk out from there if we can manage it.

We will be hiring some snow shoes from http://www.wildernessshop.com.au/html/hire.html and will be walking in a group of 5-6 people.

I wanted to know if we will have any trouble with being allowed to do this or if there are any other considerations we should take into account? Is there anyone else that has done this walk in winter?

[wildlight]

Hi there bailz66

A couple of trekking poles with snow baskets will make life in 'shoes easier on the white stuff. I haven't shoed for a few years now, but the last trip I did, over the summit of Howitt and the Crosscut, from Snowy Range, was made a helluva lot safer because I had crampons in my kit. When it was really ice, I tread warily on those, crunching them in to get some grip. Then the crampons came off and the snowshoes went back on under the leather hiking boots, once the icy bits had been passed. My stocks had self-arrest capabilities, but this was not required.

The other thing worth mentioning would be that you need a helluva lot of fuel to melt snow for drinking. Keep this in mind when allocating how much to take- and I'd be leaning towards one of the shellite numbers- certainly not a metho one!

You'll most likely find a tent will be warmer in the snow, then sleeping in a hut- because there is less "air space" in a tent that requires heating by bodies.

Ensure you have great insulation beneath you. We use ridge rests beneath the tent, and thermal rest self inflating mats inside.

**edit** -- added this bit:

re: being allowed to do it... pay your resort fee- and you should be good to go- do they call it a "trail fee"? That's all I did, and it was fine. You've got pretty good coverage with telstra there too.

I won't go on and on... many of the people here have an incredible wealth of information to share.

You'll have a great time. Be sure to post some pix!

SafeSteps

WildLight

[Moondog55]

No trail fees are needed, the trail fees are only for the fellers ( and fellerettes ) on skinny skis who are using the groomed CC tracks. If you park your car on the mountain tho it will cost $34- a day parking fee.
The walk out of the village isn't that hard and I am not sure if they are actually selling single ride lift tickets this year.

[bailz66]

Thanks for the replies guys, Will look into the crampon's as it sounds like they might come in handy. I don't think I got any baskets with my hiking poles but I will grab some for these before I leave.

The good news for us is that my family lives just over an hour away from the mountain so they will drive us up there. Means that there is no parking and we can walk from one mountain to the other without the need to come back.

At this stage we plan on staying at Young's hut.

My sleeping gear is Aarn Pacer 2 tent with Easton ground sheet.
Thermarest Neoair (Origional) with a space blanket (Should this go over or under the neoair?
Sea to Summit TkIII (Lower limit -11) with a silk liner inserted, I also just purchased a Montane synthetic down jacket which will become my pillow.

And for anyone else interested I have already contacted Falls Creek about a lift up the top of the falls express

Hi Warren,

All I can say is that depending on thesnow conditions at the time RuinedCastle should be ok foryou to start your hike and we would be expecting to have most of the liftsoperating on the mountain.
It will cost $13 for the ride up on FallsExpress.

Kind regards

[Bushman Ben]

Sounds like a good trip Waz,

I'd suggest putting the space blanket right on the bottom under your themarest because I find that I slip around when I lie on them otherwise and it means that you don't get condensation from the space blanket freezing the outside of your Sleeping-bag if it gets that cold.

[bailz66]

Thanks for the replies guys I will provide some photos and notes on the trip on my return.

Another question I just wanted to ask was around the footware. We are obviously hiring some snow shoes for this trip but do you think it would be wise to bring some Crampon's or Spikes if there are icy conditions or will the Snow shoes perform adaquatly for this job?

Thanks in advance

[Kinsayder]

It probably depends on the snowshoes. Some are designed for icier conditions and will have many of the features of crampons in terms of traction. Others are more for the cross country powder situations. I'd think about chatting to the people at hire shop to see what they've got. I'd be inclined to simply go with your standard cross country ones, crampons are more for that kick in and climb that you're unlikely to encounter much of (if at all). That's my assessment at least.

[bailz66]

Thanks for the Reply

There are two massive climbs which are in very sheltered areas. Those two sections are going to be quite a challange so will have a think about it

Cheers

[Kinsayder]

No worries, Bailz. You'll have to let us know how you go. I've done quite a bit around Feathertop (obviously quite close to Hotham) and a little around Falls but I've not yet joined the two areas. Although I am pegged for a trip from Hotham to Bogong around October of next year. Not much snow by then though.

[bailz66]

Yeah, I am really keen to do the Hotham to Bogon trip and might actually plan to do that on the Melbourne Cup Long Weekend with my wife if I can manage it (Not sure how I will go without babysitters for the kids)

I would love to do that hike in winter but not until I have at least done it once in summer so I know what to expect.

The great thing about this particular trip is that there are numbered poles every 50 metres (about 3 metres high) making it difficult to get lost and also giving you an accurate idea of where you are. Visibility can get down below 50 metres with the fog's up there but having grown up in the area and the fact we will carry a GPS we should be ok.

I am tossing up whether to lug my DSLR camera even though its an extra weight but we will see. (Hopefully good vis)

[Moondog55]

Try 2 metres visibility.
One trick/technique I have had to resort to over the years is taking a length of brickies twine and tying one end to the snow pole then walking a compass course in the general direction of the next snow pole, find the second snow pole and tie off then repeat.
I have just had to call of my extended walk up there due to a total foot failure and at the moment conditions are perfect, snow depth of a couple of metres in the drifts. There are no climbs ( climbing means ice-axe and crampons needed ) on the normal route from Hotham to Falls Creek, just a couple of steep walking sections and most snowshoes with traction will do the job perfectly well.
PM me if you want specifics

[Bushman Ben]

Yeah, I am really keen to do the Hotham to Bogon trip and might actually plan to do that on the Melbourne Cup Long Weekend with my wife if I can manage it (Not sure how I will go without babysitters for the kids)

Hah! Liz, Me and a Mate Jeff (I only bother with names cause its funnier for you Waz) went up Melbourne cup weekend 2010; Something like 135mm of rain in one day. It_was_miserable; we did the ascent from harrietville, we got about 5km up, a couple of k short of the hut and decided there was nothing we wanted more than a pub meal at the harrietville hotel. I don't know if I will ever attempt it again as the time before that was April 2009, we got ~150mm of rain that time too on day 1 and Liz and I ended up getting snowed on the second night >.< While I don't mind being in the elements, Liz has never forgiven me.

Anway; there are some fantastic views up there on feathertop and Hotham; even along Mt Loch and the walk itself is actually really good; its just a matter of getting mentally past those sticking points.

The great thing about this particular trip is that there are numbered poles every 50 metres (about 3 metres high) making it difficult to get lost and also giving you an accurate idea of where you are. Visibility can get down below 50 metres with the fog's up there but having grown up in the area and the fact we will carry a GPS we should be ok

Ive been at Hotham when the Vis is Sub 2M; It feels ridiculous; you can stick your hand out and it starts to disappear!

[bailz66]

Haha ben, yes I have been in that situation as well! The High vis poles 10 metres apart can be hard to see on skii's sometimes when the vis is like that.

All I can say in that regard is that the first days walk is all in the open country and we will be taking some parra cord and if we need to can find the poles using them. We can always set up our shelters and hang out till it clears playing cards ect as well. Either way we are hoping for some good weather but if it doesn't eventuate hopefully its not to bad.

We wont be going up unless the weather is at least moderatly ok

[bailz66]

Haha ben, yes I have been in that situation as well! The High vis poles 10 metres apart can be hard to see on skii's sometimes when the vis is like that.

All I can say in that regard is that the first days walk is all in the open country and we will be taking some parra cord and if we need to can find the poles using them. We can always set up our shelters and hang out till it clears playing cards ect as well. Either way we are hoping for some good weather but if it doesn't eventuate hopefully its not to bad.

We wont be going up unless the weather is at least moderatly ok

[bailz66]

Have had to call this off as I got very sick last week and won't be recovered enough to make the full walk by then.

Hoping to go later in the season now

[Kinsayder]

That's a shame, Bailz. I hope you get better and the hike works out when you do get to go.

[bailz66]

So we are thinking of putting this back to early September first or second weekend. Generally at this time of the year the snow is just starting to melt.

Are there any additional risks to be concerned about here? More Ice? Would we still need snow shoes or would Crampons be enough?

-Bailz

[iGBH]

Depends on the weather, but unlikely to need crampons. Will still likely need snowshoes unless you want to spend a lot of time post-holing it.

[north-north-west]

Best to take snowshoes although they'd not get a lot of use. It's already spring in the high country.

[bailz66]

So that spring weather you were talking about seems to have meant that we get an extra 150cm of snow over a 2 week period

I am not a little concerned that we will be fiting some pretty big snow drifts accross the high country? Is this going to be an issue for us?

[north-north-west]

Yes, well, whenever you say something like that, the weather gods are bound to step in and make a fool of you.

I don't know, it depends when you go. But there's a lot more snow up there than there has been for a fair few winters. Although if we get some warm weather much of it will disappear fairly quickly.
If you're going in the next couple of weeks, snowshoes are probably necessary.

[bailz66]

Very appreciateive to all of you for your help so far.

One final question, if the weather is bad we were thinking we would head up to Dinner plain and camp out there and just do some more shelted local hikes around the area. Does anyone have any recomendations if the weather is not nominal?

[Moondog55]

Now that the ski season has ended I need to go back and retrieve my destroyed tent which I stashed under PV hut, just wondering how your trip went.

[bailz66]

Wow, I missed that post last year and am just preparing to do the trip again this year.

This was September 2012

A bit of a run down on last years trip.

We had a member who worked for the BOM come with us who gave us a detailed report. Chance of showers and winds up to 30kmph. That was good enough for us and we headed off on schedule.

We reached Falls Creek and they charged us $14 each to access the mountain (Which they shouldn't have) but that was fine. We arranged the lift to the top of the mountain and headed off over Ruined Castle on our way for Pretty Vally Hut. We arrived at Pretty Valley at about 10:30am in pretty good weather and were all in good spirits. We spoke to a few X country skiers and sat in for a little while before heading off.


Just leaving Pretty Valley Hut when the weather started to come in

Here's where it got a bit interesting.

The fog came in on us and reduced our visibility substantially and we set off pretty confident knowing that we had done the walk before. We followed the poles for a few hundred meters and then headed off to the right for Pretty Valley Pondage. We felt we were a bit off track at this stage and wanted to keep our eyes out for the bridge/crossing across the water. After a bit of searching the fog cleared a bit and we saw it.


View near Pretty Valley Pondage to where we thought the crossing was as the fog cleared

Heading for the bridge we made it and started following the poles along the track (There shouldn’t have been poles but none of us who had done the walk picked up on it). We followed these to the top of the ridge which we were expecting and knew that pretty soon we would be heading off to the left aiming for pole 333 (We were aiming for Youngs hut by close of day). We crested the ridge and instead of seeing a T intersection, we saw “Cope Saddle Hut”…. We had veared off course by about 4k’s.


Cope Saddle Hut. Someone had left the door open and it was full of snow

We had a late lunch, checked our maps and established exactly where we needed to go next and headed off just as a few snow flurries started to fall and the wind started to pick up. We were following the Alpine Walking Track poles still and were aiming for Pole 333 in pretty good shape. We started up the hill onto the high plains and the fog came right in reducing us to about 30 to 40 metres visibility and we could hardly see the poles ahead. At one stage I went off at right angles and was pulled back by the group. Heading up that hill my dad had pulled his neck warmer over his face to protect it from the snow coming in hard and fast at that stage. The wind had picked up and there was no shelter here.

Within 15 minutes my dad started to run out of energy and was struggling with each step. We kept the food up for him and made sure he was drinking and staying hydrated. We had a team discussion about the situation and decided to push on a bit further but monitor his condition. If we thought at any stage we needed to stop we worked out which shelter we would set up first and what we would do to keep him warm while we set him up. The snow started to fall a bit harder and the wind picked up as we approached the top. Eventually we couldn’t go any further as the weather had gotten so bad that we were struggling to stay on our feet with the wind and my dad was in a bad way.
We discussed whether we should turn back and aim for Cope Saddle for a bit of shelter but with the door jammed open by snow there wasn’t much shelter there anyway. We decided to set up our tents and dig in for the night. With dad the way he was it was a race to get the tents up. We got my gear out first and packed down the ground sheet with snow, pulled the tent out and started working on it. Because it was so windy and cold the poles were difficult to get in but we eventually got it up. We forced my dad to keep moving to stop him from getting cold while we got it up.

Once up we got the sleeping mats, sleeping bag and all the warm gear out and put him in there to recover. It took some time but eventually we were able to warm him up. While he was warming up we got the other two tents up and built some walls of snow to protect them from the wind as much as possible. Dinner was cooked and eaten and we hunkered down for the night. We notified family our exact location (Pole 353) and let them know our status.


Final stages of setting up the tents in the storm. You can see the strength of the wind in this photo

The night was long and a bit cold but bearable (Next hike I will be bringing a closed foam mat to go under my thermarest). We got up as the sun came up and started to pack up our gear. Slight Problem, the snow was frozen solid and our pegs were a good foot underneath. It took us an hour to dig them out.


You can see the amount of snow we had overnight by how far up the first tent it goes. The storm had also completely cleared


What the site looked like after we had packed up all of our gear

We walked the 5 minutes from our site up to pole 333 and decided that rather than pushing onto Mt Hotham we would go back to Falls Creek. We took a bearing on our compass and made our way away from the poles and back to pretty valley hut.


The weather was absolutely perfect all the way back

We got back to falls safely and called for our pickup. We then made our way off the mountain and back to Melbourne pretty happy with the trip in the end. We planned for the worst and although we made a few mistakes we were able to put in our emergency plan and stay safe enough to be able to walk out the following day without any hassles.
We checked the weather report for the day and the actual result was 40cm of snow and wind gusts of up to 80kmph at the Falls Creek Resort. What we had on the actual mountain I don’t know exactly but all up a fun/successful trip.

We are planning to do the trip in reverse this year and hopefully make it all the way