Mt Clear & King Billy No2 Winter Trip Report

[andrewbish]

I got up to Mt Clear and King Billy No 2 a few weeks back. Here is my blog post about the trip.

[Tortoise]

Hey Andrew - interesting trip! Sounds like you made a very good decision to go with plan B, apart from the hunters. YIKES!! Glad you made it out intact.

I was surprised you used a floorless tent in the snow. Seems it'd be hard to keep stuff dry even if you had got your CCFoam mat. What was behind that decision? We used an old Ultimate 4 person tent (pyramid) that was brilliant in snow & high winds, but had a floor and a 'tunnel' entrance, and sturdy aluminium poles, so the tent didn't sag.

Re the semi-frozen socks & boots (you fared a little better than i did years ago) - we quickly learnt to put the wet sox in a plastic bag in the foot of our sleeping bags, and our boots in a bag toe-to-toe, with our 'pillow' arranged on that. Much more comfy and safer in the morning

Cheers,

Tortoise

[andrewbish]

Hi Tortoise

I have a floored tent but it weighs 3.5kg vs 600g for my mid. I use a Tyvek bivy to keep dry. I plan to make/buy a light, floored 4-season tent some time.

Thanks for the tip re socks and boots - will try it out next time.

Andrew

[iGBH]

Interesting read. I remember as a kid driving on the track between King Billy 2 and Mt Clear. Was a great drive - think it is a bit of a shame this is now MVO.

[andrewbish]

Interesting read. I remember as a kid driving on the track between King Billy 2 and Mt Clear. Was a great drive - think it is a bit of a shame this is now MVO.

I don't think mgmt have been up that track in a while - lots of fallen trees on it

[north-north-west]

Interesting read. I remember as a kid driving on the track between King Billy 2 and Mt Clear. Was a great drive - think it is a bit of a shame this is now MVO.

I don't think mgmt have been up that track in a while - lots of fallen trees on it

No-one drives through there in the winter. There's been enough wind this winter to drop a lot of trees.

IGBH: It's now a nice walk. Much better.
I think it was closed to keep cars away from the creek headwaters, and the track down the ridge. Fair enough, too.

[andrewa]

Hunters can be scary. I remember coming across a guy carrying a rike walking along a road on the east side of Mt Baw Baw once, as my yellow lab ( looking more and more like a small deer every time I looked at her!) and I went off fly fishing for the weekend.

I'm not quite sure why they need dogs if you can quietly walk along a road and see deer!

A

[CaptainC]

That valley seems extremely popular with deer hunters these days. At Easter I saw several large camps of them along Brocks Rd.