AAWT winter crossing 1997

[Tony]

This morning while hunting through my collection of newspaper clips I came across article on a 1997 AAWT winter crossing attempt. I know a winter crossing of the AAWT has been talked about a few times here on BWA and with what happened to TerraMer with her attempt I thought a few members might find this story interesting.

In the October school holidays 1997 my family and I where sitting in pub in Kingscote Kangaroo Island having an evening meal when we struck up a conversation with some people next to us, an older couple, when they heard that we were from Canberra, they mentioned that they were about to travel to Canberra to greet their son who was about to finish a winter crossing of the Australian Alps from Walhalla to Namadgi National Park Visitors Centre near Canberra via the AAWT. As a bushwalker I was very interested in their story.

Shortly after we had returned home to Canberra, this article appeared in the local newspaper, The Canberra Times on October 24 1997.

Tony

All fitted out and ready to go, that's Craig McVeigh, who recently completed a successful crossing of the Australian Alps in winter for the sake of it. Photo Dean McNicholl

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[andrewbish]

One wonders if Craig has managed to top that experience in the ensuing 15 years..

[jford]

"I spent a lot of money on navigational equipment like maps and compasses". Good thing he didn't have to spend more money on GPS gizmos.

[hikingoz]

Thanks for the post Tony

[justacouch]

Aw, that's neat! Thanks for posting this Tony.

[Mark_O]

Great to read of winter exploits on the AAWT and the AWT. I've been trying to put together a list of winter trips along the AAWT but i'm sure there are many gaps to be filled in. 

So far I've got: 

A group from the Bendigo College of Advanced Education did the AWT from Walhalla to Tom Groggin in the winter trip of 1981.  See Roger Caffin's article of this historic trip at http://www.bushwalking.org.au/bushwalking/BWAutumn12.pdf as well as reading about the original newspaper articles: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 6370362And: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 15,6409905
 
Glenn Tempest - (1985?) completed a solo 22 day Walhalla to Guthega winter trip involving 19 days of skiing. This to me rates as one of the most impressive alpine trips in Australian ski touring history given the gear he had and the speed at which he travelled. This trip was little publicised and hopefully he will write about it oneday on his blog site through http://www.osp.com.au
 
Craig McVeigh -  (1997) 10 weeks according to the newspaper article Tony provided. Walhalla to Tharwa AAWT solo. This fits with information I had read of someone completing it around this time although I never knew who till now. An amazing extended solo effort in winter!
 
John Henzell completed Walhalla to Kosciuszko in 2000. He actually started at Wilson's Prom and experienced some poor/severe weather near Howitt so bi-passed the higher sections there and took a low-level route around Howitt into the Barry Mountains. His website report can be found at http://www.geocities.ws/john_henzell/kosciuszko.html
 
My brother Andrew Oates and I did a 43-day Walhalla to Tharwa AAWT trip in the winter of 2005. There are a couple of videos on Vimeo of it (two long videos or a short condensed version as well as an article written for the Walhalla Times) at: http://www.vimeo.com/channels/wildoates  

Luke and Simon Perraton successfully completed a 46-day Licola-Howitt variant start to the AAWT to Tharwa in 2008. They were sponsored by Australian Geographic with their story featured as 'Icy Adventure'. Some details can be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/icyadventure/
 
Cheers, Mark

[Tony]

Thanks for all for the comments, I enjoyed reading the article again after all of these years, I did a net search for a Craig McVeigh, and came up with a Craig McVeigh who is doing a PhD at the Uni of Adelaide, but that was all.

Mark,

Many thanks for posting the records you have of AAWT/AWT winter crossings, it is very interesting and I am glad that I could add to your list. I will look up the links tonight.

My friend who recently spent 31 days in skiing in the back country has done the AAWT twice and has a lot of information here AAWT, she has down-loadable KMZ/GPX files of the entire route on the site.

I would love to do the AAWT in winter one day.

Tony

[north-north-west]

The chap to whom I gave a lift up to Round Mountain for Christmas last year led what I think he said was the first AAWT trip, and not much later did the whole thing again in winter. I'll have to dig out his emails and see exactly when this all went down.

[sheila 65]

Great to read of winter exploits on the AAWT and the AWT. I've been trying to put together a list of winter trips along the AAWT but i'm sure there are many gaps to be filled in. 

So far I've got: 

A group from the Bendigo College of Advanced Education did the AWT from Walhalla to Tom Groggin in the winter trip of 1981.  See Roger Caffin's article of this historic trip at http://www.bushwalking.org.au/bushwalking/BWAutumn12.pdf as well as reading about the original newspaper articles: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 6370362And: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 15,6409905
 
Glenn Tempest - (1985?) completed a solo 22 day Walhalla to Guthega winter trip involving 19 days of skiing. This to me rates as one of the most impressive alpine trips in Australian ski touring history given the gear he had and the speed at which he travelled. This trip was little publicised and hopefully he will write about it oneday on his blog site through http://www.osp.com.au

 
Craig McVeigh -  (1997) 10 weeks according to the newspaper article Tony provided. Walhalla to Tharwa AAWT solo. This fits with information I had read of someone completing it around this time although I never knew who till now. An amazing extended solo effort in winter!
 
John Henzell completed Walhalla to Kosciuszko in 2000. He actually started at Wilson's Prom and experienced some poor/severe weather near Howitt so bi-passed the higher sections there and took a low-level route around Howitt into the Barry Mountains. His website report can be found at http://www.geocities.ws/john_henzell/kosciuszko.html
 
My brother Andrew Oates and I did a 43-day Walhalla to Tharwa AAWT trip in the winter of 2005. There are a couple of videos on Vimeo of it (two long videos or a short condensed version as well as an article written for the Walhalla Times) at: http://www.vimeo.com/channels/wildoates  

Luke and Simon Perraton successfully completed a 46-day Licola-Howitt variant start to the AAWT to Tharwa in 2008. They were sponsored by Australian Geographic with their story featured as 'Icy Adventure'. Some details can be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/icyadventure/
 
Cheers, Mark

The chap to whom I gave a lift up to Round Mountain for Christmas last year led what I think he said was the first AAWT trip, and not much later did the whole thing again in winter. I'll have to dig out his emails and see exactly when this all went down.

Thanks for all for the comments, I enjoyed reading the article again after all of these years, I did a net search for a Craig McVeigh, and came up with a Craig McVeigh who is doing a PhD at the Uni of Adelaide, but that was all.

Mark,

Many thanks for posting the records you have of AAWT/AWT winter crossings, it is very interesting and I am glad that I could add to your list. I will look up the links tonight.

My friend who recently spent 31 days in skiing in the back country has done the AAWT twice and has a lot of information here AAWT, she has down-loadable KMZ/GPX files of the entire route on the site.

I would love to do the AAWT in winter one day.

Tony

Sheila McVeigh. Craig is our son, my husband, myself and our family were very proud of his success and adventuring spirit. He still enjoys the big outdoors. I remember meeting someone on KI and talking to them. We were at the time on a trek preparing some other adults for our own expediton over the Cradle Mountain track with some Venturers scouts, the adults and Scouts enjoyed the trek. Thank you for refreshing our memories of Craigs big trek. There was a lot of planning and preparation involved, but well worth the effort. Sheila.