Photo Trip Report - AAWT Winter 2018

[Mark_O]

Hi Folks,

A query about the AAWT in winter on another forum has prompted me to spend the last couple of days putting together the photos and writings that my brother and I have from our 35-day winter traverse of the AAWT last year.

My apologies for not putting the content up here directly however if you go the site you will see that there are a huge number of photos which would be impossible to recreate on this site. If you are interested in ski-touring or seeing the 'Australian Alps' in winter you might like to briefly check out the following link:

https://markoates.exposure.co/australian-alps-walking-track

Oneday, in between all my other adventures, I'll hopefully find the time to put together a video or two plus some information around our equipment choices and findings. In the meantime I hope people enjoy checking out the photos.

Cheers, Mark

[crollsurf]

That's about as core as you'll get. Pretty awesome.

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[Zapruda]

Fantastic, Mark. Thanks.

[Lizzy]

You two are crazy! Totally AWESOME but definitely Nuts!!!
Well done!!
Lizzy

[ofuros]

Memories to look back on...epic !

[bigkev]

Hi Mark, just starting to go through your excellent report. You guys are an inspiration, I would of thought doing it once in winter would of been enough, but twice....wow! I remember watching your first you tube report and thinking how tough it must of been, this trip looks like the snow conditions were a lot tougher. Pushing through regrowth weighed down by heavy snow must of had you questioning your sanity I'm thinking. Cheers

[north-north-west]

Epic!

Nice report too. You shouldn't beat yourself up about the burgers and chocolate at the end - they were totally earnt.

[wildwanderer]

Epic!

I would love to do this. Might have to learn to XC ski first!

Awesome report and photos. Thanks for sharing

[neilmny]

Great work Mark and I'm looking forward to your video version too.
I reckon I've watched your original north south videos on Vimeo about 10 times

[scoha]

Brilliant trip and fantastic report - hard core all right - well done

[DavidB]

Yes it is an amazing report and trip. So interesting to see the AAWT in winter conditions.

I expect the navigation may have been a tad more challenging!

[Mark_O]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments!! Really appreciate it as it is often hard to find the energy and time to create a trip report like this

You are correct Big Kev - we were definitely questioning our sanity, particularly from Black River to Hotham

Hi Lizzy - you are right, we are both a little bit crazy but my brother is definitely more crazy. I am actually the sane one

Don't hold your breath for the video but it will (eventually) happen.

Cheers

[weeds]

Wow...amazing trip report

Sadly we haven’t had time to get into pack rafting....but still talk about the cold windy day you took time out to show us around packrafts.


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[paidal_chalne_vala]

Amazing, Setting the bar very high. Plus Nordic skiing with such big packs is also impressive.

[davidn3875]

A great story well told, photos which capture the journey and a terrific achievement. Well done Mark and Andy.

[LLSC]

Well done, Mark.
I was just considering today how tough it would be to do the AAWT in winter when I saw your report. Great story, well told with a nice balance of walking/technical aspects plus the social aspects. I had to leave a walk on the AAWT when my Mum became very crook (but I had gear failure at the same time), so it was interesting to see how you managed that aspect. And your photos are unbelievable. Where are all your crap photos? The ones in the write-up are all picturesque. Fantastic posting. Thanks. It keeps me dreaming.

[Mark_O]

Thanks heaps LLSC, davidn3875, paidal_chaine_vala and weeds for the positive feedback! I really appreciate it.

It's a year ago today that my brother Andy and I set out to complete our 2nd winter traverse. Due to life being so busy I hadn’t even looked at more than a couple of minutes of our video footage until a few days ago. I have decided though that it is about time I actually did something with the many hours of footage we took. As such my plan is to produce a short 2 to 3 minute video for each of our daily adventures.

This means I wiIl be aiming to edit and upload one each day for the next 35 days. Given I am back at work after 3-months away overseas and I will be involved in several school camps during this time it is going to be a major challenge for me. As such the edits are likely to be quite rough but hopefully they tell our story in a way that words and photos can’t. Eventually too I'll be posting some photos, thoughts and videos about the gear we used for this trip.

You can check out a super short trailer of what you can expect via: https://youtu.be/J9PTrqoN1MA

I won’t be posting any more links or videos up here but will be embedding them daily into my website about our journey which can be found at: https://markoates.exposure.co/australia ... king-track

The first episode, Day 1, is also now live at: https://youtu.be/to5IPwCZ5VM

[neilmny]

Great stuff Mark, looking forward to the daily dose
Your adventures really do inspire. Thanks for posting.

[bigkev]

Cheers Mark, I'm really looking forward to seeing these videos.

[crollsurf]

Couldn't ask for a better sponsor in Hyperlite, even if it was just free kit. Maybe not for all conditions but a perfect partnership for this adventure.

Looking forward to it

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