Day 20 - Finally we got lucky with the weather, views and our timing matching up! We had light snowfalls throughout the night so I wasn’t expecting to wake to fine weather although I was really hoping for it. I feel as though we missed out on showcasing much of Victoria’s amazing alpine environments because of the weather. So to wake to mostly clear skies, with clouds in the valleys below us, was awesome. I took hundreds of photos which did mean though that we didn’t leave camp till later than normal and we also spent considerable time filming the final climb up Quartz Ridge. There were quite a few smallish cornices on the ascent and I did manage to get too close to one whilst trying to get the right angle for a shot. Suddenly there was a ‘woomph’ and the snow dropped out from under me. Fortunately I just dropped two metres whilst the main cornice section (about 5m wide) rolled another 10m down the hill. No harm done but a good reminder for me about being too complacent in this environment.
We ascended to the summit of Mt Bogong, Victoria’s highest peak at 1986m, and took the obligatory photos of us and the summit cairn then started our traverse and descent out to Cleve Cole Hut. Conditions were firm but not as icy as the day prior so we made good time there and got some fun turns in just before the hut. This hut is probably the best public hut in Victoria and so we spent way too much time enjoying its comforts. It was after 2pm by the time we departed and we were still keen on achieving another 16km to Mt Wills.
We skied down Long Spur but eventually it got dark and an hour later, after walking off and on snow (in our ski boots) for the last 2km, we made Big River Saddle. Although a few kilometres short of our ambitious goal we were happy to get there and to actually camp off snow for a change.
15 окт 2024
