Ski Mountaineering in South West Tasmania 

Mick Magnussen Thanks Mick. Really appreciate your comment.

Thanks Hyun Jeon! Much appreciated!

:) 3 seasons in the Arctic = Awesome. Very jealous!

Cheers Tazdaz Downunder!

Thanks Christopher Okhravi The pack is by Hyperlite Mountain Gear however it is a custom built heavy duty cuben/DCF canyoneering prototype. The owner of Hyperlite built them for a group of us that were involved in packrafting, rafting and canyoneering trip with him down the Grand Canyon in 2014. It’s an awesome pack but has never been a part of their production line. Check out their other packs though!

That explains why I didn't find it in their lineup 😊😊Thank you for the answer!

I love my HLM 440 pack . Best one ever by far and worth every cent !

Very much appreciated Rod! Hope you have a great spring in Estonia. Would love to get there oneday!

Cheers Cracka! If you get the right conditions it is an incredible place to explore on skis :)

Hi BjaAlean I have written a reasonably comprehensive article on the various ski and binding choices I have made over time. See: markoates.exposure.co/aawt-winter-gear and scroll down to the section titled 'SKIING - ALPINE TOURING OR XCD GEAR?' Note that for this particular video above I used the 130cm mountaineering approach skis with leather mountaineering boots. Full details about them in the article.

Cheers Christopher! It is actually a really nice tent - you won't regret it.

Philipp Klein Herrero Thanks Phillipp! Much appreciated

Bloody good effort mate!!!!

My main job is as an outdoor education teacher at a school in Hobart. There I work mostly with teenage boys. Although I run whitewater paddling courses on weekends and in holidays for adults (through Paddle Tasmania) I do not run any winter skills trips for adults unfortunately.

Visited your Web page. It's perfect for me, kinda over the top in detail which is perfect if your mad enough to venture into the white stuff. Legend bro

Still my overall favourite tent and the one I use the most. I have other tents I’ll use for certain situations - particularly if solo or super strong winds are likely. I actually find it really versatile. DCF does have a limited life span though with my experience being that I’d start to not trust the storm worthiness of it after 7 years or so of hard use.

If you haven’t read it you may also be interested in an article I wrote about winter tents at: markoates.exposure.co/aawt-winter-gear#section-2492975

@@MarkOates cool. thanks.

It is a Hyperlite Mountain Gear Ultamid 4 pyramid tent. It is a great tent despite not being a true 4-season tent. You do need to be careful of strong winds but it handles snowdumps well. I love it for the amount of space and volume it provides at such a small weight and package.

I tend to use standard aluminium 22cm snowpegs such as these: www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-Silver-Aluminium-Tent-Tarp-Sand-Snow-Pegs-Length-225mm-Camping-Hike-Travel-/132059040856?hash=item1ebf550c58 I trialled more sophisticated and much stronger T shape snowpegs but found them to not hold as well as the standard U shaped ones above. I always attach my guy ropes to the snowpeg so that I cannot lose them. In this video I used skis and iceaxe too.

Mark Oates 👍😁

My brother Andy and I did a winter traverse of A-K back in 2010 after talking about it for over ten years. We started off with minimal snow but then got hit with blizzard conditions. For a number of reasons we were doing it as one big push. In the end it took us 23 hours from the bottom of Moraine A to the bottom of Moraine K. Given it was winter half of this time was in the dark and for 1/3 of it we were in ankle to knee deep snow. To be honest it is probably one of our most epic trips. We didn't get any decent photos though as we were too busy trying to deal with it all but maybe I'll put up an article at some stage that focuses on the written story at markoates.exposure.co/ Definitely keen to get back there in winter but would love lots of snow and decent weather - both of which are rare in that area :) One of our biggest concerns was how wet, muddy and cold the approaches would be down on the plains and how high the river crossings would be but in the end these were less of an issue than we expected. Finding the route through with snow on the ground was highly challenging though.

@@MarkOates thanks for the information!!! Great help

The Ultamid4 works fine for two even with a heavy dump of snow. The space does lessen but I have found it still okay after a 0.5m dump. Given its sloping sides it does need digging out during a massive dump to ensure that it’s not overwhelmed (particularly if using ski poles as the main mid pole). I think really strong winds are more of an issue than snow.

@@MarkOates hey Mark cheers, thanks a lot! is yours the 2 or the 4? also what's the strongest wind do you think you've taken it in?

and do you prefer this style of tent over a lightweight tunnel?

Luke Frisken mine is the 4. Have had 4 in it on a packrafting mission and had 100 km/h winds plus torrential rain and storm however we were tucked in behind some bushes. Surprisingly we stayed dry and happy inside. In a completely exposed snow environment (Ducane Range winter) I had 60-80 km/h winds with big gusts hitting it directly and the 3 of us struggled to sleep comfortably. We built snowwalls and strapped 8 ski poles together as the main pole. The wind was so strong (& wet) that it destroyed the snowwalls. The tent itself held up fine but the flapping, the poles flexing (before we moved to 8 poles) and the noise of the gusts meant for a lot less sleep than our mates in a nearby standard dome tent. I use and love the Ultamid4 more than any other tent I own or have access to at work however it’s not a true alpine tent so if you are looking for 100% protection above the treeline in winter I’d have to say that you might be better off with a tunnel. We used my Ultamid4 for 2/3 of our winter traverse of the AAWT last winter and my brother’s tunnel tent for 1/3. You have probably seen this story but for those that haven’t seen the pictorial story you can check it out on: markoates.exposure.co/australian-alps-walking-track

This winter I’ll be using the new Hyperlite Dirigo2 and testing it out in some high wind areas above the treeline. I think it will cope really well with strong winds and will see how it goes with decent snowfalls.

Cem Koker Actually an Ultamid 4 without insert. These days though I mostly take the insert too due to the high tub floor. I have even made a detachable cover for the insert that converts it into a 3/4 solid inner. All adds weight though...

Mark Oates Wow. Pretty impressive !