Mt Bogong 2012
Staircase Spur Trail
Return Eskdale track
As mentioned in edition 1 of the adventure we made it through the night. I had looked at the thermometer on the back of my emergency whistle and it had read about -11 degrees celsius just after dinner. We didn't think it was quit that cold at that stage of the evening but by 4-5am the following day we felt every degree and there is every chance we got down that low. My -5 sleeping bag plus silk liner had never left me cold before but that night I got out my $1 emergency blanket out of the first aid kit which kept me warm. So the sun came up and we unzipped the tents ready to finish our weekend expedition.
The most important thing early in the morning is to go to the bathroom...... of course getting dressed is probably the first priority with the bathroom break a close second. I had slept with my clothes at the bottom of my sleeping bag during the night so they were nice and warm when I put them on. i also find this technique useful for blocking that subtle draft that can come through your zipper in the middle of the night.
The problem was getting my boots on. They had frozen laces and generally the boot was very ridged. A lesson learned is before bed to loosen the laces so in the morning the boot is easier to put on when its urgent!
Finally I'm out of the tent and taking a couple quick photos of the morning we have been offered.
Ahhh.... Mt Bogong in the morning.
When talking with other backpackers a topic of conversation always turns to food and cooking. What stove & fuel do I use is a common question. Typically met with "yeah but in the cold and at altitudes that won't work". So this trip was also about testing some things out for myself. I had bought a Trangia burner for the AAWT adventure based on the recommendation from blogs of hikers who have done the trail. So this weekend was the test. Did it light the same, did it cook fairly conveniently and was it generally similar to all lower altitudes and higher temperatures? I found it a little harder to light but used about the same fuel ..... so don't see what the big deal is with these other blokes! The AAWT won't be this cold and although we get up to this elevation at times I hardly think its an issue.
So morning breakfast was 2 sachets of warm Uncle Toby's Oats, Brown Sugar & Cinnamon with a swig of water and I was ready for the day. Packing up is always a great feeling. You know you ate and burned a little fuel so you are going to be a little lighter, and you know your pack won't be busting at the seems as you have a little less stuff to pack in there.
We started heading down about 9am. It wasn't long before we came across the dozen skiers we had seen the day before. They were trekking back up for another day on the untouched slopes. I would have thought they'd be a little disappointed this day as the night had really crusted up the fresh snow of the day before so wouldn't be a perfect...... I mean the day before was just unheard of beautiful conditions so pretty hard to back that up 2 days in a row.
So we flew down the mountain pretty quick. Going down hill in snow shoes is a little less simple than trekking up the mountain but still I was grateful to have them. We passed a hiker coming up the Eskdale trail without them and he even commented that "it looks like I'm gonna regret leaving them in the car". We agreed! Just to make him feel better.
About an hour down the mountain we took off the snow shoes as we were gone to the raw soil again and started to peel off the layers of clothes again. Who are these 2 posers!
The drive home allowed some reflections whilst driving. Yes, don't eat yellow snow! But also I need to get lighter for the AAWT. I need to keep looking for ways of carrying smarter stuff not more stuff. My cooking set up is fine, no need to make any adjustments. The clothing I had planned to wear for the AAWT is over kill. I will definitely not need so many layers, I was warm at -5 or -11 whatever it may have been which is easily 10 degrees colder than I will come across in November. So a heavy layer can stay at home, I will have enough with me even if it does get to 0 degrees. My fitness is good so just keep maintaining the physical exercise & I will be primed for the big event.
And SPOT works. I had borrowed a friends SPOT tracker to see how it functioned. This is a GPS tracker that allows friends and family to follow my progress online through a web interface. To view the trail Sam & I did for this Mt Bogong trek click the below link which will take you to the SPOT page showing our progress.
A similar page will be set up for the Australian Alps Walking track in November so stay tuned for the link so you can follow Tim & I for the 40 days.
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