Montane Fens

A nice full day of drivin, skiin, fishin, bikin and hikin.
It was altogether a very strange weather system, not only for May, and I’d packed/unpacked/repacked a half dozen times over the weekend, originally considering longer drives w overnight camping options. But in the end just a long daytrip, but with LOTS of gear in the boot covering every base.
Early rise and a dozen runs at BB before i got too soaked and the snow turned mooshy. Usual BB magical rime kingdom, with the beech forests down lower also very pretty.

The Montane Fens has to be one of Victoria’s hidden treasures. Amazing it only recently got protected from logging, and also amazing I’ve never been there despite it having been on my radar most my life. They’ve properly gated it off now at the start of Newlands road with an extensive list of stuff you’re not allowed to do there any more. But despite perusing this list a couple of times, I could find no mention of mountain bikes, XC skis or fishing.
Unfortunately I’d packed my wife’s XC shoes, so the XC skis didn’t make the journey from the Fens, all the way up to Frangipani Saddle. Just as well as there were too many overhanging snow laden branches.
I caught and released a couple of very nice brownies along the way. The Thompson which makes up the Fens, is even more beautiful upstream with extensive beech and myrtle forests, all very pretty under snow.
At Frangipani, I decided to ditch the bike and climb up to Mt Whitelaw, up thé Upper Yarra walking trail through the most amazing forest of regnans.
Just before the AAWT, the snow got hard going and the trail hard to follow in the rain and mist so I turned back and retraced my steps to the bike.
Would otherwise be a good car pool trip to BB.
The Whippet pack is not mud proof.

 

Western Arthurs Traverse A to K. Day 5

We knew there was heavy rain and a cold front coming later in the day, and this was confirmed by the spectacular colours in the sunrise as we packed up camp very early to get up and over Scorpion and off the range.
Whilst it was almost 30km back to the car, it was mostly easy walking, which was possibly why Balti absently tripped on the shortcut section of Kappa Moraine and opened up his knee.
Fortunately it was the first time we’d had to delve into our medical kits, and we managed to clean things up and stem the bleeding without too much surgery. Pan was a huge help carrying his pack all the way back, and we even managed to keep the wound mud free. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure that this was also where I accidentally left my nice SLR camera, but hopefully someone finds it one day with an intact and dry memory card!
With the weather sombre, it felt surreal returning from Middle Earth, back to the gloom of ordinary earth.
As the first drops of rain arrived (and a helicopter rescue was underway for another party up on the range after another fall causing a broken arm), we made it back to the car mid afternoon, and were soon back on the road to Maydena for a shower, a beer, a steak, a fire, and a comfy mattress.
This was definitely the most beautiful hike or ski tour I’ve ever completed, up there with Antarctica in its effect on my spirit, and whilst it is also one of the hardest, I would do it again in a flash - especially if we could be guaranteed the same conditions. We count ourselves very lucky indeed, what a trip, what a place.

(Whilst the stars were amazing, the aurora and star shots were actually taken from the Prom the following weekend. Its still a top priority to get a Tassy aurora atop a snowy Tassy peak!)

 

Western Arthurs Traverse A to K. Day 4

If yesterday was type II fun, then the Beggary Bumps were definitely nudging type III.
There are many internet posts on this section of the traverse, all of which we’d read, but nothing really prepares you for the exposure and context of it all. Whilst the notorious ‘Tilted Chasm’ is spectacular, there are far more sketchy scrambles, pack-hauling, and the normalisation of staking one’s life on the presence of a well-worn root or branch is intriguing. Whilst alternate routes exist for some of the more dangerous parts, there also sections that threaten to become impassable when the thin layer of topsoil washes away.
Most of the almost Amazonian jungle of this undulating ridge was shrouded in mist, very beautiful. Phil and I had both thought to pack gardening gloves which almost proved the single most important pieces of equipment for the whole trip; and I’ve never had to strap love handles before either, but the myrtle branches kept on trying to rip my pack off.
Then it all lifted, and we had spectacular views down to Lakes Ganymede, Jupiter and Saturn.
We made Haven Lake in good time and decided to push on for another hour to Lake Sirona where we found a protected campsite with a spectacular last sunset over the Arthurs and Huon Valley.