Walkweb

Victoria is having a bumper snow season this year, but last year was terrible. There was however a brief cold snap which dumped quite a bit of snow around the Marysville area (about an hour and a half from Melbourne) in November including a good deal at Lake Mountain, long after the ski season had closed. This is a very unusual event – Lake Mountain tends to be a marginal snow resort at the best of times, so I decided to take a day off work and head up for a walk and a look around. There were a few other people up there including some cross country skiers, this was probably the best couple of days that Lake Mountain had last year.

Good job I went up when I did, the cold snap finished as abruptly as it started and the weather on the day was warm, so the snow was melting fast (compare the first and fourth photos below). All in all though, a good days walking and recommended for a day trip out of Melbourne during the warmer months.

I parked at the Snowy Hill car park and took the summit track up the Lake Mountain summit (about 1.5km) and then down another km or so to Gerraty’s car park before taking the Echo flat ski trail to Triangle junction and then the Crossways lookout. At this point I turned around and headed back along another of the ski trails to Gerraty’s before taking the road back to Snowy Hill. There are a lot of ski trails in the area so make sure you have a map.

Walk date: November 2006
Time/level: 1 day easy/med (around 4 hours or so)
Map: Marysville-Lake Mountain Outdoor Leisure Map (VICMAP)
My rating: B. An enjoyable and interesting walk – snow at this time of year is very unusual outside of the Victorian Alps area

Mt Bogong is the highest peak in Victoria at 1986m. Thankfully, unlike Mt Kosciusko in NSW, there are no roads going close to the summit – however you approach, there is no ‘easy’ way. The most popular approach is from the north, utilising the Staircase and Eskdale spurs. While I would normally recommend travelling clockwise (i.e. up Eskdale and down Staircase) on this day, twenty years since my first ascent, I chose to go anti-clockwise – the same way we had taken in 1987.

This route also makes for a particularly fine overnight walk, with camp at Cleve Cole Memorial Hut.

Walk date: March 10, 2007
Time/level: 1 day, hard (allow 7.0-8.5 hours)
Map: Bogong Alpine Area, Outdoor Leisure Map
My rating: A. An essential Victorian bushwalk.

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Another ascent of Mt Feathertop via Bungalow Spur over the Easter weekend. Unlike the previous year, this year it was sunny and warm, and there were a lot of people around.

Walk date: April 7, 2007
More detail on this route here.