The Razor Viking Circuit, Alpine National Park - November 2006

I reckon the blog is getting a bit soft lately so I thought I'd go back through the feral archives and find something a bit more hardcore. The Razor Viking Circuit certainly qualifies as hardcore for me especially considering we effectively did it in three days. This was my second time on this walk, I'd completed it the year before at Easter once again over three days, so I had a fair idea what was in store this time around. I'd chosen November for this walk in the hope that it would be easier to locate water, I was still having nightmares of having to descend a long, long way down towards the Buffalo River from Viking Saddle to find some water last Easter. The first time I'd done the walk I'd done it solo, however this time I'd roped in my mate Skip to accompany me.


Day 1         5 kilometres              Valejo Gantner Hut 
Looks pretty cruisey, 5 kilometres, how hard could it be? Well it was pretty cruisey, except for the fact we walked it after working in Melbourne all day, completing the six hour drive to the car park, the last section through a white out, and then walked to the hut through a storm with lightning and thunder crashing around us. Arriving at the hut right on the bewitching hour we scared the shit out of a group of teenagers from Timbertop College who were occupying the hut, Once the students recovered they made some room for us and we spent the rest of the night listening to the tempest rage outside.


Day 2         12 kilometres      Small Saddle on the ridge to The Razor         17 kilometres total.
Waking next morning after a few hours of restless sleep the first thing we noticed was the silence, The wind had stopped, stumbling out of the hut we were engulfed in mist. The first part of today involves one of the best sections of track in Victoria I believe, a traverse of the Crosscut Saw, a high ridge walk with precipitous drops and never ending views, so I was hoping that the cloud would lift. However after finishing breakfast and packing up things weren't looking to flash, the mist was now accompanied by a light drizzle, oh well. Heading off we were quickly enveloped in the murk, after half an hour we turned off onto the Crosscut Saw, soon after entering The Razor Viking Wilderness Area, from here to the Wonnangatta River there would be no signposting and few track markers, in fact there would be no track for a large part of it. We made good time along The Crosscut Saw and by the time we crested Mt Buggery we were starting to get a few glimpses through the cloud. Dropping down into the aptly named Horrible Gap we regrouped for the climb up to Mt Speculation, completing the easy scramble on the way.

Skip, doing a few running repairs to his feet in Horrible Gap.

Scrambling up Mt Speculation.

Lunch on Mt Speculation.

Dropping the packs on top of Mt Speculation we enjoyed our lunch as the cloud lifted around us, the mist lifting like a theatre curtain revealing The Terrible Hollow below us. After a bit of a walk to get some water from Camp Creek we continued on along the main Mt Speculation Ridge, the route from here to the Wonnangatta would be faint or non existent. The sun was now out and our spirits lifted with the cloud, it was a lot more enjoyable when we could see the awesome country that we were passing through. Dropping steeply into Catherine Saddle we picked up the pad to Mt Despair, once again climbing steeply, the route over Mt Despair meanders all over the place but eventually we came to a lookout at the start of the ridge that connects it with The Razor. From here on the route is very rough, there are numerous false leads but I generally try and stay a high as possible and if I have to descend a little its generally on the south side of the ridge. The ridge consists of steeply tilting rocks and rock slabs and is slow going, think 1 kilometre an hour and you wont be disappointed. Finally, in the late afternoon we dropped into the small saddle on the ridge where there was just enough room for two small tents, thankfully after scrub bashing south into a gully we picked up a small rill of water, which meant we had a comfortable camp that night without having to ration our supplies of water.

Skip's despair on Mt Despair.

Heading towards The Razor.

Our small camp in a saddle on the ridge to The Razor.

Day 3        9 kilometres            The Wonnangatta River               26 kilometres total.
We awoke stiff and sore to a sunny day, this was good news as today promised a few navigational challenges. Packing up, the first objective of the day was the spot where our route leaves the ridge leading to The Razor and turns to the south and Viking Saddle. Initially the route once again traverses the rocky ridge, the trick along here is to watch carefully for the steep chute you have to climb towards the top of the ridge, from previous experience I knew it was easy to miss. Once near the crest the rough walking continued, scrambling over and around many large tilting rock slabs, occasionally we would spot one of the original yellow Alpine Track markers, but for all intents and purposes it was unmarked. We were now looking for a section of red conglomerate rock which was marked with a few cairns, this was the spot where we turned off the main ridge and descended towards Viking Saddle. The route was now through the some dry eucalypt forest and it was sometimes hard to see the pad in the ground litter, the pad basically stayed on the highest ground while descending, if that makes any sense.

Heading towards The Razor.

The Razor from the lower summit.

Looking towards The Viking from The Razor.

Looking back along the ridge between Mt Despair and The Razor.

The open grassy Viking Saddle made a welcome change of scenery from the rocky country that proceeded it, and we laid on the grass in the sun for awhile resting up. This time I dropped down a gully to the west and found water within five minutes so we were now sweet until we got to The Wonnangatta River. Lying on the grass the huge cliffs protecting The Viking towered over head, our next objective. Eventually we could procrastinate no longer, we couldn't find the pad leaving Viking Saddle so just headed up the ever steepening ridge keeping just south of the crest until we eventually intersected the pad beneath the final cliff line. Plodding ever upwards we got to the notch in the rocks where there is normally a fixed rope to help pack haul your gear up, only thing was the rope was gone, Oh well, I clambered up through the notch while Skip stayed at the bottom, with him climbing up and me reaching down we were able to pass the packs through the notch. From here it was a straight forward climb onto the summit ridge of The Viking where we gratefully dropped our packs and made the five minute side trip to the summit.

Skip, resting at Viking Saddle.

That's The Viking towering above Viking Saddle, how hard could it be, hey!

Hard enough as it turns out! Skip scrambling up through a notch in the rocks.

We've just get onto the summit ridge and are making the side trip to the top.

From the summit of The Viking our next objective was visible about a kilometre away to the south, South Viking. Now we left the Australian Alps Walking Track and were off track, it was easy walking though, at least initially as we climbed South Viking. Once on the summit of South Viking it was important to descend the correct ridge, as I'd been here before I wasn't overly concerned but it still require concentration. Initially we descended south before swinging slightly to the south east, the occasional cairn on the forest floor helping our navigation. Dropping further down the spur becomes more pronounced and the route swings gently to the east, last time I came down I dropped down to The Wonnangatta River to early and found myself in a sea of black berries, this time I managed to stay on course and we popped out at the back of a cleared grassy area that was the perfect place to pitch the tents for the night, with The Wonnangatta River burbling away a few metres from camp it was almost a perfect camp.

The view from The Viking back towards The Razor.

That's The Crosscut Saw above my arm.

Mt Howitt is above Skip to the left, The Crosscut Saw to the right.

The Wonnangatta River camp site.

Day 4         13 kilometres          View Point Car Park                          39 kilometres total.
Waking up to a very cold morning in The Wonnangatta Valley we quickly ate breakfast and packed up, after walking about 100 metre we had the dubious pleasure of having to wade our way across The Wonnangatta River, pleasant enough on a warm day, but downright painful when the mercury was close to zero. Once across the river and re shod we tracked up an old closed fire track until we intersected with Zeka Spur Track. Now I've been up and down Zeka Spur Track many times, but all but one have been in 4wd, the walk up is a bitch only made worse by the dust thrown up by passing 4 wheelers. This was the rational behind me wanting to leave early, I figure that if we hooked in we could be off  Zeka Spur Track before most of the drivers had stirred, and so it was, we met our first 4wd just as we were leaving the fire track and turning onto a very old and overgrown track along Wonnangatta Spur.

Crossing The Wonnangatta River very early on the last day.

What's that Skip? the waters a bit cold.

Time to pull the boots on and head up Zeka Spur.

Once on the old track we headed along the undulating top of Wonnangatta Spur, the walking along here alternating between very easy and a total bush bash. The pad frequently disappeared but it was just a matter of keeping to the crest and heading due west, eventually after passing through another band of Snow Gums we came out on a grassy snow plain and met our track from the first night, the circuit was complete. All we had to do now was to retrace our steps for 45 minutes to the car park. Arriving back at the troopie just before lunch we quickly chucked our gear in the back and made tracks for Licola for a pie and a cold drink, arriving back in Melbourne that night after a great adventure.

We've made it up the Zeka Spur Track without choking in dust, now were taking in the view from Wonnangatta Spur.

Back at the track junction from day 1, the circuit is complete.

Only a 45 minute stroll back across snow plains to the troopie now.

The Dirt.
This circuit is a hard walk, it requires navigational skills and the ability to find water in dry country. Also, although only short there isn't much flat ground, we climbed around 2700 metres. Since I did this walk big bush fires have been through the area and I've heard that the off track section off the South Viking is now very hard due to regrowth, the bottom of that spur required very careful navigation even when I did it. On the positive side I believe that John Chapman in conjunction with parks vic has placed some track markers along the ridge leading to The Razor, so that should make that a bit easier. Last time I walked the Wonnnagatta Spur section there were bits that needed to be scrub bashed so maybe long pants maybe the go. I used notes from Chapman's Bushwalking in Australia as well as Bushmaps 1:50,000 Watersheds of King, Howqua, and Jamieson Rivers. I also carried the VICMAP 1:50,000 Howitt-Selweyn. This is one of Victoria's best walks in my opinion and I'll be back one day to do it again.

The summit photo on The Viking.