Mt Bogong, Alpine National Park - June 1991

Alright, I figure that anyone reading this stuff is probably getting a bit sick of red rocks and spinifex so you'll be disappointed to know that there is plenty more to come. In the interests of keeping things fresh however I'll try and throw in the odd post that doesn't involve me wallowing in some waterhole in the desert. So, after breaking out the scanner and jumping into the feral way back machine I thought that I'd knock out a quick post about a walk to Mt Bogong that we did back in the Jurassic Period. Now there is a couple of things I noticed about these old forays into the mountains, the first being that we quite often didn't achieve our objectives, in those days the weather seemed to force us to change our plans on the run more often. The second thing that I've noticed that our clothes look decidedly low tech compared to what we use now, which possibly contributed to us changing plans on the run more often.

Day 1.  Bivouac Hut      9.6 kilometres

I was accompanied on this walk by my old workmates, Dave and Naomi and as was pretty normal in the day we set off on the walk after working all night and then driving to the trail head whilst mainlining (well, without the needle bit) on caffeine, no doz was a good friend in those days. We were all working big hours in those days, 80, sometimes 90 hour weeks, rotating shifts, it was all go, so consequently any time off was savoured and we made the most of it. It also meant that when our time off window arrived we had to hit the road no matter what the forecast, and it burnt us on this walk. After parking at the Mountain Creek Car Park we set off in the late morning drizzle towards Cleve Cole Hut. It all sounded good in theory but I was already staring to map out a contingency plan in my mind in case the weather up the top was anti social. To reach Cleve Cole means basically crossing over some of the most exposed country in Victoria, not somewhere you want to be in bad conditions. The plan went something along these lines, we'd climb up towards the summit by the shortest route, Staircase Spur, and if the conditions got too bad (or the caffeine buzz wore off) we would retreat back down the spur and spend the night at Bivouac Hut before making another attempt on the summit tomorrow.

So up we went, climbing up through the dripping forest the track slick with mud and forest litter. Staircase Spur is as the name suggests, a series of steep ascents separated by some flatter sections and makes for a quick way to summit the mountain, a climb of around 1400 metres over 7 and a bit kilometres is always hard work though. Meeting the snow line at around 1000 metres once again had me doubting that we'd make it across to Cleve Cole Hut that day, but at least the snow gave us a little more grip on the slippery climb. After a quick stop at the empty Bivouac Hut in mid afternoon to warm up and have a bite to eat, we once again headed back out into the weather and continued to climb. The track from here gets steeper and eventually leaves the tree line about 300 metres higher than Bivouac Hut at around 1700 metres. Once out of the limited shelter the trees had been providing us we were really buffeted by the winds, well you already know what happened by the sub title, we got to within about 100 vertical metres of the summit before common sense and fatigue forced us to retreat back to Bivouac Hut, better to be safe than sorry. After our work, drive, climb we were all pretty rooted tired, well before dark we were all snoring our heads off on the floor of the spartan hut.

High up Staircase Spur on day 1, soon to retreat to Bivouac Hut for the night.

Day 2. Mountain Creek Car Park via Mount Bogong    12 km,    21.6 km total.

Rousing ourselves off the floor of the hut next morning we were greeted by blue skies, sweet! After a quick breakfast we grabbed our emergency gear and a little food and headed for the summit. Without our heavy packs and with fresh legs we made good time on the climb today, breaking out of the trees we were greeted with extensive views down into the Kiewa Valley. After passing the twin knobs of Castor and Pollux we were soon climbing the last few metres of Staircase Spur, on meeting the broad summit ridge we only had a couple of hundred metres to the summit cairn which was standing out like a beacon today. 

The Kiewa Valley framed by Castor and Pollux on Staircase Spur.

Dave, well above the tree line on Staircase Spur.

We spent at least an hour on top of Mount Bogong on this trip, wandering around the broad summit of Victoria's highest mountain taking in the view. With the cloud level well below us it was like being on our own private island in the snow, the mountain seemingly floating in the clouds.I wonder how often now days you would get the whole summit to yourselves on a fine day over winter, not very often I reckon. Eventually we started down the knee crunching descent, picking our packs up as we passed Bivouac Hut, once again the snow eased the pain of the descent a little, but once down below the snow line it was a slippery descent down until we met Mountain Creek Fire Track a couple of kilometres from the car park. We may not of ended up exactly where we had planned but it was still a couple of good days out in the bush with friends, not a bad result in my books really.

I'm modelling the latest in high fashion bushwalking attire, the flanno shirt, topped off by my world class mullet.

Naomi, checking out the view from the broad summit of Mount Bogong.

The Dirt.

Consulting maps and guide books I reckon we walked around 22 kilometres over the two days, but this was well before GPS so I'm estimating a little. While the distance isn't great the climbing is pretty full on, we would of climbed over 2000 metres over the two days, I'd rate this as a hard walk. We probably didn't use notes on this walk but if we did it they would have been written by the doyen of walking guide book writers back in the day, Mr Tyrone T. Thomas, a man whose walking notes and quirky mud maps have stood the test of time in my eyes. So it would of been a compass and Bogong Alpine Area Vicmap on this walk I think. Mount Bogong deserves respect, especially in winter, we've lost too many people up there and even very experienced people with all the modern gear can still come to grief. If it's not under snow Staircase Spur makes for the quickest way up down from the Mountain Creek Car Park, there shouldn't be any navigational hassles in reasonable weather, but like I've crapped on about at 1986 metres Mount Bogong is our highest mountain and the summit is a long way above the tree line so it needs to be treated with a little respect. There are a lot of alternative routes up Mt Bogong and I'll probably get around to posting about some of them in the future.