My flatmate Jono and I decided to do a winter ascent of the 'only European style mountain in Australia' called Mt Feathertop in the Victorian Alps. At over 1800m altitude it is completely snow covered and quite a commiting walk. We choose to hike from the Diamantina Hut to the summit and back in a day, a distance of over 23km across soft snow. All up it was an exhasting 11 hour marathon of non stop walking through some of the most beautiful and untouched areas I have ever been to. The mountain has the potential to avalanche and at least three people have died from calapsing seracs along the summit. It was Jono and myselfs first taste of mountaineering - and we loved it.
5.30am - Packing the bags for the 'alpine start'. Notice the ice on the car. We carried sleeping bags and lots of warm clothes just in case we got caught out on the mountain.
7.00am - Dawn arrives about an hour into the walk in. At this time the snow was very icy and easy to walk on.
7.30am - Our objective, Mt Feathertop can be seen in the distance. We followed the steep Razorback Ridge for over 11km to reach the mountain.
9.30am - The ridge gets steeper and the suns starts to beat down. Mt Feathertop is to my right.
9.45am - We climb a steep section of icy snow as training for our summit ascent.
9.45am - Jono kicks footholds into the icy face. A slip from this wall meant a 300m fall down a very steep slope. It required a good solid three or four kicks to get a stable foothold.
10.30am - Jono ploughs through virgin snow on the way up the last ridge.
10.45am - I make my way along the final summit ridge. Notice the overhanging seracs on my right. In heavy snow these can avalance down the face.
10.45am - Jono nears the summit.
11.00am - We summit!!! We got a helpful mountaineer to take this photo for us. In the distance is Mt Bogoong, the highest mountain in Victoria at 1900m. The day was so clear we could see Mt Kosiosko in NSW.
11.15am - Jono started to get quite sick whilst up here (altitude sickness??!!). Two other climbers joined us on the summit soon after us. We only saw three other people the whole day.
11.30am - Me on the summit. I would like to thank my sponsors, Nick McKinnon Mountaineering Supplies and BP servo stations for suppling the sunglasses.
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