After just spending last weekend snowshoeing & camping during a snowmageddon event around St Gwinear which was epic, a blue bird weekend was forecasted for the following week around the back country high plains so i took the long drive up to the Bogong area on a chilly Friday morning.
Plan was to take the easy hike up Eskdale Spur and camp somewhere above the tree line , was tossing up between the Staircase Spur but was not in the mood for a relentless grind!
Made good time from Melbourne arriving the trailhead around 9:30 am, was another few cars parked here also no doubt some back country skiers getting in fresh turns.
After faffing about sorting out my gear I was walking up the trail a little after 10 , sun was shining and was soon taking off layers , made it to Michelle Hut which sits at around 1500 meters above sea level, met a a bloke Dan who was on his last day of a four day hike and was heading back to his car at Mountain Creek , after 10 minutes of chit chat we were both on our way.
Made my way up above the tree line and the Granite Spur junction and awesome views of the North facing slopes of Mt Bogong, was also a great spot to camp so i decided would set my tent up here and slog it up to the summit ridge, was looking a little icy so opted for crampons and was soon on my way , sun shining I lathered up on some sunscreen.
Could see in the distance a back country skier skinning his way back up one of gully's as i slowly made my way up and taking many photos.
Got to the ridge line but too lazy to walk the last 500 meters across to the summit cairn, could also see in far distance Mt Feathertop poking out above , after spending about 15 minutes taking a few snaps made my way back down to my tent to relax the last few hours of what was left of the afternoon sipping on tea and building a wind break around the mighty Macpac Minaret, come across two skiers skinning their way up to the ridge, also the fella I saw in the gully earlier walking back down , he stopped for a chit chat telling me how awesome the skiing was , he was in a hurry to get back down as he had a beer waiting for him.
Had a fairly good sleep despite the wind picking up in the morning i broke camp by 8am and a had a nice 4 km walk out back to the car, on my way back to Melbourne stopped at the cafe in Tawonga for brunch of coffee and home made sausage rolls went down a treat! till next time.
