Catapult Earth

Well almost - End of September, 3 feet of the most perfect snow covering Tassies south west - not an average day in the park. But as we discovered, when you take it as it comes, you can see things in a different light and find unexpected magic in the pure white powder (sorry, there was just an awful lot of it).

A great chance to catch up with old friends and fellow designers Tim (Fin Design+Effects) in Sydney and Dwayne (Steve Parish Pulishing) in Brisbane. Both busy boys. Somehow we settled on a plan to tackle the Mt Anne circuit in SW Tassie at the end of September. A great track with a bit of variety, exposure and great views of the endless SW wilderness. A bit of training was considered, a gear list was drawn up, food was dehydrated, dates set and tickets purchased.

The long range forcast looked good, with a small window of opportunity to reach the summit (my 3rd attempt) and get over the notch and ridge. But the weekend before showed a coming cold front and possible snow. Too late to change plans now we picked up Tim late in the arvo from the airport and headed straight down. The wind was blowing hard and cold but the sun was still shining - so anything was possible. We arrived in National Park as the sun was setting and stopped for a traditional Tassie pub meal at Leo's place. The truckies rolled in, talking about the coming snow, on the news the bush walkers alert was up, and they had just found a missing walker in the Cradle Mountian area, and Leo was nervous as we told him our plans. With snow expected for the next 3 days and down to 400m he convinced us to wait till daylight before we headed in over Tim Shea pass.

So we camped at Mt Field NP and headed out in the morning. Not far past Maydena we were greated by snow fall and plenty already on the road, This only got heavier as we headed up the pass. By the time we got to the Scotts Peak Rd turn off, we could only see snow in all directions, and it was still coming down. Here the gravel road was too muddy, icy and covered for our little car to go further. We could wait, or get stuck on the far side of the pass. After some debate we decided it best to change plans. We headed back to Mt Field NP.

Here the friendly rangers, headed by Michael tried to convince us we were mad to got out in these conditions at all, so maybe just try a day walk. But we were not easily persuaded or maybe we were mad. But we needed to get out amongst it. So we decided to head into Mt Field NP. After 5km the road was still closed. So we left the car, packed up our gear and continued on foot. It was our luck the snowplough was still heading in to Lake Dobson that day. After some strange looks from the workers we caught a freezing lift on the back of the snowplough all the way in to the lake. Thanks guys.

With the snow still falling heavily we saddled back up in the emergency shelter, checked the maps and pointed our feet towards Twilight Tarn. Finally, it was just us and the wilderness. At least we knew no one else was out here, no one was that stupid, we had the place to ourselves - a great feeling.

The snow was fresh, so fresh, powder, pure white fluffy dry powder and at least two feet deep. We had plenty of gear and several layers of Catapult Earth Tees - but the going was very slow. You basically had to pick your foot up 2 feet every step, or try to plough through it. The way was mosty invisible and often obscured by the trees and bushes that were weighed down over the track by the giant marshmellows of snow, so navigation was also tricky. But with fresh snow falling lighty and the occassional hints of blue sky we were allowed to venture into this fantastical, surreal landscape that was more like a movie set of some childrens fairy tale. I hope the pictures can sort of give you a glimpse of what it was like.

The smaller lakes were covered by thick icy slush, the mountains were always covered by clouds and the black cockies were laughing at us. We totally made our own track around Lake Wilks and the track up the pass was long and tricky so the normally 2.5 hr hike took us well over 4 hours. The old historical Twilight Tarn hut was a welcome sight. Here we decided to stay and see what the morning held.

There was little wood, so the attempts at a fire only led to smoking us out, but after a hearty meal of Spagetti Bog we got warmed up, settled in with some rum and a few games of cards and soaked up the atmosphere. It was good.

And all night it snowed.

And in the morning it snowed some more, though occasionally it let up and we saw some blue sky, a welcome change from the surrounding white. It seemed though, that the new snow fall - at least another foot of it, together with more piles that had been blown off the tall trees by the strong winds overnight, was to prevent us from getting over the col and the high pass. The walking was even slower with the extra snow, but also, if possible, more spectacular. The pandani and Tarns were perfect models. By the end of the day we were hammered and chicken curry never tasted so good.

We headed back down the following day, checking out the overflowing waterfalls on the way. We caught up again with ranger Michael and he was glad we were safe.

We never reached the heights we had aimed for, or the extremes we thought we'd experience but in the end we got a very surreal adventure and unexpected challenges. I don't know how we got the only 3 days of perfect fresh snow all year (now its 18 degrees again). But good friends got to catch up and to 'chill out' (intended pun) for a bit. Well worth it.

Looking forward to next time already, maybe in less snow :))

For more pics see the facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=227599&id=328184229667

or some real pics from Tim at: http://streetsy.net/walk2010/?detectflash=false&