This weekend I went on a crazy trip with the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club. It was a bushwalking (backpacking) trip up the northwest spur of Mt. Feathertop. It is one of the MUMC annual trips that takes place mid-winter around the time of a full moon - here is some more about Midnight Ascent. We met in groups on Friday evening and drove up to the trail head in time to start hiking around midnight. The drive over was pretty neat. It was the first time I had been outside of the Melbourne suburbs since I've been in Victoria. I was pretty surprised by how flat things were. On the way over to the Victorian Alps (the range of mountains containing Mt. Feathertop) I kept looking for hills and mountains but it all seemed very flat until the last few kilometers. We were able to see several planets and a lot of stars very clearly on the drive over but unfortunately by the time we arrived at the trail head, the sky had gone from clear to cloudy and rainy.
all ready to go at the club rooms in Melbourne
It took a while for the group to get their packs situated in the dark and in the rain but we started hiking sometime between 12:30 and 12:45am. The trail up to the MUMC hut where we were headed is 6.5 km (4 mi) long and gains 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in elevation. The first part of the trail seemed perfectly reasonable. I think around 2:30am we reached the part of the hike called The Wall. It goes pretty much straight up for a while and then the trail changes to a series of switchbacks. After that is a long steady climb. In the dark, you can only see as far as the beam of your headlamp allows so it didn't really seem that bad. You just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Occasionally, we stopped for some much needed chocolate and water breaks and leaned against some trees (no place to sit in the snow!). Pretty soon the rain changed to sleet and then to snow. By the time 5am rolled around, I was getting pretty worn out so I started singing to keep me moving. My boots, even covered with gators weren't really that waterproof so by this time I was pretty much walking in my own personal puddles. Its not so bad when you are moving because it stays warm but when your shoes don't dry out and end up freezing overnight (the next night) it is not so fun putting them back on. It started getting light around 6am so the last bit of the hike was light enough that we didn't need our headlamps. We finally reached the hut at 7am and pretty much just dropped our stuff and curled up and went to sleep.
about 5:30am
finally! the hut is in sight!
The hut was built in 1965 and is a geodesic dome. It has two floors for sleeping on and tanks with water. All of the materials to build the hut were carried in and put together by about 200 people. Here is some more about the hut from the MUMC website. We had about 40 people in our group so a number of people had to bring tents and camp outside in the snow. Sleeping in a tent may have been a better idea than in the hut because it is quieter out there and the condensation from so many people in the hut meant that it was essentially raining inside. The first "night" was fine but on Saturday night I covered my sleeping bag etc. up with a tarp and everything still managed to get wet while I was sleeping.
After napping for several hours I got up and made some food and went outside to play in the snow for a little while. We built a snowman and threw some snowballs. In the evening, everyone made 3 course meals completely from scratch! My group make smoked trout and stuffed potatoes for the entree, Thai coconut chicken curry (including cracking and scraping the coconut to make the cream) and rice for the main, and apple goodie with cinnamon whipped cream for dessert. Everything was so delicious!
Sunday we headed out around 12:30. The sun came out for a while and I was surprised to see other mountains surrounding us! Every other time I had been outside it was either snowing or there was a lot of fog / low-lying clouds covering the surroundings.
I was so happy to change into dry, not sweaty clothes and dry socks when we reached the bottom! I was disappointed that I didn't see any animals on the hike at all. I heard a few birds but didn't see them. We found some evidence of deer (introduced) and some other people saw a mouse of sorts. There aren't ticks here this time of year but there are leaches. One of them found me in the parking lot when I was drying out my feet - that was interesting. We stopped at a pub on the way home for some nice hot food. I had roast lamb for the first time. It was quite good!
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend! I am still incredibly sore. Climbing stairs is very interesting.
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