I have recently been upgrading my camping skills to include snow camping after many years of day skis and hikes in the snow. I recently attended an Alpine Search and Rescue training weekend in some adverse conditions (lots of snow and wind) which has boosted my confidence in these conditions. Consequently I decided to repeat my trip to the Baw Baw plateau in winter, but this time starting from Mt Baw Baw resort and trying out winter hammock camping at the same time.

The goal was to activate Mt St Phillack and Talbot Peak on the Saturday, camp overnight near the latter and then walk back the same way on the Sunday. I chose to use snow shoes rather than skis as my cross country skiing skills are still limited with a 20kg pack. The track between Mt St Phillack and Talbot Peak also has sections that would be a bit tricky to negotiate on skis, and being solo, I decided the risk of injury would be excessive.

Mueller’s track in Baw Baw resort

I was up at 5:30am on Sat morning and on the road by 6:00, arriving at Baw Baw resort around 8:30. The forecast for the weekend was for snow showers on both days with a moderate (20-30 km/h) wind and up to 10cm of snow on Saturday and 1-2cm on Sunday. Forecast maximum on Saturday around 1 degree C and overnight low on Sat night down to -5 degrees C. Not totally ideal, but given that the whole plateau is forested, acceptable.

After completing the trip intentions book at the resort information office, I donned my snow shoes and set off up Mueller’s track. The snow was reasonably packed and hadn’t had anything fresh for a few days judging by the amount of bark and leaves on the ground.

The pole line makes navigation easy in this section

Navigation to Mt St Phillack is easy as there’s a continuous pole line with track markers all the way from Baw Baw resort to St Gwinear car park. I left the resort at 8:45 and arrived at Mt St Phillack just after 10am, well ahead of schedule. The thing that immediately struck me was the snow depth compared to previous years – the cairn was almost buried!

Phillack Saddle – the sign is almost buried!

I set up the station and got on the air quickly given the length of walking still to go. As usual, I couldn’t get a data connection from the summit and so resorted to the Parks’n’Peaks SMS gateway to spot. The wind was cold, so I operated from inside my bothy bag to keep warm sitting on my foam mat.

Operating at Mt St Phillack in a bothy bag – if you look carefully you can see the top of the cairn…

It wasn’t long before I had 10 contacts in the log including three S2S with Peter VK3ZPF (Mt Macedon), Gerard VK2IO (VK2/IL-006) and Bernard VK2IB (on VK2/RI-003). A good start to the day.

The original plan was to eat lunch here, but as it was only 11:00 and I wan’t hungry, I decided to push on given the 8km I still had to walk.

Camp saddle where I camped last trip

As I walked, the snow showers arrived, but unfortunately, the temperature was a bit too warm and the snow was very wet. I kept warm easily enough, but gradually everything got damp which I knew could be a problem later.

This section would have been tricky on skis

The track descends from the summit around 1570m altitude down to the saddle at 1340m. There was still plenty of snow in the saddle, but it wasn’t as deep and there were plenty of places where I sank deep into it despite the snow shoes.

Climbing back up the 200m vertical to Talbot Peak was just hard work! I made a couple of minor navigation errors which probably added only a few hundred metres to the walk. On the second one, I mistook a false summit for Talbot peak and headed off the track to where I thought I’d find the trig point only to realise my mistake. 

At this point I realised that I’d been walking way too long without food and I was not thinking clearly – not good when you are wet and tired. I pulled out my bothy bag, hopped inside for food and a rest and a careful look at the map. I quickly realised my mistake and so after a 20 min break, resumed the last 850m to the actual summit.

The closed end of the tarp blocked the wind very effectively

When I arrived at the trig point, it was snowing quite heavily and with the wind I realised that I was going to need more than a bothy bag to keep warm given the sodden clothes I was now wearing. So I set up my hammock tarp in a spot that was reasonably protected from the wind.

I dug a pit to provide a reasonable amount of space under the tarp

Usually with a tarp, it is pitched such that the bottom edge is perhaps 50cm above the ground. However, I wanted good wind protection, so took advantage of the fact that snow is easy to dig. I pitched it right down to the snow level and then dug out a decent sized pit under it (which also served to warm me up!)

I created a snow seat to make operating more comfortable

I also cut myself a seat in the closed end of the tarp to make a comfortable operating position. I set up the antenna and radio and finally got on the air about 90 mins after my alerted time. I was rewarded with another 10 contacts, including Warren ZL2AJ/M and Paul VK5PAS also operating the special event call of VI5MARCONI celebrating the centenary of the first radio communication between Australia and the UK.

Dark and snowing with the hammock now set up too

After successfully activating the second summit, it was time to focus on preparing for what would be a very cold night. I started with making myself a hot cup of soup and then set up my hammock and improved the seal of the tarp by building up the snow around three sides.

The temperature had dropped significantly which was a good thing as the snow that was now falling was quite dry and the humidity level dropped enough that I knew I’d be able to get some things dry overnight.

My kitchen space beside the hammock

After a fairly substantial hot meal and with a dry down mid-layer added, I felt quite warm and well recovered from the days substantial exercise. I spent the next hour or so melting snow to refill my water bottles and preparing my bedding.

I was in my hammock by 8:30 with a Nalgene water bottle full of hot water to thaw out my toes. I decided to sleep in most of my day wear except for the outer waterproof jacket and outermost mid-layer which was a bit too wet and had been replaced with the down jacket. All the layers were damp, but by sleeping in them under my down quilt, I knew they would be substantially drier by morning.

There was a bit of snow over night…now -5 deg C and everything is frozen

I slept really well – about 9.5 hours – waking up to -5 degrees C and no more snowfall. It was a struggle to force myself out of the warm cocoon and jam my feet into frozen leather boots! My clothing had mostly dried as predicted and so I knew I would be warm enough for the hike back. The quilts of course were now quite damp having absorbed most of the moisture, so it was a good thing I wasn’t planning a second night out!

The view from the front door – yes, this is Talbot Peak for those who’ve been there in summer

After a hot muesli breakfast, I packed up camp and set off on the 12.4km hike back to the car. The walking was much easier on the 2nd day as the snow had frozen solid and had a soft layer of fresh powder on top that together supported the snow shoes much better.

In a lot of places, the Australian Alps Walking Track is clearly visible despite the snow depth

Most of the way I could follow my tracks from the day before, but in places, they had been totally covered with fresh snow. Navigation isn’t too hard as you are essentially walking directly north on a wide ridge line.

I made it back to the car in just over 4 hours with rather sore feet and legs. It’s a very decent hike of 12.4km each way, so nearly 25 km in 2 days. Walking in snow shoes is not much harder than normal hiking, however you have almost and extra kilogram on each foot which needs to be lifted with every step, so it IS more tiring.

Under fresh snow, everything looks great. No this is not a black and white photo, just low light

It was a challenging 2 days, but I’m very happy with the winter hammock camping and the satisfaction of having activated both peaks in one trip in winter.

Here’s a few more photos:

The front of the tarp with the trig point in the background (if you look carefully)

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