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Anyone who's been to Mt Hotham (ski resort in Victoria, Australia) on a bluebird day has, without doubt, looked north approximately 10km along the razorback at, arguably, Australia's premier backcountry peak and thought, "Man, I'd give my left nut to shred that!".

The peak in question is Mt Feathertop. Here's the view of her majesty from the ski resort at Hotham.



For me, it was love at first sight . I had to have her. Our first "date" was last november in early summer when I went for a day bushwalk to scope out the lines and access.



Unless you're really mega-fit (i.e. not me!) and like skinning and/or bush-bashing in the dark, it's just too far to be able to do properly in a day trip. To get the most out of it, it's best to plan on 2 nights camping out there giving you a full day of touring on day 2 without having to worry about setting up camp or packing up and getting out etc. In terms of overnighting you have to camp in the snow (it's national park), there's Federation Hut (at the end of the razorback), which is fine to use for cooking, playing cards etc and is a bit feral, possum shit everywhere, but is supposedly "emergency use only", but people seem to ignore this There's also the MUMC (melbourne uni mountaineering club) hut a little further on, I'm not really sure what the deal is with this hut. I don't really have overnight camping gear for this kind of trip, so I teamed up with Matt from Vicalps (http://www.vicalps.com/) for this trip.

There's quite a few different routes up.

From the valley floor down at Harrietville (elevation 500m) it's probably (i haven't done this route) 3 hours to Federation hut (and most of that would be below the snowline) and from there another 1/2 hour to the peak.

The easiest route in (if the weather's good) is along the "razorback", a north/south undulating ridge line from Diamantina hut (on great alpine way just below the peak at Mt Hotham). Depending on your fitness it's a, mostly level, 4 hour skin to Federation Hut. Being a ridgeline, it's incredibly exposed and so you're at the mercy of the weather, it can be very icy early morning and late afternoon.

So on the morning of the 31st of August, it was with much excitement that we drove up the great alpine way to Mt Hotham to be greeted with this:





The weather was still a bit nasty with moderate snow showers (and wind) with intermittent sunshine, and forecast to clear that evening. We parked the car at diamantina hut and started skinning along the razorback.



Car loaded up with splitboards, skis, packs, tents, mats, jetboils, you name it - it was strapped on the roof.







We saw a pair of skin tracks ahead of us so I was slightly concerned someone was going to poach our virgin lines.



Heading north along the razorback, the first part is above the treeline and quite undulating. Being very "powdery", it was easy to traverse around the bigger uphill bits and I didn't need to get out of "tour" mode for the entire skin to our campsite. We had 5 in our group, 2 boarders (me with a split and the other boarder with a "solid" and snowshoes) and 3 skiers. Mike, on snowshoes, found it a bit hard on the traverses, but small downhills were no problem for him, whereas I "skied" them, albeit looking like quite the gaper. The next part of the razorback starts to get wooded.



It looks like these trees are deciduous, but they're not. They're snowgums and a bushfire came through, I think, in 2006 and being almost alpine and slow growing they haven't fully grown back yet. Mt Feathertop's in the background.



The 1st day wasn't without its dramas. One of the skiers broke his touring binding on a small descent about an hour in, luckily he had a spare in the car (had to go back to get it though!). One of the other skiers rather over-estimated his fitness and took too much gear, so we had to ditch most of his gear about half way along the skin in.


The weather started to clear in the afternoon and I got my first view of the old girl in the distance.




Holy hell this pack was heavy!




Snow Gums








With the delays it became obvious we were never going to make our campsite objective, next to Federation Hut. We set up camp for the first night in a sheltered spot on the razorback, close to high knob (where the diamantina spur meets the razorback).



The weather just kept getting better and better and we got a beautiful sunset with a view of Feathertop.



It was my first time camping in the snow, so I was just hoping I was going to be warm enough. It got down to -8C that night and even with a -10C rated sleeping bag and fleece pants, a gazzillion top layers + a gatorade bottle full of hot water at my feet, I was only j-u-s-t warm enough, although I am a cold sleeper .



I woke up early enough to catch the first rays of light hitting the summit of Mt Feathertop the next morning.












After drooling at the sunrise and the epic day ahead, we had a quick cup of tea and smashed some brekkie and got skinnin'





Not to gross you out, but this view gave me immediate wood.



then then



Gettin' closer and startin' to froth severely





The prevailing wind is generally from the west through north, so the south-eastern side gets quite the cornice. I popped on my split crampons for the final push as the route up is totally wind-blasted and icy, although the other skinners did OK without.







We'd seen a few skin tracks around and some snowshoe-ers, but the only 2 sets of tracks were off the sun-baked and icy looking west face , leaving the delectable south/east faces totally untracked and ripe for the plucking.

The jjones/deeper/further line off Mt Feathertop is the aptly named "Avalanche Gully". You can see this line in most of the photos as the steep one from the peak that goes to looker's right. Here's Matt and I contemplating the pro's and con's of dropping this line.



Here's what we came up with!

Pro's:
Ride of your life
A Photo huckin' that cornice!
Bragging rights forever at the Genny (pub at Mt Hotham)

Con's:
Technical exit required (ice axe, crampons - we didn't have any)
If that cornice goes...
... when it does, the bottom is a massive terrain trap such that, even if your buddies dug you out, it's likely you'd be dead anyway.
Being a long way from anywhere, in the event of a serious injury, it would likely take rescuers a while to get to you.

Discretion being the better part of valour, we avoided avalanche gully and dropped a couple of different lines off the peak.








Funny 2 plank thingys...









Skinning out for another go
















Every track you see in this photo belongs to us!!!!







Tired and hungry we headed back to our campsite




Long shadows...




Drying skins in the fading light...





Sunset back at camp







That night back at camp, over a wee dram of scotch and a box of wine, the good people at Mt Hotham put on a fireworks display (especially for us I'm sure) and over dinner at least 10 degrees was added to the steepness of our descents that day and I'm pretty sure the number of claimed face shots on one run exceeded the total number of turns we did over whole trip!



The next day involved a 3-4 hour skin out, sorting gear and then a 4 1/2 hour drive back to melbourne, so another mission to the peak of Feathertop was ruled out and and we decided to pick off some tasty lines off the side of the razorback. The south side of high knob looked to be holding great powder and we weren't disappointed.





The skin out was an absolute bitch, even though we didn't actually drop a lot of vertical. It took us an hour and 45. The bottom was balls deep and rather steep. The gully was quite narrow and in places, I was only able to get my track a metre or so above my previous one. At one stage I thought I was just going to have to bootpack it straight up. I had stopped higher up than the others, so I broke trail (something for which I believe I'm still owed a beer or 2, you m%$%erf&*#%rs).

This run had the best and deepest snow of the trip, something I would've been happy to get in japan!



















Finally at the top...



Looks a lot mellower than it was from this angle!





We headed back to camp to pack up and start the skin back to the car







The packs felt distinctly heavier than at the start of the trip and having warmed up a bit, the powdery softness of the last few days on the top of the razorback ridgeline had hardened up and I found myself having to bootpack downhills I was "skiing" on the way in.



We waved "bye bye" to our mountainous beauty...






Looking back on our tracks down "high knob"










I think I spy some lines for my next trip!!!!




It was a hard slog back, the sun was getting low and the eastern side of the razorback was icing up really quickly (the western side's too thickly wooded to traverse) as the sun got low. Thank goodness I had my split crampons. I must've gone from bootin' it to skinning to putting in and removing split crampons a dozen times.


Finally back at diamantina hut.












Mt Feathertop from the valley floor




Check out the video, if you don't watch the whole thing at least watch from 00:20 secs to 1min 20 secs.



Poetic part: This year has been my "endless winter". In amongst trips in the last 9 months to japan, canada, AK and NZ, of course nothing quite comes close to the "gnar factor" of a 50 degree chugach powder run, BUT to bag an awesome peak like feathertop in powdery, bluebird conditions less than 5 hour drive from from front door, has got to be the coolest thing ever!

Stopped off in Wang on the drive home for the obligatory Macca's, THE END

haha you boys scored!

Ahh 31st of august, the best day of the season!

It looks like these trees are deciduous, but they're not. They're snowgums and a bushfire came through, I think, in 2006 and being almost alpine and slow growing they haven't fully grown back yet. Mt Feathertop's in the background.





Love this shot. So cool to see all the different terrain.
Thanks for the stoke.

whistlermaverick,


Glad you like it. Barring a stealth splitboard trip to the main range (NSW) in the next few weeks, unlikely as I have to work or a possible, but also unlikely, tactical strike on Japan in december - that's it for me until Feb/Mar next year.

Sooooo, I'm relying on you northern hemisphere splitters to keep me fired up with some cool trip reports

Really cool TR. Never though of splitboarding or snow in Australlia till you guys started posting. As Whistler Mavrick said its nice to see different terrain. August huh? It was over 100 degress farenheight here.
Good Job man

Awesome TR! Great job with the photos.

Snow in Australia? Awesome!

And what a kick arse - TR! Looks like a blast, mate.

Thanks for sharing.

Awsome TR, looks like an amazing trip. Thanks for bringing us some preseason stoke!

Great report,The area may get a dusting this weekend.

Method.
I think the VIC festival next year will be in this area. Nice effort.

That was awesome, Method, thanks a lot!!!

Really enjoyed this!