Lake Skinner and Snowy South

[John_Fox]

My 11 year old daughter, who had been on a couple of rogaines, told me she's like to do some more bushwalking.
Coincidentally, I'd been thinking of heading up to Snowy South, as a look at the map suggested the views of the SW peaks should be good.
So, off we went, leaving the Kingston area at 8:00am, and finding the start of the track just after 9:00. The Nevada 1:25000 map (even with 2003 revisions) shows the track starting from a spur road off McDougall's Road, but there are now signposts that lead to a start off the next spur road. This saves a lot in height.
There is room for quite a few cars, and a firebreak heading up the hill, but the marked track heads off across the slope into the bush.
I suspect that heading up the firebreak might be a shortcut up, but that's for another trip.
The first 600m of track leads through cutting grass and rain forest (and at the moment, a lot of mud) to the old track, which runs up the hill.
This area is quite pretty, though wet.
(A warning - about 150m in, the track crosses an old firetrail/firebreak/spur which runs up the hill. The track actually continues across the slope rather than going up here, but the tape marking it is so small and faded that both we and another group independently took a wrong turn and headed up the firetrail before eventually realising our mistake).
Eventually, we came over a crest, and into light vegetation, where the track angles slightly downhill and to the right across a gently sloping valley, heading towards the Lake Skinner outlet stream. Though the lake isn't visible from here, we could see the 'retaining wall' above us.
Another steeper bit through thicker vegetation brought us out on the edge of the lake, a classic hanging lake with snow on the rock walls around it. It took us just under 2 hours to walk to here - a pretty good effort by my daughter.
After a snack, we headed on up the track to the plateau (well, ridge) above. The track was fairly obvious, and it soon started to climb very steeply, eventually emerging on the ridge line after just over half an hour.
From here, the views back to the east and south east were spectacular, and the huge rock pile that is the summit was visible up the ridge. It looked like a stroll in the park, but I was to be proved wrong.
From here, the cairned route became quite poor - cairns were not that common, and didn't seem to be marking a particularly easy path.
The 'track' angled over to the right, heading for a rocky ridge that led to the summit. We came up a couple of hundred meters north of the tarn marked on the map, despite the map show the track passing right by it.
Views to the north started to appear, with Field West very impressive.
At this point, we met a group of 5 that had started at the bottom about the same time as us, headed for Nevada Peak, and then changed their minds and come up the north side of the ridge.
Clambering over the big rocks became more and more difficult, particularly for my daughter, but eventually we came over what we thought was the last crest, only to see the other group sitting on the summit, some 200m away and probably 30m higher.
My daughter could go no further, so I left her there with lunch (and in clear view), and trotted the last few minutes to the summit.
From Lake Skinner to the top took us about 1:50.
What a panorama! 360 degree views of the Wellington Ranges, Field East and West, Florentine Peak, Frenchmans Cap white and huge on the horizon, some other impressive peaks I couldn't identify, Lake Gordon, Mt Wedge with its distinctive cone shape, The Sentinels, Mt Anne (so big and close it took me a while to notice it!), the whole extent of the Western Arthurs, the Easter Arthurs, Federation Peak, an impressive range nearby (Weld Peak?), the Picton Range, the Hartz, peaks further south, the Tasman Penisnula...
I forgot to take the panoramic shot, so I'll have to go back (or maybe to Nevada Peak).
Going back down, be stayed much further to the right (south), which was a lot easier and brought us down on the other side of the tarn.
The trick from there was picking up the cairned route in order to find the right spot down to Lake Skinner. In fact, the cairns were so sparse that we crossed the path and ended up at an impressive rocky knoll where we stopped for a snack.
The track was actually down to our right now, just across a small gullylet full of snow. I remembered having crossed this (though further up), and after recrossing, picked up the cairns again, which took us to the edge and over.
On the way down, we took one wrong turn, which had us on a fairly overgrown track, but we made it down to lake about 1:35 after leaving the top.
A rest and a drink and then off again, reaching the car at 5:05, seven hours and fifty minutes after we left.
A great day, and a wonderful first wilderness experience for my daughter.