4 Night Kosi Main Range Trip

[forest]

Had a great trip up around the main range in Kosi last weekend.

Day 1:
Started at Charlottes Pass around 1pm (parked the car at Perisher precisely in the middle or the huge mother carpark and hitched up to main range track start)
Walked across to Kosi first via Seaman's hut. WOW isn't Mt Kosciuszko an uninspiring place... doesn't even feel like the highest peak in OZ. That and the masses up there all on the phone and wanting group pictures etc.......
Anyway, I couldn't get off that bump quick enough !! Interestingly there were a few hundred crows flying around up there ?? I mean, there are crows everywhere up there but there were heaps and heaps on Kosi.
Finally set up camp for the night about 750 meters from Muellers Saddle just under the footpad to Mt Townsend.
Now that was one nice campsite, it was even flat too on lovely soft green grass with a small trickle of water off the rocks behind us. The view down over Wilkinsons creek was very specky with all those big far hills around.
Spent the afternoon wandering over/up to Mt Townsend and across Alice Rawson Peak, Muellers Peak etc.
At least Townsend feels like you have climbed a larger mountain.

Couldn't get over the few groups camped in the no camping zones that are mapped around the place. Does anyone actually police that ??
Not sure what the camper thought in the big RED tent pitched right on the edge of Lake Albina ?? Gees, talk about a stealth camp......
Anyway enough of my rant.....

Right on sunset a storm front rolled over for a little while. The light was really weird with the sun setting and low cloud etc. Made everything turn a bright orange colour.
Was something to behold and a great finish to day one.

Day2:
Dawn was really nice with the light over the mountains. There was a lovely trail of mountain mist pouring over Muellers pass and flowing down towards Wilkinsons creek before dissipating. Looked nearly fluid like.
After breaky we were off back along the pad out to the main range walk. Followed that around to the saddle below Caruthers Peak on the Blue Lake side where the foot pad leads off towards Mt Twynam.
Heaps of people on the main range walk that morning and I say good on them !!
Yes, there are plenty of people about and it's definitely no full wilderness experience..... BUT you cannot fault the vista and it might just be the start to something more for some !!
Lunch on Twynam was nice followed by the walk across the range and we set up camp in the basin between Mt Anton and Mt Anderson.
Another nice spot with great views. It had looked like rain was building all afternoon but surprisingly it was a very clear, calm night and the only occasion I experienced decent condensation in the Hexamid.

Dinner was a treat.... That was the night the platy bottle of 2008 First Creek late harvest Shiraz appeared from my pack.......
The mate was spewin as my fully loaded pack weight at the trip start was only 10kgs..... he didn't realise that was including a bottle of wine !!

Day 3:
Another nice dawn followed by breaky then we were off again. (Mate was over me up at Dawn but it's a bit hard when your in a cellophane thin tent)
Over Manns Bluff, Mt Tate and into/across the Rolling Grounds, past Granite Peaks and we dropped down onto Whites River hut which was our night's destination around 1pm.
I ended up having a quick bite for lunch then running over to Schilk Hilton Hut and back for a look as I haven't seen that one before. Gees the toilet is larger than some huts !!
Same deal again, plenty of cloud built up but no rain that night. Spent it in the hut this time as it's now very nice after being rebuilt last year.
By this point I was way way over the March flies, evil,little things they can be. Discovered they can bight through any taunt parts of my RAB Meco 120 shirt.......
I think the fly kill tally must have hit about 5000 at the hut alone.

Day 4:
Easy day planned, just walked out via Disappointment Spur trail. Bit funny when the mate nearly stood on a 10" long baby snake... Shouldn't laugh but the shuffle movement thing he did was priceless.
Had a nice lunch at Guthega powerstation then the long, hot walk up the road towards Smiggins Hole.
RAB MeCo 120 merino shirt was unreal in the hot sun. Sweat + Breeze and it was like portable aircon !! I'll be sticking to this set-up from now on.
Probably could have walked right out but we had planned 4 nights and had been granted leave passes from the ministry of finance........
So we camped down near Canal Hut just above a small waterfall with a great view of the valley which was very pleasant.
A few light showers blew in that evening but we managed to get a gap to boil some water for dinner and a hot drink.
The mate was constantly ripping off my little piles of bushbuddy wood anytime it appeared from the pack.....

Day 5:
Wow, what a morning that was.........
Absolutely flogging down with rain and 75km/h wind gusts over the tops. Apparently jamming in earplugs overnight to minimise the rain hammering didn't make things look any better that morning. Great weather to pack up camp in (not) but at least we only had about a 6km walk out to the car.
I actually managed to stay dry in the pack-up phase so the system's working. Also the Hexamid bucked the wind very well, the bathtub floor works well and I didn't even have any misting getting under the 6 " raised pitch. I think the angled back/sides on the solo plus greatly deflects the wind, as the back was pointed at the weather I hadn't even closed the beak. My poor mates tent had slowly collapsed on him overnight as the winds and rain increased.......
I think he expected to find me huddled in a blue paper thin ball of shreds..... sorry didn't happen.
Anyway off we trudged up the river.... actually I think that had been a track yesterday.......
We received some very strange and compassionate looks from the few vehicles and workers that drove past as we walked up the road from Smiggins to Perisher.
And a big yabbie crossing the road tried to latch onto my now wet Inov-8 runners.....
All of a sudden the amusement of parking the car a precisely in the middle of the huge Perisher car park wasn't so funny.....
Between the wind and sheet rain we couldn't actually figure out how to open the car without it filling full of H2O in 3 seconds.
It was a bit of a.....Okay, waist belt off, chest strap undone......GO, door open, throw gear in boot, slam boot, tear off rain jacket, drop rain pants and jump into drivers seat at the same instant the door slam's behind you and the wind rocks the car.
Long drive back to Maitland and a huge shock to leave Kosi in 3°C windy/rainy weather and exit the car into 33°C weltering heat !!

[forest]

More pics

[forest]

More pics

[forest]

Last one

[Tony]

Hi Forest,

Thanks for the great trip report, on a nice summers day the crowds around Kosci are amazing, most do not have any gear, not even rain jackets, or water, I have seen chair lift walkers up near Kosci with no jacket, no water, no food when it has been cold and raining, to get there they have to walk past Alpine danger warning signs.

Once away from the crowds it is nice country to walk in, I love the photo of the stormy sunset.

Good to see the Hexamid stand up to some rough weather, I love mine.

Tony

[ninjapuppet]

Great write up mate! you're a gram counter but bought along xmas lights for your tent? awesome!
did you have a bivy?

we did the 10 peaks hike just a month ago and really want to go back to do a solo trip there sometime to soak in the place.

Tho, Ive been been doing some bean counting for a solo walk and the numbers havnt really added up well if doing a solo koszi walk, compared to flying over to nz.

Assume I go for a week, leaving after work friday evening from sydney: (kozi vs mt cook in nz)
kosi:
- takes me 8 hours drive at arrive at midnight. set up camp for the night and start walking saturday morning.
- fuel: costs $150 for the 1000km return trip. + $50 car maintenance (every 10,000km costs me $500)
- parks pass at $16 x 7 = $112
TOTAL: $300-$350

NZ:
- head to SYD airport at 6pm and get to christchurch at midnight and sleep on the night bus to arrive in mt cook/ Mt aspiring early morning.
- Regular sales EVERY MONTH means I can get a return trip syd-nz for $350
- bus to wanaka or mt cook is about $80 ($100nz)
TOTAL: $430

so for about $100 more, i can walk among some big mountains. For this reason, I think kozi is only worth it to go with a bunch of people from syd otherwise NZ will offer more bang for your buck if going solo.

[forest]

Great write up mate! you're a gram counter but bought along xmas lights for your tent? awesome!
did you have a bivy?

we did the 10 peaks hike just a month ago and really want to go back to do a solo trip there sometime to soak in the place.

Tho, Ive been been doing some bean counting for a solo walk and the numbers havnt really added up well if doing a solo koszi walk, compared to flying over to nz.

Assume I go for a week, leaving after work friday evening from sydney: (kozi vs mt cook in nz)
kosi:
- takes me 8 hours drive at arrive at midnight. set up camp for the night and start walking saturday morning.
- fuel: costs $150 for the 1000km return trip. + $50 car maintenance (every 10,000km costs me $500)
- parks pass at $16 x 7 = $112
TOTAL: $300-$350

NZ:
- head to SYD airport at 6pm and get to christchurch at midnight and sleep on the night bus to arrive in mt cook/ Mt aspiring early morning.
- Regular sales EVERY MONTH means I can get a return trip syd-nz for $350
- bus to wanaka or mt cook is about $80 ($100nz)
TOTAL: $430

so for about $100 more, i can walk among some big mountains. For this reason, I think kozi is only worth it to go with a bunch of people from syd otherwise NZ will offer more bang for your buck if going solo.

Yep can only agree on the NZ comments. I was over there in Nov last year and it's awesome and well worth it. Easy to get there now too with flights straight from Sydney to Queenstown.
Still Kosi is great too and I have friends that we stay with in Canberra on the way so it's always nice for a catch up on the way through.

LOL, Yep I loved those xmas lights. Picked them up on ebay for like $1.49 free post from HK..... Used same batteries as my GPS and the weight is only a measly 28grams... Yep, still counting....

No, didn't do the bivi thing. I just used a Hammock Gear 3 season wide burrow with 2 oz overfill.
I think the Zpacks twin bathtube floor greatly helps with the water spray.

[Rob A]

It does set you back a little more than that.
Over in KZ you still need to factor in track transport to and from, hut passes if you need them, and in reality a day both ends for provisioning and cleaning up before hopping on a flight.
Generally Kiwi from here, stacks up a bit cheaper than flying to Tassie though.

[ybi2]

Hi mate great post. Now I am inspired to do the same. Can you tell me how far the four day hike was thanks.

kev

[kjbeath]

Couldn't get over the few groups camped in the no camping zones that are mapped around the place. Does anyone actually police that ??
Not sure what the camper thought in the big RED tent pitched right on the edge of Lake Albina ?? Gees, talk about a stealth camp......

I've heard of people being moved on in winter, but not fined. Maybe in summer it is too much effort for the parks staff to walk over and have a look.

Anyway I've done similar walks to yours and it is a great trip.

[WarrenH]

Forest, G'day. When I first visited Kosci' I thought that they were called crows. One of the Park Rangers put me straight. Can I hand on the Rangers legacy? Kosci is not the region of the Crows ... the birds are Little Ravens and Australian Ravens.They can be easily identified by their calls.

The Australian Raven calls 'aah-aah-aah-aaaah', with the last note drawn out and their call carries a long way. The Little Raven call can be either 'kar-kar-kar-kar' or 'ark-ark-ark-ark', and they flick their wings up on each note. I hope you wanted to know that?

When you were up on Kosci, did you hear people calling their friends, "You'll never guess where I'm ringing from?" ... "the Main Range Wilderness!"

I enjoyed your report.

Warren.

[ybi2]

Can any one tell me if a small gas stove will work up at that height. I have been told that they are not efficient up there. Is that true. I will be doing the track in Feb. Hopefully.

[Mark F]

A small gas stove will be fine in February. It is best to get one that uses a propane/butane blend rather than pure butane.

For a smorags bord of gas stove information read http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/FAQ_GasStoves.htm

[forest]

Yep, gas will be fine.
The mate I was with had a jetboil with the branded 100g canisters. No problem at all.

Kosci's not that high for gas not to work.......

[ybi2]

Thanks guys. I thought as much but you can not be to certain. Better to be safe than sorry.