nicolaoutdoors

View from trails between Hotham and Dinner Plain (Click image for more)

Last week we spent four days in the Ovens Valley. This is a stunningly beautiful valley dominated by views of Mt. Buffalo and Feathertop. In summer you can canoe or swim in the Ovens river or climb the granite of Mt. Buffalo. The town of Bright is also popular place for paragliding. In winter you can access the downshill ski resorts of Mt. Hotham and Falls Creek as well as endless back-country terrain. I really want to live there.

There had been a fair amount of snowfall in the previous week and temperatures had stayed pretty low. The winds, however, were forecast to be high for all days and we were worried about how compacted and icy the downhill conditions would be.

Friday night was really, really cold and getting up, even in our little cabin in the valley on Saturday morning was a struggle. We ended up spending Saturday at Hotham (me boarding, Ross telemarking). The cover was packed and groomed but not icy until late in the day. Saturday night was cold and windy and only a little snow fell on the peaks. The high winds that had whipped us on the summit on Saturday were still raging, so we decided that it wasn’t worth the money and went up to Mt. Buffalo instead.

Mt. Buffalo is lower and the snow was heavier, wetter and there was much less of it. Its a beautiful place to be, though, so we packed up bread and a thermos of hot soup and set out on a long (about 4-5 hour) snowshoe around the plateaus and boulderfields and across to the viewpoints and waterfalls. Unfortunately, we were in cloud and didn’t get the good views!

Boulders on Mt. Buffalo

Monday, we were keen to walk out on the razorback towards Mt. Feathertop and board some of the slopes. We drove up there and the snow was deep and soft and neither icy or windpacked on the leeward slopes. The wind, however, was insane. When it gusted I could hardly stand up and an exposed ridgeline walk wasn’t that appealing. It was hard to tell how windy the valley was because there are few leaves on the snowgums, which are only starting to recover from the 2006 bushfires. After watching for some minutes, though, we could see that the wind was buffeting even the big old branches as was streaming though, leaving no place to shelter from the icy blasts.

Views around Hotham

Instead, we drove right into Hotham village, where most of the chairlifts were closed or on standby for the crazy winds. I rented cross-country skis ad we continued out of the village to the trails and ridges between Hotham and Dinner Plain. This ridge has more trees and is protected from the wind. It was definitely the right decision as the snow was good there, the views were excellent and we were mostly out of the wind.

The final day, the sun was shining, the forecast high temperatures were insane (17C in July!) and the winds were due to pick up even more in the afternoon. Although the mountaintops looked appealing bathed in sunlight, they were probably icy and we also had to drive almost 4 hours back to Melbourne. Instead of lengthening this with the mountain roads we headed over to Beechworth. I’d never seen the town, so it was fun to walk around and look at the elegant remains of goldrush times. Beechworth is famous for honey and, as we are about to become beekeepers, we spent some time looking at honey and equipment in the honey centre there. We then did a walk for a few hours in the Beechworth historic park, visiting the Powder Magazine, the Spring Creek Cascades, The Precipice, the Reids Creek Goldfields, and Ingrams Rock.

Spring Creek Cascades in Beechworth Historic Park