Friday we were picked up from my work in the trusty Triton of my mate around knock off time in the drizzly rain for our drive to Cradle. The plan was to walk into Waterfall Valley hut Friday night, walk to the hut and explore the area on Saturday then walk out on the Sunday. About Cethana we had the wipers on flat out in torrential rain and we could see flashes of lightning in the clouds. Not looking to promising for a start!
We arrived at Dove Lake car park to steady rain and an easing of conditions as the front went through. We got ready and headed off to Waterfall taking about 4 hours. We had rain, snow and eerie moonlit glow conditions along the way that enabled walking without a headlamp at times. We arrived at about 11PM that night to an empty hut so we did not have to wake anybody luckily.
Day2 started out with steady snow falls till we got going and headed off to our chosen route off track across the button grass covered hills. I was treating this trip as a nav exercise so we were only using compass and map to find our way in the gloom. Crossing the outlet of Lake Agnew proved an interesting exercise due to the raging torrent flowing down the creek out of the lake (96mm fell in the 24hr). We eventually found a suitable place to scramble through the trees and across. It rained or snowed pretty much all day along the way but walking was reasonably pleasant. We stopped for lunch about half way next to a high point that gave excellent views of Lake McRea. We arrived high above the hut with limited views due to the low cloud and finally got down to the hut and sat down for a rest before exploring.
We went exploring before taking our wet gear off for the day and obtained a high point that had views over Commonwealth Creek and towards Razor Back Falls. It started to snow pretty hard and made taking a decent photo difficult. I also filled my phone with water rendering it useless for the rest of the trip (it dried out and survived). We also explored the falls going off the Southern escarpment from the unnamed tarn. It was very slippery and steep here and a fall would have been a long trip down to certain injury. The hut was comfortable but very basic (much better than a tent though!) and it was obvious it has received very few visits as there are only 3.5 pages of logbook entries since JAN 2004. A few games of Cribbage, tea and off to bed.
Day3 had us up early as a big days walking (about 21km) to get all the way back out and back to Launie at a reasonable time. The forecast for Sunday was bleak before we left but we woke to the the most magnificent calm and cloud free day. The snow covered peaks in all directions looked magnificent even before the sun rose. All the tarns had a thin covering of ice on them. We had a fantastic trip out to Waterfall Valley with magnificent views and easier walking apart from another difficult crossing of the Agnew outlet. As we reached Waterfall Valley the front could be seen building in the distance and within 30 minutes it was colder, cloudier and the odd bit of drizzle and snow on Barn Bluff.
We fueled up at Waterfall for the last push up the cirque and around the back of Cradle. A few overlanders at the hut with one group heading up Barn and another couple settling in for the night. We had a few showers around the cirque and then quite a bit of snow fell while behind Cradle towards Kitchen Hut. We arrived back at Dove lake to chain smoking tourists polluting the air and could not wait to get out of their! A quick stop at Sheffield for some tasty fish and chips and our trip was over.
The area around the hut is very pretty and you could base yourself here for a couple of days exploring around the area. Several routes have been followed to get to the hut. All require off track navigation skills. There is old mining history in the area and several waterfalls to explore. As the area could be considered sensitive I won't post many more details. Some research and planning should see you right for a nice weekend walk. It is advisable to keep groups quite small, three was enough.
- First views of Oakleigh through the rain.
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- Below Razor Back Falls through the snow
- Below-Razorback-through-the-snow---1175.jpg (172.81 KiB) Viewed 15535 times
- Calm evening views
- Gloomy-Evening---6300707.jpg (90.22 KiB) Viewed 15535 times
- Cradle morning view
- Cradle-Views---1200.jpg (81.88 KiB) Viewed 15535 times
- First Light
- First-Light---7010746.jpg (64.47 KiB) Viewed 15535 times
it is back on my to do list again,ran out of time after taking a wrong lead 15 years ago 
now know which way to go thanks to a kind forum member.
