My partner and I were lucky enough to get to the top of Snowy South a couple of weekends ago, marking our 24th Abel. Still a ways to go there...
After a slightly confusing drive to the start of the Lake Skinner track, which I'm sure we made harder than it had to be, we started walking at around 10:30am. The walk from the carpark to Lake Skinner is a beautiful, relatively gradual uphill climb through fantastic, albeit slippery, rainforest. After reaching the end of the rainforest in around an hour, we continued on through the now more open forest, sloshing through the creek that seemed to have claimed the track until arriving at Lake Skinner around 1.5 hours after setting out from the car. As promised in the Abels, there was a large boulder with an overhang under which we could shelter, which was welcomed when it began to drizzle! The weather thus far hadn't quite been promising, with quite a bit of cloud about and plenty of wind, but had thankfully held up with anything too nasty.
After a brief stop for some lunch and photos at Lake Skinner, we crossed the outlet creek and headed onwards and upwards. I won't give away too many details, as I believe this is technically an off-track area, but the track was relatively easy to follow, if quite steep and slippery in places. We lost it at one point, about halfway up, though I think this must have been at one of the rocks which one has to ascend, with the continuation of the track above not immediately apparent. So we wandered around for a few minutes, becoming increasingly convinced that we had gone wrong somewhere, before turning around and rejoining the path somewhere above where we lost it. It really was a beautiful climb, past Pandanis and over rocks, with the clouds and mist adding a real sense of atmosphere.
Once the steep climb from the lake to the plateau has been made, taking us around 30 minutes, one can look forward to some lovely walking across a beautiful alpine plateau dotted everywhere by Pandani, Pineapple Grass and Cushion Plants. The track takes a meandering route across the plateau, passing close to a strange little gully about halfway across, as well as a number of small tarns. As soon as you reach the plateau, pleasant views of the rest of the range to the North become apparent.
After 30 minutes or so spent crossing the plateau, we arrived at the boulder field which gives access to the summit. What had previously been a relatively well cairned route now seemed to have petered out, and we were more or less left to our own devices. It's entirely possible that I simply missed the next cairn in the string, but I doubt it would make a significant difference regardless, as one patch of boulders is often much like any other! We opted to continue further to the along to the west to what looked like an easier approach, eventually tackling the final approach from what I supposed to be the Northwest. The climb to the summit was certainly the longest and most taxing section of the walk, taking a solid hour from the Pineapple Grass at the bottom of the field to our eventual emergence at the summit.
Whilst the summit may not have been terribly exciting in itself, the views we managed with the clouds politely parted were more than enough to make the last hour's tough walking worth it. Shaky arms and sore, stretched out groins were rested while taking in expansive views of the peaks of SW Tas, including The Arthurs (Eastern and Western), Mt Anne prominent in the foreground, Precipitous Bluff to the South and Mt Field to the North. The summit also gave a good view of the saddle between Snowy South and Nevada Peak, which looked like relatively open going, making for what I would imagine as a potentially pleasant 1 or 2 night traverse of the range as a whole.
Having been lucky with the weather to this point, outside of a shower or two and a whole heap of wind, we copped a decent smattering of snow on the way back. Not enough to seriously impair visibility, or at least not for long, the snow showers did make for some interesting boulder hopping on the way down. We elected to take a more direct route towards the plateau in view of the weather coming in, which happened to take us precariously close to a few 3m+ drops between boulders. None of it was really very hairy at all, with plenty of handholds and footholds, but just enough to remind you that you didn't want to fall! It was all fairly smooth sailing after descending from the boulder field, making it back to the car at around 6pm. We were gone longer than expected, having estimated somwhere around 6-6.5 hours, but given our interesting choice of routes across the boulder field, our time probably wasn't too unreasonable. I'd think 6-9 hours a reasonable range, depending on fitness, experience and weather.
Anyhow, after delivering you that nice little wall of text, probably an appropriate time for some photos:
The view across the plateau towards the Nevada Peak ridgeline and Snowy North
A well earned rest at the top, looking North across the range to Nevada Peak
The plateau was home to numerous Pandani, among others
Lovely, open walking across the plateau, with the weather pretending to be kind... It was only a break between snow showers.
Beginning the descent from the plateau towards Lake Skinner
It was a steep and at times slippery ascent, making for just as steep and even more slippery of a descent
Snow coming in over Lake Skinner
In summary, it was a beautiful walk, and one well worth doing! A little effort required to navigate the boulder field, but nothing to trouble somebody without an obscene fear of heights. 24th Abel ticked off and would happily do it again. Thanks for looking
. The Pineapple Grass was much nicer to walk over than the rocks, but I always feel terrible when walking across anything like that!
