Our Hiking Blog

Hiking the Overland Track in winter from south to north?

What are conditions like on the Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair hike when there has been a lot of snow?
Home dried bircher muesli for breakfast (thanks for this idea Frank!)… mmm… good… but don’t overdo the water next time, and don’t forget to add the home dried strawberries carried all this way!

It had snowed heavily again all night and there was now an even deeper layer of fresh snow on everything. But the cloud appeared to be thinning out and it looked like it was going to be a nice day with some indistinct glimpses of the DuCane Range through the cloud to the west. Before leaving the architectural marvel that is Bert Nichols Hut, Heidi decided that she’d better try out the snow shoes in a controlled environment rather than trying to figure it out with cold fingers on rough terrain. So she spent a few minutes parading around the square flat patch of snow in the plain behind the hut which covered the helicopter pad. Satisfied with how to attach, remove and use the snow shoes, we strapped them back onto the pack and set out.

This is the second part of a trip report courtesy of Nik Sands from Bushwalk Australia Nik and his wife Heidi completed the Overland Track, walking south to north, in August 2010. We pick up the trip from Echo Point Hut as they head off to Bert Nicols Hut on Day Two. It was to be one of the “snowiest” Overland trips for several years. During the night a good 5 or 10 cm of fresh snow had fallen, and during the morning it continued to snow quite heavily at times. This was truly beautiful, and for Heidi, it was both exciting and intimidating, being the first time she had done any walking in heavy snow, either in the air or on the ground.

We love to read stories of adversary and tough times. Sometimes hiking conditions can test and challenge you like never before.

In this article we welcome Greg, who has been kind enough to share his recent Tasmanian bushwalking experience on a trip from the Walls of Jerusalem via the Never Never to the Oveland Track in Tasmania.

We have done this trip twice. Our article Lake Meston Hut to Kia Ora Hut via the Never Never has a small map of the area and documents our experiences. It might be an interesting background to Greg and his son’s story.

So, over to Greg who reflects on the trip, often referring back to the GPS waypoints we sent him a couple of months ago to help navigate through this area:

My 15 year old son and I aimed to replicate the walk you gave me on the GPS. It seemed the most logical thing to do regarding distances covered in one day etc. We even started out the same with a trip with Simon from Tasmania Tour Company to the beginning of Walls of Jerusalem! Simon asked me my walking intentions and when I said I was going across the Never Never to the Overland Track he kind of paused and then said, “Take it easy through there. There has been a lot of rain down that way.” I replied, “Yeah, no worries!”, sounding confident but not really sure of what his definition of ‘a lot of rain’ was! He did remind us though that we would see ‘no one’ through there in winter.

The first day was spent walking to Dixons Kingdom Hut and we had an evening of wind, heavy rain and then a decent blanket of snow.

Bushwalking, peak bagging, canyoning, climbing, caving have all been a huge part of our special guest’s life for over 25 years.

Whether it is a 23 day traverse of the south west of Tasmania, wandering around the Central Plateau and Cradle Mountain area in Tasmania, bushwalking, canyoning or climbing in the Blue Mountains, undertaking long trips in France, Italy and Switzerland or getting wet on a regular basis in New Zealand, Dave Noble has lead an extraordinary outdoor life. Dave has been kind enough to share some of his story via an email interview. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have:

1. How about a bit of background on yourself. Live where? Work where?

I was born in New Zealand and came to Australia with the family when I was four. I grew up at Springwood in the Blue Mountains but since uni days I have been living in Sydney – in the inner west. I work as a high school teacher – so the holidays are good breaks for bushwalking.

Planning to hike the Overland Track in Winter? Looking to bushwalk from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair? If you have ever wondered what the conditions are like “off season” on this famous World Heritage journey, then this article is for you. Welcome Caitie Moncur who has been kind enough to share her journal notes from a very recent trip. After months of planning and preparation, and one final night of packing, weighing, unpacking and repacking, the time has finally come. We are Caitie and Lauren, 26 and 25 years old, best friends since we were 3 years old and we are about to take on the challenge that is The Overland Track… in Winter!