Australian Alps Walking Track - Thredbo Village to Horse Camp Hut

Day: 22
Date: Wednesday, 08 May 2019
Start:  Thredbo Village
Finish:  Horse Camp Hut
Daily Kilometres:  35.2
Total AAWT Kilometres:  472.9
Weather:  Very cold, strong winds and almost constant sleet or snow
Accommodation:  Horse Camp Hut
Nutrition:
  Breakfast:  Hotel buffet breakfast
  Lunch:  Trail Mix
  Dinner:  Rehydrated meal
Aches:  Both very tired and cold
Highlight:  Eating a late evening meal by the wood combustion stove in Horse Camp Hut after a long and very challenging day.  It was great to be dry and warm at last.
Lowlight:  Wasting 30 minutes in the dark, cold and drizzle around 6:30pm, outside Guthega Power Station, trying to work out where the official AAWT route went.  Apparently a bridge it used to cross a river far below us no longer existed, even though there was still an arrow pointing that way.  As we were working out our options, a young worker driving out of the carpark stopped and asked whether we needed help.  He couldn't tell us where the AAWT went, but we were very tempted to ask whether there was any room for us to bunk down inside the power station for the night.  In the end, we thanked him and told him we were OK.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:

As we ate our buffet breakfast at the hotel, we could see the wind raging in the trees outside, rain squalls passing by, and fresh snow on the upper ski slopes.  It was very tempting to book in for another night, but knowing there was another cold weather front due to pass through in two days time, there didn't seem to be much sense in waiting a day.  We checked out at 8:20 and began the long and occasionally steep climb up to Thredbo Top Station, and the AAWT, using the service road which seemed more direct than the hiking trail.  The higher we climbed, the colder and windier and snowier it got.

At the top, we took shelter in an alcove outside the closed restaurant and donned more gear to deal with the very bleak conditions.  The wind was sandblasting us with ice pellets, the ground was completely snow and ice-covered, and it was bitterly cold.  The walk from the Top Station to Mt Kosciusko is very popular, so the National Parks have built an elevated steel mesh footway to protect the delicate alpine environment.  This works well except in freezing conditions.  It became increasingly treacherous, the higher we went and the steeper the grades.  I seemed to find it harder than the sure-footed Julie and had one spectacular slip where to avoid face-planting on the steel mesh I threw myself down a metre off the walkway and heavily face-planted in the snow, driven down by the weight of my pack.

We eventually reached Rawson Pass where we had to make a decision about whether to stick to the recommended/preferred Main Range route, but there was no argument from Julie when I suggested we play safe and take the lower, official AAWT route, even though it added 9km to our walking distance.   We also skipped the side trip to the summit of Kosciusko, Australia's highest mountain, but we had only two months ago run a 50km trail race which visited the peak, in much nicer conditions, so didn't feel we were missing anything.  The weather was just diabolical and visibility was less than 50 metres. The possibility of having to camp in such conditions if we took the high route was too dire to contemplate.  Even the lower route was very exposed for the first 10km and we took a break at Seamans Hut, a refuge, to have a snack and try to warm up.  While there, two students from Canberra called in for a break on their way to Kosciusko from Charlottes Pass.  They looked a bit unprepared for the conditions to us, but they were keen and we wished them well.

Conditions ameliorated a little after Charlottes Pass, where the road ends, but it was still sleeting, windy and unpleasant.  We had a long roadwalk from there to Perisher, another very small ski resort, and took a break in the unmanned visitor centre to have a snack and for Julie to repair a blister.  By this time it was 3:30pm and we had at least 12km to go to reach our target hut for the night.  Given the still bleak conditions, we gave serious consideration to camping in the visitors centre for the night, though there were workmen about and the possibility of getting kicked out in the evening existed.  I did check Booking.com to see if there was any accommodation available, but none was listed and the whole village still looked mothballed.

So we left Perisher for more roadwalking to Smiggins Hole, another shuttered tiny ski resort, and then via a quiet back road to the Guthega Power Station.  We thought we were on track to reach the Disappointment Ridge Hut by 6:30pm, but alas, the official AAWT seemed to disappear at that point with a bridge missing (see above).  Finally, we worked out an alternate route and changed our target to Horse Camp Hut, which we reached at about 7:15pm.  We were cold, wet and tired, and were very pleased to find the hut in excellent condition (it is looked after by the Kosciusko Huts Association) and decided to light a fire for the first time this trip to try and dry some of our wet gear.

It was late by the time we ate, but we are warm and dry, and will sleep in a little tomorrow after a very memorable day.