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Showing posts from September, 2015

The wayback machine: Beechworth to Yackandanda

The wayback machine is a collection of stories that took place years ago, but demonstrate elements of, or turned into full blown epics.  So I went for a roadbike ride with the dog, at midnight or so... it was a lovely ride, a little cold, but not too bad, but at the end of the ride when I got towards Yack I realised that Binnie had slowed down a lot. At that point she used to devour 30km mountain bike rides, so it wasn't an endurance issue, we'd only done 20 k's. I stopped in the war memorial at Yack and checked her paws, she was close to running the pads off them... she was ok now, just sore, but she wouldn't make the return trip. Unfortunately my options were limited at 3am. I had a phone in the early days of mobile, but the place my parents and I were looking after was a mobile black spot, and I hadn't saved the number of the landline. I had no lead, so I couldn't tie the dog up, ride home and come pick her up. In the end I waited in the rapidly cooling

Planning: 10 summits

It's been a plan since 2008, I don't know where Kirrill got the idea from,. but I put some effort into the feasibility and the planning. We never got around to an attempt, but the seed was sown. The aim is to hit the top 10-15 summits in Australia in a single trip, preferably continuous. This is quite doable, the majority of them are close to the main range loop, there is then a 20km detour to bag Jagungal and Gugartan. The cutoff is a dificult thing, 2000m is too low, 2100 too high, and there are a lot of multiple peaks that you need to deal with. We went with a somewhat fluid definition of decent clean prominence, and height over Stillwell. (??), also the list used here: http://www.aussie10.com and http://peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=2602 The peaks are: Stilwell Rams heads kozi 2228m townsend Alice Rawson Caruthers Abotts Twynham Northcote Watsons Crag Gungartan Jagungal Perisher North Perisher These can't really be done in a straight line, they for

The wayback machine: My First Epic

The wayback machine is a collection of stories that took place years ago, but demonstrate elements of, or turned into full blown epics.  Background so, I was about 12(maybe less) , my parents, my brother and I were skiing the 8 or so kilometers from where the road closed near Spencers Ck to Charlottes Pass. The plan We were leaving late in the afternoon, not a lot of time to get to Charlottes. Dad was going to rush back to Charlottes where he had access to a skidoo, Mum was to watch both of the kids, and bring us along as fast as she could, and we'd get a lift the rest of the way on the skidoo. The decisions I honestly can't recall whether I was told this plan or not. But I chased after Dad, with no hope of keeping up, and kept on going... no headlight, no supplies, and night setting in. The Story  So I chased Dad, and had well and truly lost him by the pass. But I knew the way to Charlottes (it's pretty easy even covered in snow. Follow the snow poles u