Mt Bogong Ascent 2007

Winners of Roverings Greatest Adventure 2007

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On August 1st 2007, scouts around the world began celebrating the Centenary of the Scouting Movement. To mark this event, six Rovers climbed Mount Bogong following the original expedition route (now rarely used) completed in 1928 by previous Branch Commissioner for Rovers, Bill Waters, and members of the Ski Club of Victoria. Our party of six consisted of Rovers from three different Rover Crews: Stuart Bailey, Sheena Bailey, Stuart Linnell, Kyle Nash and Gordon Young plus Chris Young, as advisor.

A six day back country ski is hard work in 2007, and after researching into how the original three day trip was completed in 1928, it made us wonder how on earth they were able to do it back then. They only had sketch maps, canvas tents, footy jumpers, army pants, tinned beef and porridge. To top it off there were no weather forecasts. So when we set off from Falls Creek with our gortex sleeping bags, foam mats, macpacs, GPS and an EPERB in case of emergency, we kept in the back of our minds how lucky we were to be packing modern equipment.

The first day to Kelly's Hut was fairly easy, being mainly flat and groomed along the high planes road. We arrived at Kelly's Hut in time for lunch. The second day to Bogong Creek Saddle (Big River Campsite) was not so easy. At the end of Timms Spur we had to side slip down the very icy edge to the road, extremely nerve racking with full packs. At about 1600 mts we ran out of snow and reverted to carrying our skis through thick under growth 2 mts high. We arrived at big river in the dark but under a full moon and had to remove boots and clothes up to our knees in order to wade across.

Day three was always going to be the hardest, up 700 mts over Quartz ridge across Mt Bogong and down to Cleve Cole hut. We knew the snow was about knee depth for the first 2 kms because every step resulted in us sinking, a slow and tedious process. The weather was kind with clear skies, no wind and great views. The progress was slow owing to the snow varying from soft to hard ice as we moved in and out of shadow. One slip and we could have ended up 500 mts down the slope so some of us used crampons for security. We reached the summit at sunset, just as the clouds were rolling in, which made it very hard to see the next pole to find our way to Cleve Cole Hut. We finally arrived at Cleve Cole at 7:30 pm completely exhausted!

The next day was our rest day, which was spent drying our gear, treating blisters, fixing two broken stocks and reading the good variety of material in the hut. On Aug 1 we were scheduled to call the Victorian government house as part of the centenary celebrations at 7 am from the summit. So at 5 am we woke up and prepared ourselves, but found 5 cm of fresh snow inside the foyer, strong wind and limited visibility. So we skied up to GSM mobile range and had an interview with 200 people listening in. After that we grabbed our packs and headed to Ropers site, once more crossing Big River. We arrived at Ropers site only to realize we had lost a set of tent poles! We managed to make do using some of the surrounding saplings. We breezed through the next day, 16 kms in only 4 hours. It must have been the thought of hot showers at the Bogong Rover Chalet.

While our trip did not have the same obstacles and risks of the 1928 journey we all tasted the trepidation and excitement climbing Quartz ridge as we believe they did. Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and extremely challenging, and we all feel a great sense of achievement to be have been a part of this extreme challenge, and the Centenary of Scouting celebrations.

Media Coverage: Phone call to government house on Aug 1st, from the top of Mount Bogong. We have an article in the Bogong Bulletin and we are mentioned in Australian Scout magazine. We also have submitted our own articles to Australian Scout and Wild. Chris also had 2 interviews with ABC radio when planning the hike. BRC also presented us each with a commemorative plaque for our achievement.