Mt Pinnibar - 25 July 2010

We headed off on saturday afternoon with plans of skiing the southern part of the Grey Mare Range, accessed from the Pinnacle Fire Trail (off the Olsens Lookout Road). Had a lovely drive through the upper Murray Valley in fading afternoon light before arriving at Geehi Flats around 7pm. The place was deserted except for a family of deer and several roos. Had a nice fire and cooked some nice scotch fillet on the fire before going to bed.

An early start saw us arrive at Olsens Lookout Road only to find the gates locked and "Road Closed" signs everywhere. Didn't fancy walking 10km lugging skis so we decided to give it a miss.

Obligatory Scammels Spur photo.

We went to the Khancoban everything shop to assess our options ver a tidy bacon and egg sandwich. Here we decided that we should investigate the western access to Mt Pinnibar. I had heard that the western access road remained open all year and was keen to see if we could get up there.

Up high it was a nice sunny day but in the valley at Khancoban it was foggy. We decided to head up the Mt Elliot Track on the way over to Corryong to see if we could get above the fog. A few hundred vertical metres up and we popped out on top of the fog.

Above the fog on the Mt Elliot Track. The Mt Elliot Track was a good way to get up high fast.

Steep terrain above the fog layer.

After we descended it was on to Nariel and up the track toward Mt Pinnibar. It was s steep climb up to about 1100m where you get on a large plateau. There was snow on and off above 1000m but only a few centimetres here and there. We came across an old ski hut. The signs inside indicate it was the old stomping ground of Elyne Mitchell and her other half Tom back in the first half ofthe 20th century. The area around the hut was devoid of snow this year.

Views over to the Main Range on the road up.

We continued up the track ocassionally geting glimpses of Mt Pinnibar. Just when we thought we were a good chance of getting to the top we struck the winter gate - apparently the road has only been closed for the last two winters. We made the altitude to be 1200m and signs indicated it was a tad over 4km to the top. We decided to head up on foot because the snow cover looked far from solid to ski on. A great day to have left the waterproof boots at home. We donned our leaky sneakers and headed up the track.

Snow cover was solid in a few shady spots but was very patchy most of the way up. A handful of trail bikes had been up the track and their tracks made the snowy sections easy for us. Took us about 90 minutes to reach the top (that included lots of waiting for 'little legs' Mirandah to catch up.

This was about as good as the cover got the whole way up. Made it slow going for people with little legs!

Anything facing north looked like this.

At the top we were greeted with some spectacular weather. A few big fluffy clouds had formed around the place. One was out to the east above the valleys between Davies Plains and the Ramshead Range. Another was about 2-3km north of us and another was forming over the western faces of the main range. Whilst we were up there snow showers developed from these clouds and made for an awesome sight. They seemed to just park themselves in a spot and dumped thier load.

Mirandah finally made it to the top.

View to the Ramshead from Mt Pinnibar.

A big dark cloud just north of Mt Pinnibar started to open up.

An impressive snow shower to the east.

And another dumping over the western faces of the main range.

The cells stayed fairly stationary for about an hour.

Snow showers all around. But no wind. And some lightning - no - just artifacts from a photostictch.

The sun came out briefly. The snow showers to the east eased off but more were building over towards Thredbo.

Snow showers clearing over Watsons Crags.

We managed to get a brief shower of graupel snow also.

The view to Mt Bogong was also obscured by thick fluffy clouds which appeared to be doing the same over there.

More of the same weather looking toward Mt Bogong.

By the time we left it looked like snow was also falling in the Thredbo valley.

The sun didn't shine on us for long on Mt Pinnibar but it came out on the way back down and made for some impressive scenery.

A bit more sun on the way down. Looking north toward Corryong with the odd shower hanging around.

More impressive weather features to the north west.

Getting back into the trees.

We got back to the car just before 5pm. Unfortunately we were just a tad late to be able to see the colours on the mainr ange as the sun went down. We arrived at a vantage point about 5 minutes to late but got to see the last of the day light just above the main range.

Missed the sunset by about 5 minutes. Still looked nice when we got to this view though. And a full moon rising out of shot to the right. The remanants of the snow showers still lingering north of the Crags.

Then had a fun drive down the mountain in the dark. A day that started with a bit of dissapointment turned out to be a ripper.