Date: 23-25/4/2025
Trip leader: Adam
Party: Sophia, Tooba, Vincent, Weiting, Terry (Wing Chun)
For the first time in nearly 12 months, SUBW returned to Kosciuszko NP to spend our midsem break away from the assignments we should be doing and the lectures we should be catching up on.
The initial plan was that we would camp at Mt Twynam on night 1, take a side trip to Mt Sentinel on day 2 and camp at Mt Tate that night, before returning to the cars and camp at Island Bend for night 3. Just about the only thing that we stuck to was our day 2 trip up “The Sentinel”.
Our first change of plan came as one of our drivers unfortunately had to drop out, so we managed to convince Daniel and Liam K from the other SUBW group heading to Kosciuszko to join us for day 1 so they could help drive the 6 of us down. Many thanks to Daniel for heading down a day earlier than he’d planned and becoming our second driver on short notice!
The trip down began as all trips down begin, with a stop at Macarthur station to pick up Terry (who had just caught the train in from another SUBW trip in Melbourne), Sophia and Tooba.
We stopped in Cooma for lunch where Terry picked up the coveted Minecraft meal complete with a collectible cube of landfill resembling a big mac. Here’s to hoping there’s a chance to collect all the free clutter maccas has to offer before the promotion expires.
After many leg-stretches and refuelling/charging stops, both cars of overnight walkers had reached the Guthega overnight walkers carpark and we were on our way up to Mt Twynam! We had set off at ~3:00pm which left us with about 3 hours of sunlight to complete the 10km walk and set up camp, cutting it a bit close but nevertheless doable if we were quick.
Soon enough, we were at the Illawong swing bridge for our one-at-a-time crossing of the beautiful Snowy River.
We ended up a bit slower than I anticipated, perhaps we were too busy enjoying the mostly pristine wilderness this part of the park has to offer. Not necessarily a bad thing, but we found ourselves walking with low visibility (due to the weather) and low light (due to the setting sun).
At this point it was raining pretty heavily and getting ever colder. Eventually it got too dark so we called it quits and set up camp at a track junction approximately halfway between Mt Twynam and Mt Anton. As a future tip: if you find yourself setting up camp in 0 visibility, have Liam select your campsite. He will somehow pick one that is both sheltered from the wind and facing east for an awesome view of sunrise.
By 7:00pm, our tents were up and our dinners cooked.
The next morning, Liam, Terry, Tooba, Sophia and I headed up to Mt Twynam to enjoy the sunrise from above while the rest of the party missed out in the name of an extra few hours of sleep.
Seeing our campsite in the light for the first time, it was clear why the overnight alpine winds I had warned the group about had not bothered us: we were positioned in front of massive boulders and a slope. I’m not sure we could’ve picked a better place to camp even if we could see.
Once everyone was back at camp, we headed down the hill to a nearby creek to pick up some water for the day.
By 8:30am, Daniel and Liam had packed up and we were off to Mt Sentinel. They walked with us up to near The Sentinel before splitting off down to Charlotte Pass to meet the other 4 from the SUBW trip Liam was leading. There was a bit of umming and ahing on the ridge as to whether we should head out to Sentinel given we were now cutting it close in terms of time remaining to not be setting up camp in the dark again that night. We decided that we would just camp in the same place we did the previous night in the name of getting out to the Sentinel, and we could therefore take our time to enjoy it.
Although steep, the track to Sentinel was better than I thought it would be for one that is not marked on the topo. We followed it down to the saddle that sits just before Mt Sentinel.
At the saddle we faced a pretty exposed scramble. There are 2 rock faces separated by a steep trench of loose rocks. Vincent and I who were walking ahead took the “beta test” route, scrambling along the first rock face (near its bottom) to just walk under and up past the 2nd. The foot holds on this route were probably just short of big enough, but we pressed on with it. Once the rest of the group had arrived, they found a much easier route about 5m up the rock face where you can just climb over the rock, into the gap and back up over the second rock face. Still exposed, but much easier and with better footholds. Perhaps we should’ve looked around more before just sending it but we live and learn.
Just after the scramble there was an abandoned pack with nothing but ropes and an (undeployed) PLB. We had no idea why it was there, but couldn’t see any signs of anyone in distress so we continued on. At the top, we had lunch and enjoyed the views underneath the decrepit trig point.
We headed back the way we came, this time all 6 taking the easy scramble, and onforth to the campsite. We were back at our tents by 4:00pm and could spend the afternoon relaxing having decided packing up and continuing on was not worth it. Our campsite remained mostly untouched, with only one tent being dragged fully constructed over rocky ground and our guy ropes by a one Terry Sze.
Such relaxation was interrupted with the devastating realisation announced from Terry’s tent that with the following day being ANZAC day and the new trading laws meaning supermarkets cannot open at all, the original plan to buy food and supplies for the following night in Jindabyne was in shambles. It’s something that completely slipped my mind when I assured the group we could go to Woolies before our car camp on day 3. Nothing was dire; we all had extra food, the servos would still be open, and bakeries etc could be relied upon but nevertheless a stuff up on my part. Oh well, sunset was still cool!
The next morning I was the only early riser, so I took a quiet solo trip out to Mt Anton in lieu of an ANZAC dawn service.
Once everyone was up, Terry and I packed up and headed off down the hill to the car. As we had 6 people and one five seater car, we walked ahead to make a shuttle trip to Island Bend where we would camp with the other group (and their 2 cars) that night. The other 4 set off not long after. Terry and I reached Guthega in just under 90 minutes so I drove him to Island Bend, we set up our tents to claim our spot and I headed back to Guthega to pick up the others.
Somewhere along the way, I received a text from the other group that one of their drivers wanted to explore the idea of heading back to Sydney early, not seeing the point in an additional night of camping given we would be leaving early morning anyway. In agreeance, I confirmed everyone would be ok with just heading back to Sydney that afternoon and everyone was happy enough. I had mainly planned the extra night so we wouldn’t have to be driving after a long day of walking but we were all out early enough that it wasn’t an issue. Thus, this was the best option.
After the Great SUBW Car Shuttle(TM) of Guthega -> Island Bend -> Guthega -> Charlotte Pass -> Guthega -> Island Bend was complete, Terry and I packed up our shortlived camp at Island Bend and all 12 from both groups were back in a car and on our way back to Sydney.
