Unfortunately this video is no longer available, but you can see the screen captures below!
During the first week of August Tasmania received two of its heaviest snowfalls in decades with snow settling on the ground down to sea level in some areas. Almost all the areas I wanted to explore with significant snow were inaccessible due to closed roads but fortunately on the morning of departure of my trip the Gordan River Road was listed as open as a single lane to 4WDs only. After passing a line up of cars waiting for the road to open at Mt Field, I continued on into the South West National Park for a solo ski mountaineering trip to Mt Anne. Although I had climbed it with snow previously, I had never had the opportunity to take skis up there so I was really excited by the chance to get up there with them and with some great snow and weather.
At the car park it was fantastic to see a group of six which actually consisted of four of my students and their dads. They headed up onto Eliza and had an amazing time up there. I also met two day-walkers who were headed for Mt Eliza too. Other than that no one had been up there for weeks.
Huge thanks to a highly talented local Tasmanian musician, Jed Appleton (verbal permission to use music granted June 2015) for his music: – Sweep Me Away – Home Check out: jedappletonmusic.com
Mark Oates of Wild Oates Productions is an Outdoor Education Teacher now based in Hobart who enjoys spending his time either having outdoor adventures with students, family and friends, or dreaming up ideas for more epic adventures. A keen whitewater kayaker of many years, Mark has turned to the darkside recently and these days he can frequently be found in or beside a packraft with rarely a kayak in sight. Originally from Victoria, Mark fell in love with Tasmania’s wild places many years ago but made the permanent move to Hobart with his wife Jen and their Border Collie Hamlet in 2010. In the last couple of years Mark has made the move to videophotographry to try and capture some of the stories of his, Jen’s and Hamlets ‘Wild Oates’ adventures.
