Snowfall sends hike Patrol adrift

If things don’t go to plan and life gets in the way, you need to know when it’s time to change tack.

This was a lesson learned for a group of Kananga Rover Scouts from Sydney North Region, whose plans to hike the Overland Track in Tasmania instead turned into a different adventure doing the Walls of Jerusalem walk.

Sam Marinovich said the party of eight was meant to take on the Overland Track about mid-February, as many in the group had never done it before. But other priorities came up.

“First, we won our Region’s (Sydney North) Rover Moot and decided to run it during the time planned for the hike, meaning we had to push it back to later in February,” he said.

“When we got to booking the Overland Track, it happened to be a few days late and we had lost any chance at actually getting a booking in that timeframe. After talking to some other Leaders about this, we changed to the Walls of Jerusalem walk.

“From their advice, this was just as pretty and we could run it like a base camp – stay at one campsite for a few days.”

Luckily, despite the change in destination, the Rovers were still able to use the $6300 granted to them from the Dick and Pip Smith Leadership Through Adventure Fund to help cover some of the costs of the trip.

Find out more about the Leadership Through Adventure Fund

“I saw this opportunity as a way to help enable the Rover Unit to do more Adventurous Activities,” Sam said.

“Previously as a Venturer Scout, my Leaders would help set up similar major walks. Now as a Rover Scout, our Unit was still figuring out how to do it ourselves, so I applied for the grant to help us aim for a big Adventurous Activities goal and set up smaller ones in between.”

But when they started the trip, once again things did not go to plan. This time? Snow in February!

Sam said they began with a big uphill climb up the mountain to Wild Dog Campsite, passing “pretty meadows and lakes, such as Solomons Jewels”.

“After a cold night, day two sent us up into the plateau within the Walls. This is such a pretty view, made even better with the snow coming down and changing the land from green to white,” he said.

“After a while, the panic set in of ‘this is not stopping’. We finally made it up through the plateau to the saddle, between The Temple and Solomons Throne and descended down to Dixons Kingdom campsite. Here, we met Laura – a Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Ranger, who assessed some of our gear and told us we shouldn’t be continuing due to some party members’ gear. We also were shown some different weather sources to what we usually use.”

Part of the Patrol's route. Map credit: Happiest Outdoors

Thanks to the many years of hiking experience leading up to this adventure, the Patrol knew how to not only push themselves to the limit, but continue to review the situation and surroundings to determine if changes needed to be made. While their personal resilience and focus on achievement had them wanting to carry on, they considered the information provided by Laura, evaluated the risk and had the courage to again change their plans to ensure everyone’s safety.

“We made the call to back out and not continue the full circuit, as the original path was less sheltered than the way back. Day three cleared up some of the snow as we started to make our way back. As we still wanted to enjoy the Walls, we climbed up to Solomons Throne and made our way across to King Davids Peak, the highest point of the Walls, and got some amazing views.”

To help make up some of the extra days of hiking they were meant to complete, the Patrol walked to Cataract Gorge, completing the loop around it, and visiting the power station on the other side of the Esk River; as well as driving down to Liffey Falls, about 30 minutes from Deloraine, to see the waterfall and explore the rainforest.

Sam said the snow made for one of his favourite parts of the hike.

“Walking up onto the plateau after staying at Wild Dog Creek campsite, we were surrounded by the Walls on one side and forest on the other and it started to snow. It was really pretty watching it turn the green into white,” he said.

“Despite all my hikes in Sydney and NSW, it felt like a whole new experience. I think the most important thing we learned was to check with as many people as possible to get site information, as well as to get everyone to do a gear split/check-in truly before the walk so we can source extra gear if needed.”