7:30 pm Wed 3 Feb 2016

An evening of three presentations on “SNOW IN SUMMER”. No, not the local native plant, but accounts of three walks on Tasmania’s Overland Track in winter. Two of the presentations are by guest speakers:

• Bruce Graham on the inaugural winter walk of the Track in 1951.
• Rob Rushton-Smith who led an AUMC party on a South-North crossing in 1970.
• Mike Round on the Cradle Mountain circuit and summit in 1971.

Bruce was in an MUMC party led by the late John Berchevaise. An account of that walk appeared in Wild about 25 years ago. Around that time, Bruce was also involved in the first traverse of the Western Arthurs and an early traverse of the Prince of Wales Range. In the mid-fifties, Bruce enjoyed two stellar climbing seasons in the Mt Cook area. Bruce is still an active hills walker and in fact, his image appears on the ABW fridge magnet.

Of the two later walks, 1970 was an exceptionally heavy snow year while the 1971 walk included a snow cave on Cradle Cirque. Both of those walks used home-made snowshoes. All of the walks were done in early August.