Mount Feathertop
Mount Feathertop from the summit climb
Mount Feathertop is located in the Australian Alpine National Park in Victoria. With a peak altitude of 1,922 m, it is the second highest peak of the state. From June to September it is usually covered with snow. Unlike its neighboring mountains of Mount Feathertop has steep summit slopes.
Its proximity to the ski resort at Mount Hotham means that he is a popular destination for Tourenskifaher. Along the summit ridge formed in the winter a cornice. Your collapse has already lead to death of people who are related to her, out. Old snow that remains in the spring in the top gutters, looks like spring - hence the name of the mountain ( German: spring summit).
History
Mount Feathertop received in 1851 by Jim Brown and Jack Wells, pastoralists from the station Cobungra his name. They were the first people to the Bogong High Plains systematically explored.
Dr. (later Baron) Ferdinand von Mueller was the first man to climb the mountain. He did not know that the mountain had already been given a name, and suggested that La Trobe naming it Mount ( after Charles La Trobe, Governor of Victoria and at that time of Mueller's employer). Members of the Bright Alpine Club led in September 1889 through the first winter ascent.
In 1906 one of a slip of Harrietville from that followed trace track to the existing bungalow. On a flat area below the tree line we also built a simple shelter in this way. 1912 this shelter was replaced by the Feathertop Hut.
Vegetation
Giant eucalyptus forests cover the lower slopes of Mount Feathertop up to a height of about 1,000 m. Next up is dominated by the snow gums. Above the tree line, which is about 1,800 m, is found mainly alpine scrub and grassland.
Rises
The Aufsteigswege to Mount Feathertop are:
- Razorback North Track
- Razorback South Track
- Bon Accord Track
- Bungalow track Track
- North - West track Track ( Tom Kneen Track)
- Diamantina track Track
After forest fires, the rise over the East Ridge Track, the North - East track track track track and the champion was partially possible, but in the meantime these paths are again overgrown and are rarely used.
The shortest and easiest route of ascent via the North Razorback track, but leads - as the name suggests - very exposed on a ridge and is dangerous in bad weather. In summer you can drive up by car to within 4 km of the mountain, but in the winter this road is closed so that the length of the trail is 7.3 km.
The South Razorback track is very popular in summer but also in winter a promising ski tour. It begins at the Diamantina Hut on the Great Alpine Road near the ski resort of Mount Hotham. The trail is very flat, but in bad weather it can also be dangerous. In this way, the summit is reached after 11 km.
The Bon Accord track track starts in Harrietville and leads up to the Razorback, where he removed the Big Dipper, about 1.5 km from the Diamantina Hut, hits the South Razorback Trail.
The bungalow track track also begins in Harrietville at an altitude of 480 m. It was created for pack horses to supply the Feathertop Bungalow and slowly and continuously rises 9 km far to the Federation hat on. From there he leads another 2 km further to the summit. Along the way he takes the North Razorback track, the South Razorback track and the North - West track track on.
The Tom Kneen track along the Nordwestgrates is steep and difficult to walk on. It starts at Stony Creek and reaches 7.5 km away the tabernacle of the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club. From this hut, he leads on the western flank of the mountain and hits the paths from the Federation Hut to the summit. This route was named after a skier who died in 1985 at Mount Feathertop by an avalanche.
The Diamantina track track rises from the Kiewa River West Branch out for 4 km, before it hits about 3 km below the summit on the South Razorback track. The trail offers beautiful views of Mount Feathertop, but rises steeply to very steep and requires some climbing work on loose scree.
Mountain cabins
At Mount Feathertop, there are two intact mountain huts and ruins of several other huts.
The Federation hat was originally built in the years 1968/1969 by the Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs and lies at the tree line at the top end of the bungalow lane track at Little Feathertop. In 1988 the hut by Ian Stapledon was renovated and covered with wood, but burned down in forest fires in 2003 and was rebuilt by Parks Victoria again in 2005.
1966 was built by the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club a large hut on top of the northwest ridge. Its material was brought in by road from over the North Razorback track. The hut was in the final year of study, designed by Peter Kneen, a civil engineering students at the University of Melbourne. His brother died 19 years later at Mount Feathertop in an avalanche. The cottage was originally a shiny silver Äüßeres, but was then painted green. The cottage has a unique domgleiches appearance and offers a large bedroom on the first floor.
The Feathertop Bungalow, where guests could sleep and eat in summer and winter, was built in 1925 but burned down during the bushfires in Victoria in 1939 and was never rebuilt. The terrain can be seen from the bungalow lane track, but today there are only a few remnants of the bungalows.
Accidents
The Minister of Tourism Victoria, Tim Holding, disappeared on 31 August 2009 on a hike on Mount Feathertop, which he undertook alone. 60 people searched on the evening of the day for him, including members of the Search and Rescue teams of the police, the Bush Search and Rescue team and the state emergency response teams. On the morning of September 1, 2009 he was found unharmed. He stated that he had slipped on an icy slope and slid into a gutter. He no longer knew where he was, and the visibility was poor. So he waited for rescue, where he used a reflective emergency blanket for signals.
Graeme Nelson, a 56 year old doctor from Eden in southeastern New South Wales, died 24 August 2011 on a ski slope with friends by the Avalanche Gully on Mount Feathertop. Dr. Nelson had slipped on the ice and probably crashed 700 meters down on an icy slope. Even before his climbing team were relegated to him, he was already dead
Gallery Images
View from the summit to the east in late spring
Mount Feathertop from the saddle to the south in the early spring
Tent of Melbourne University Mountaineering Club