Hi. Your correspondent in the field went up to Mt. Stirling on Friday 23/8/19 . Also present for the mission as a day trip from Melbourne was the redoubtable T.P. . The snow cover was complete from TBJ to the top .We set off at around 10am up towards the Bluff spur hut. T.P. was having issues with climbing/skiing up the route on my skinny Fischer Pattern Based BC XC skis. The surface was firm and slick in the morning with patches of ice but it softened as the day progressed. I put on my Black Diamond kicker skins after a while and climbed up like demon to the snack/rest point at the Alpine Warning sign on the Bluff Spur Trail .These kicker skins are the best !. AMAZING!! T.P. was struggling a bit with the ascent being only his fourth time on XC skis in recent times. I offered him a chance to ski on my Madhshus Epoch skis equipped with kicker skins. He responded well to that but my own herringboning up some steep bends was not going so well and I eventually requested that my skis with skins be returned to me. We took lunch at the Bluff Spur hut area in bright sunshine. The whole of the Vic. Alps were on display cloaked in snow. It was spectacular. T.P. elected to simply walk up to the summit but I skinned up and subsequently skinned back to the Bluff Spur Hut. The summit was very icy . We both skied back down to TBJ without any mishaps, although I did fall over once but I landed on my left buttockial brake before deciding to just buckle up, cast aside any trepidation and just ski the terrain with some confidence. The surface had softened after lunch so that it was a tad slow and slushy : Early Spring skiing conditions really. The marvellous views from the summit , bright sunshine and the fun challenge of skiing back down to TBJ , plus the excellent performance of my kicker skins made the day a huge success. I will post some photos very soon.
TBJ to the Bluff Spur Hut with a snack/rest stop at the Alpine Warning sign No.34 on the Bluff Spur Trail. The conditions were the best in terms of weather and visibility that I have been fortunate enough to experience, out of three trips to Mt. Stirling this XC ski season. 1.3 metres of snow were indicated on the Bluff Spur Hut area snow gauge. Skiing on the upper trails had better quality snow cover with some evidence of skidoo grooming.
The summit mission. On the descent back to TBJ It would seem that I took no photos. I was busy gliding,turning and snow ploughing down the hill on skis. . A couple of photos were taken by T.P. who also measured the trip as being 12. 5 something kms in total on his hand held whatchamacallit.
Mt.Buffalo , Mt. Cobbler, Mt .Feathertop, Mt. Bogong, The BHP , and the range from Mt. Koonika all the way to The Bluff and Mt. McDonald and further afield to Mt. Skene were all clearly visible from the summit.
Next season , Insha'Allah, we will ski out to Howqua Gap hut , skin up the Howqua Gap track and ski down the Bluff Spur Trail. It will be a true mission to remember .
