Pt 1912 near Cass Saddle hut

As the weather for Sun 15 Nov looked as though it would be worse than that forecast for the Saturday, I rescheduled the trip a day earlier, and three of us (Don Mee, Markus Milne and S Sheen) started off from the carpark at the Cass R at 8:30am.  It’s unfortunate, but there seems no way to avoid the long trudge up the Cass riverbed to reach Pk 1912, which can be seen to the west of the valley head as you look up the Cass from the State Highway.

 First we had to reach the snow saddle just west of the peak, which took us about 5hrs from the start, by way of the Long Valley Stream and its first major tributary on the right. In this stream is a waterfall which can be bypassed using deer tracks through open beech forest and gullies on the true right from a prominent cairn about 200m before the fall.  Not far above the fall the stream arises as a large spring, which in summer would be the last water and we found this a good place to tank up.

After lunch we put on windproofs and warm gear as the wind was strong and cold, but at least was behind us as we headed along the 3/4km ridge of rock outcrops and scree to the summit, which was reached at 2:30pm.  We were all suffering a bit from cold wet feet, a hazard of this sort of trip in rivers and with a lot of snow and in retrospect,  I’d say bring some plastic bags and dry socks for the snow work.  Fine views towards Cass Saddle, the Craigieburns and to the west were marred a bit by the wind and gathering cloud but were dramatic nevertheless.

 We were freezing up rapidly, so dived off down a curving snow-filled shallow gully on the south from the summit.  Snow was steep but we could make good safe buckets of footsteps with our heels and the gully soon eased enough to show a magnificent snow slope with good run-out, so we bum-slid the remaining 350m to the floor of a stream which runs towards the Cass Sad track near the hut.  The track was a blessing to tired bodies and even the stony lower Cass riverbed seemed welcome as feeling returned to our cold feet.  We reached the car at just after 6pm, about 9 ½ hrs trip, after an enjoyable and varied days tramping.

This is a challenging tramp which should not be attempted by parties lacking in fitness and experience in these sorts of exposed conditions. A definite 4+.

Stephen Sheen.