The Overland Track in Winter

My mate Matt and I had been talking about doing a walk together for a while. Over a few conversations, I mentioned something that had been sitting in the back of my mind for years… despite having guided the Overland Track well over fifty times, I had never actually walked it in the middle of winter. I'd done trips in May, in October, and just about every other month. But never June, July, or August. The true winter months had always eluded me.

We decided to fix that.

The plan came together over a few weeks. A four or five day itinerary, keeping an eye on the weather in the lead up, and sorting out the logistics. The hardest part, surprisingly, wasn't the cold or the conditions, it was organising transport. Even after fifty-plus trips on the Overland, getting to the start and from the finish in winter without relying on friends and family to shuttle us around in potentially dicey conditions was a genuine challenge.

We'd initially planned to walk the track from south to north, something that's only allowed in the off-season and which I'd never done. The idea of seeing the whole route in reverse, after all those years of walking it southbound, was appealing. But after much deliberation and failed attempts to arrange transport, we decided it was simply going to be easier to go the traditional north-to-south direction. We'd leave a car at Lake St Clair for the finish, drive two cars down from Launceston, and book a tourist bus to drop us at Cradle Mountain on the morning of the walk.

With everything falling into place, another mate, Nick, put his hand up to join us. The trio was assembled.

Distance: 14.70km | Time: 6hrs 1min | Ascent: 930m | Conditions: Clear start, misty later, drizzle in the afternoon

We arrived at the trailhead after an early drive from Launceston, stepping off the bus at around 10am. The conditions were relatively clear and honestly, a little disappointing. There was no snow around at all. The whole reason I'd wanted to do the Overland in winter was to experience it in snow, and here we were on day one with green ground stretching out ahead of us.

I'd walked in waist-deep snow on the Overland during one of my first trips as a guide, in the middle of summer, no less. I'd seen plenty of snow since then across all sorts of conditions. But to get that true winter feel, it would've been nice to have a bit of white on the ground. No less, we had a walk to do and I was excited regardless.

We made great progress through the morning. The familiar track felt good underfoot and we were up on Marion's Lookout very quickly. From there we continued on in misty conditions towards Kitchen Hut, arriving for a bit of lunch.

After a quick bite, we toyed with the idea of heading up to the summit of Cradle Mountain. The mist kept rolling in and out and we thought, why not? We had plenty of time left in the day.

We headed up to the turn-off, dropped our packs, pulled out our daypacks, and made our way up. It had probably been fifteen years since I'd last summited Cradle Mountain. As we climbed, I was surprised at how familiar the whole route felt. I'd climbed this peak many, many times before, but like I said, it had been a very long time. After about an hour and a half, we arrived at the summit. The mist cleared and gave us some great views of the days ahead as well as the surrounding area. It was great to be back up here after so long.

We had a celebratory little nip of some type of Yugoslavian drink (Rakia) Matt had brought from his father-in-law. A nice touch.

We made our way back off the summit and down to the packs in good time. Picking them up again, we then made the familiar walk around Cradle Cirque: around the base of the main mountain. It started to drizzle a little as we walked along and became pretty windy as well. Raincoat on, raincoat off. This pattern continued for the last hour or so as we walked in fleeces, beanies, and gloves along the final ridge and down to Waterfall Valley.

When we arrived at Waterfall Valley Hut, there was a school group there enjoying the luxurious new hut that had only been built in the last couple of years. Amongst the school group, I was surprised to find one of my nieces! The hut was pretty full. We chatted with other walks while we cooked dinner. We then sealed ourselves in for the night in the warm hut, and had a pretty early evening.

Day one of the winter Overland had been a treat.

DDistance: 26.05km | Time: 8hrs 38min | Ascent: 619m | Conditions: Sleeting, rain on and off, cool all day

We woke pretty early on day two because the hut started stirring quite early. One group had gone away well before sunrise, which woke us. We were moving by around 7am. Cooked some breakfast, got ready, and headed off.

The other guys took off while I had to finish some business with the toilet. I told them to get going and I'd catch up. It was sleeting a little. A bit of rain, a bit of sleet, not a very nice day and pretty cool. I finished up and took off maybe ten minutes behind them.

As usual for every day on the Overland, the track was familiar and I knew how long it would take me to get to each point. This is a nice feeling when you know a trail this well. I expected to catch the other two by about the Lake Will turn-off within around forty-five minutes. I reached the turn-off and could just see them maybe 800 metres ahead. From here it wasn't far to Lake Windermere, so I had a quick rest at the turn-off, grabbed a snack and a drink, then continued on.

I was generally walking in a fleece and beanie the whole day, putting a raincoat on as the rain and sleet came and went. By the time we got to Lake Windermere, I arrived just as the other guys did, It was fairly cool but clear. There was another group that had already arrived from Waterfall Valley as well, setting up for the night and it was only about 9:30 in the morning.

There was a completely new hut at Lake Windermere since I'd last been here. Very nice, like the Waterfall Valley one. We cooked up a hot drink, had a relax and a good rest. After maybe thirty-five or forty minutes, we packed up, said farewell to our new friends, and continued south towards Pelion.

It was going to be a long day. We knew we'd be pretty tired by the end. But we made good ground down to Lake Curran, then started the slog up to Pine Forest Moor, arriving at the Forth Valley Lookout for lunch at around midday. We had a good lunch rugged up in our down jackets. It wasn't raining, which was nice, and we had a decent break.

After lunch we headed up over the forest of Pine Forest Moor. I love this bit of forest walking on the Overland Track. It's quite a small hill to climb up and over, maybe fifteen minutes to the top, then you walk across for maybe ten minutes, and then another fifteen to twenty minutes down to the button grass on the other side. Just a lovely bit of forest walking.

From there it was around the base of Mount Pelion West for the next hour or so. We didn't really stop much, just kept making our way along before arriving at Frog Flats. Dank, cold and not a very pleasant place this time of year. After crossing the Forth River, it was time to start the gentle climb up to Pelion Plains. We made good progress, and didn’t stop on the climb. We spaced out a little and each got lost in our own thoughts. We regrouped at the Old Pelion turn off and continued on the last 10 minutes or so before arriving at New Pelion hut at around 4pm.

To our surprise, no one was there at all. We had the hut to ourselves. No one camping either. It was very cold in the hut. It's a big structure, an older build that had been in place for over twenty years by this time. I still remember it being brand new when I did guide training there. Back then it was a modern luxury, but compared to the huts we'd been through in the last two days, it looked old and cold.

We settled in and enjoyed having the hut to ourselves. No one else arrived for the rest of the afternoon or evening. It was now nearing freezing and we were expecting it to be cold overnight, and sure enough it was. We sat around in the dark for a while, had a chat, and had a pretty early night. I retired to bed to watch a movie on my phone in my warm sleeping bag.

Distance: 9.72km | Time: 3hrs 18min | Ascent: 388m | Conditions: Frost, then snow and wind at Pelion Gap

We'd decided the night before to take it pretty easy today and have a sleep-in. We knew we had a short walk over to Kia Ora Hut, so there was no great rush.

We woke in the morning to find the pipes on the water tanks frozen and couldn't get water out of them. It was very cold with a thick frost on the ground, but we had enough water to keep us going. We made some breakfast, gradually packed up, and headed off up the track towards Pelion Gap.

This is one of the sections of the Overland Track I love. The walk up through the forest to the gap is just lovely; nice forest, pleasant walking. Most of the time I find it takes me about forty-five minutes to get to the top. Today was no different we made our way up in about fifty minutes.

As we arrived at the expanse of Pelion Gap, the view opened up towards Pelion East and Mount Ossa. But as we stood there, the snow started. And the wind. It came sideways and quickly things became pretty cold and miserable. The peaks quickly clouded in as the snowstorm kicked in properly.

Without any further deliberation and the storm now in full swing, I told the guys to get moving while I finished packing up. They headed off. I sent a quick message to my wife and then continued on my way down off Pelion Gap in the snowstorm.

I had all my wet weather gear on now. Rain jacket, thick gloves, beanie, everything. I made my way down through Pinestone Valley largely by myself. The other two had sped off again, but I was enjoying walking this section alone. It's a lovely piece of walking, even on a day like today.

I arrived at the end of the valley and then started the descent down through the forest and a bit of scrub. I was cruising down the track when I popped around a corner and got the fright of my life. A big wombat was standing in the middle of the track, staring straight at me. He quickly ran away, but I told him "Good day to you, see you later big fella" and continued on my way.

It wasn't long after this that I caught back up to the guys and we rolled in for the last twenty minutes or so to Kia Ora Hut. First walking past the old hut (the ranger's hut that my uncle built maybe thirty or forty years ago), we then arrived at the new Kia Ora Hut. I'd been able to see it being built from the top of the DuCane Range a couple of years earlier, and again this was another luxurious, very modern hut.

We arrived to find we had it to ourselves. We were quite early in the day, so we had some lunch and then just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon: reading, playing some cards, getting into some photography. There was a great view of Cathedral Mountain from this new hut, a view you didn't have previously. I got some nice photos and just took it easy.

A couple of other people rocked up later to share the hut with us and we had a chat to them. But again, another relaxing, pretty quiet day on the Overland Track in winter. The new huts really were luxuries that made things quite pleasant for a winter trip although I definitely wouldn't rely on them in crazy weather conditions where you may need to set up camp.

Distance: 23.88km | Time: 7hrs 27min | Ascent: 634m | Conditions: Sleeting and snowing, cold, clearing later

We decided to get up pretty early because we thought we might push through to Pine Valley today. As we didn't want another short walk to the next hut at Bert Nicholls we thought we'd try to go into Pine Valley and see if we could maybe go up and do one of the peaks from there the next day.

We got off early and it was sleeting with snow as we departed. I was pretty rugged up but still walking in shorts with my raincoat on. It took us the normal forty-five minutes to an hour to get DuCane Hut where we stopped for a bit of a rest. The weather had come in now so the shelter of this ancient hut was nice. It brought back a lot of memories sitting here.

We then moved on another 20 minutes or so to the D'Alton and Fergusson Falls turnoff. It really was not a very nice day: cold, sleeting, snowing at times. This was a very cold section of track because you're in forest the whole time. Even on a summer's day you don't get a lot of sunlight here, so in winter it was bitter.

We made the trip down to D'Alton Falls for a look, then had a look at Fergusson Falls, and came back up to our packs where we'd dumped our gear. After reading the dedication to ‘Ranger Fergy’ on a tree at the turn off, I told the guys a few stories about my guiding days before we continued on to the Hartnett Falls turn-off about another twenty minutes along. We stopped for a quick break, had a drink, and got going again quickly. We had decided not to visit Hartnett falls today. Pine Valley was the goal.

I had toyed with the idea of putting my over-pants on because it was still snowing and raining. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do, but ultimately kept my shorts on with just my raincoat on top.

We made our way up to Du Cane Gap on the very good track. But as we gained elevation, there was now a lot of snow resting on the scrub and plants. Because we were the first people to walk through for the day, it was crushing up against us non-stop. I was leading a lot, and my shorts became drenched with snow. My legs then became very, very cold.

I tried not to let it worry me. We pressed on, over the top and down the other side of the gap into the forest again, and moved pretty quickly. We arrived at Bert Nicholls Hut in good time for lunch.

I was absolutely cold when we arrived. Almost shivering. Bert Nicholls is an older hut, maybe fifteen years old at that point. It was built as one of the first sort of more ‘modern’ huts on the track but it really isn't much of a hut inside. The main communal area is just an enormous, cavernous space, and they have one or two little gas heaters trying to heat it. This time of year, you really can't get it warm at all unless you're sitting right next to the heater. We were pretty miserable as we ate lunch. I'd put on all my layers by now. Pants, down jacket, fleece, beanie, gloves and we sat there having a pretty bleak lunch in the dark expanse of that communal area.

It kind of amazes me they made it that way, compared to the huts being built now which are much, much better. But we were just glad we weren't sleeping there tonight. That wouldn't have been much fun. I was looking forward to returning to the coziness of Pine Valley Hut.

After a very short lunch, we continued on. I knew it was about an hour and a half to the Pine Valley turn-off. We didn't stop much, just took breaks when we needed to and ended up taking about an hour and twenty minutes to reach the turn-off. We had another short break, and by now things had warmed up quite substantially since the snow-covered wetness of Du Cane Gap.

From the turn-off, we made a beeline into Pine Valley, thinking we'd probably have it to ourselves given we hadn't really seen anyone for two or three days. But when we arrived, the hut was almost full. We got ourselves a bunk just in time before others arrived (the hut was now completely full) and settled in for the evening.

It had been a long day. We cooked dinner not long after arriving and got the fire going. The hut had recently had some modifications done and been spruced up a bit but still had the old coal-style fire I was used to from the early days of my hiking career. We really got that cranking and had a lovely warm hut for the night.

I managed to get a weather forecast on my InReach device and it didn't look good. Rain, wind, and snow for the next couple of days. Being our fourth night, we decided we'd wait and see what the weather was like in the morning.

Distance: 10.23km | Time: 2hrs 42min | Ascent: 109m | Conditions: Cold, windy, cloud in and out of the peaks

We woke and sure enough it was still pretty cold, pretty windy, and the cloud was coming in and out of the peaks above us. We had a look around and thought it wouldn't be much fun climbing up on Mount Gould in a complete whiteout with snow and rain. So we made the call to walk out today and get the 2pm ferry.

It would be a shame not to get a peak day in at Pine Valley, but that's winter hiking. The areas above are not pleasant places to be when the weather is dreadful so the weather has the final say.

We headed out towards Narcissus, and it took us about two hours to get there. We were pretty early and called to confirm our spot on the ferry. We made our way back across Lake St Clair on the Ida Clair to finish a great and pretty relaxing trip down the Overland.

It was a great walk. So glad to have finally done the Overland in winter. Despite the lack of snow on day one, we got our fair share of winter conditions as the trip went on; frozen pipes, snowstorms at Pelion Gap, sleeting all day, and that miserable lunch at Bert Nicholls that I won't forget in a hurry.

The new huts have transformed the winter experience on the Overland. They're warm, well-built, and make a cold night genuinely comfortable. That said, I'd never rely on them entirely in serious conditions, you still need to be prepared to camp.

Hopefully next time I'll do it south to north in winter, because that was the original dream. But the Overland Track is always good. Having done it over fifty times, I still love it every time I head down there.

The Walk by Numbers: