Late Snow

Words and Photography by Geoff Murray

Tasmania has had a burst of late snowfalls recently and I headed up into the mountains yesterday to take advantage of a patch of fine weather. Unfortunately, the snow has coincided with very windy weather which makes conditions in the mountains challenging (but invigorating) for photography.

To be in position for the pre sunrise required an early start so I was in the car just after 3 am and walking by 4.15am.

Walking through the landscape at night is one of my great pleasures. The colours of the vegetation were vibrant and a thousand specular highlights sparkled on the crusty snow as I made my way through the lower forest before climbing up to the alpine zone under a crystalline sky.

Once I had reached my chosen spot for sunrise I searched around for a particular Pandanni plant I had photographed a few winters ago. I was hoping to get a variation of that previous image but it seemed to be absent. I eventually located it. It was almost completely buried under the snow so it wasn’t a subject this time.

By this time a brisk wind had started which made the -4°C temperature feel quite a bit cooler. I was trying out a new ultralight outer jacket from Mont today,the Lightspeed jacket. This jacket is made from Mont’s Hydronaute Ultra 3 layer and it is incredibly light and compact and yet it offers excellent 20,000mm waterproofing along with an amazing 48,000g/m2/24 hours of breathability. It is also totally windproof and once I put it on the wind stopped :)

Any walk in an alpine zone requires preparation for all conditions and my camera pack also contained Mont Austral waterproof pants, the superb Mont Zero Ultralight down jacket(my favourite piece of clothing), mittens, beanie and of course, my headlamp and PLB.

Other clothing worn for this trip included Mont Powerdry thermals top and bottom,  Bimberi shorts and a Flashpoint Power Stretch Pro jacket for warmth. This was a versatile, light and warm combination of clothing that catered for pretty much any conditions I could expect at this altitude.

I know this area like the back of my hand but I still had good mapping available on my watch and phone (which was turned off to save batteries).
 
On previous walks in this area I have watched a heavy bank of mist flow over the range beside me and reduce visibility from 100% to a couple of metres within period of several minutes. Another time, after spending a night in a small hut the other side of the range, I walked in deep snow in blizzard conditions with almost zero visibility back across the range and down to the carpark. It always pays to be prepared in the mountains.

I wandered through the landscape for a few hours, thoroughly enjoying the fairyland conditions until the light became too harsh for successful photography. Time to retrace my steps down to the car for the drive back home.

Recharged...

Mont Ambassador

Geoff Murray
www.geoffmurray.com