Great Walks got a behind-the-scenes look with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) at part of their 55km Snowies Alpine Walk (SAW), which, when completed in 2023, will be a four-day walk showcasing the full scenic beauty of Kosciuszko NP.
SAW’s first completed stage is the 9km Guthega to Charlotte Pass walk and on a cool, misty morning in Novermber 2022 myself and my two hiking buddies Martin and Andy met Greg Thomson, SAW’s Principal Project Officer at Guthega carpark for a sneak peek at this gorgeous walk.
The walk offers panoramic views of the Snowy River and majestic Main Range across the alpine roof of Australia and as soon as the walk began you could see the hard work that had gone into clearing new sections of the track and laying the stones, so the path stretched out clearly in front of us even with limited visibility.
This is hard physical work with limited access to machinery so logistically it must have been fairly challenging to build the track we were walking on but the jigsaw of stepping-stones provided an even path, and you could see over time the steps would blend in with the surrounding vegetation making everything look seamless and natural.
Some of the track was on raised steel mesh platforms like the one on the Kosciuszko Summit Walk and although it’s a bit hard on your feet you could see why the platforms were the best choice for parts of the new walk as it guaranteed the fragile environment will be protected.
I loved how quickly we became immersed in the park’s iconic flora – alpine heath, wildflowers of alpine mint, billy buttons, and native yam daisies; and towering, majestic snow gums – and I wondered what it took to get this sort of project off the ground.
Some of the Guthega to Charlotte Pass walk is on the already-existing Illawong Walk. A third of the way through the walk we passed Illawong Suspension Bridge which takes skiers on offtrack adventures, but we stayed on our side of the track until we came upon another suspension bridge, Spencers Creek Bridge (1627m) built specifically for this new walk.
It’s on the confluence of the Snowy River and Spencers Creek, offering plenty of photo opportunities. After a short while we headed up into a thick wooded area overflowing with iconic snowgums – the whole thing was straight out of a bush ballad.
I can see how a walk like this will provide an excellent summer tourism experience and my mate Martin said it all. “In winter I know Kosciuszko like the back on my hand,” he told me as he sipped from his water bottle.
“But I’ve never been here in the summer. It’s a whole other experience and there’s nowhere else like it in Australia. It’s really beautiful and I’ll definitely be bringing the family back to try out the Snowies Alpine Walk.”
And the good news for people like Martin and his young family is they won’t have to sleep in tents as SAW is designed to make use of the already existing lodges within the national park (for example we stayed at Numbananga Lodge in Smiggin Holes).
The last section of the walk is the very steep track up to Charlotte Pass and when we reached the carpark where Greg’s car was waiting we all knew we had experienced a unique and spectacular walk.
The next part of the walk under construction goes from Charlotte Pass and connects onto the already existing Porcupine Walk, so Greg took us to the other end of the walk which is a popular 6km return trail. Starting at the Perisher Valley Reservoir, this walk heads up through Rock Creek Valley to the panoramic views from Porcupine Rocks.
On this walk, you will wander through button grass plains and among groves of snow gums whilst passing dramatic granite tors. From the top of this walk, there are great views down the Perisher and Thredbo River valleys as well as into the Victoria High Country.
The highlight of this walk is the climb up to Porcupine Rocks and it was my mate Andy who said it reminded him of a scene from the popular fantasy TV series Game of Thrones. There was certainly something other-worldly as the mist hung low, wrapping itself around the tall granite tors that peppered the area.
By the end of the day, in my head I was able to connect the parts of the new walk we had explored. I could see the end result was going to be a 4-day immersion into the pristine nature of this unique Australian hiking destination.