June 2020
When we finally decided to make the trip to Hartz Mountain we spent the entire week leading up to it preparing. We were so excited, checking the forecast daily and finding all of our cold weather clothes. By now it was officially the middle of winter which was marked by the passing of the equinox and as such Tasmania had passed from just cold to absolutely freezing. Only the week before we’d had multiple mornings of heavy frost which had left everything outside white and covered in icicles, it actually looked a little like snow. There was so much frost that I was able to scape the ice into tiny little piles and make a couple of mini snowmen. With the recent cold weather we therefore knew that there was every possibility that there could be snow on Hartz Peak but were stopping ourselves from getting our hopes up too much. Although maybe we should have been a bit more optimistic in the lead up. As even on the morning we left I checked the forecast one last time and it said that the temperature at the peak was -2 but felt like -14 degrees but it still didn’t click that that may mean snow.
Again we used the car we were borrowing from friends to make the trip up the mountain and to make the most of the day we left early in the morning after a good breakfast. The drive to Hartz National Park took us about two hours leaving us grateful that we’d left so early that morning as it gave us plenty of daylight to do the climb in. However when we arrived the car park at the trail head was overflowing and we only snagged a spot as another car was leaving. Apparently we weren’t the only ones out looking for snow that day and exploring Tassie.
When we arrived at the top we were feeling quite excited as to our utter delight there was fresh snow on the ground. We were like kids in a candy store, Hugo had never seen snow before and it had been years since my last high school trip to the snow, so to say we were both excited was an understatement. Growing up in SA where it never snowed meant that it was quite thrilling for us to arrive at Hartz after what was obviously a fresh snow from the night before. We were so excited that there was no way we could resist the temptation of throwing a couple of snow balls before deciding it was time to get moving.
Hartz Peak was 1255m above sea level but the car park was around the 800-900m mark. However only needing to ascend 300-400m didn’t mean we weren’t in for a hard walk as the trail was only 3.3km one-way and even looking up from the bottom it had a few obvious steep sections. As we started walking it became more and more apparent that the snow all around us had only fallen the previous night. This was because even through there were heaps of people out walking there was still plenty of snow on the track and only a small cleared spot up the centre. The awe of the fresh snow was ever present as we walked along the trail which became thicker the higher up the mountain we went.
We stopped in at both lakes, Lake Esperance and Ladies Tarn, on the way up and were awed by the beautiful scenery at each. The further up we climbed the more snow was on the ground and the colder it got. We were passing puddles that were completely frozen and others which had a thick layer of ice on the surface. Some of the puddles even had the look of a smashed window where the ice layer had shattered and left the shards floating on the surface.
The landscape was something that neither of us had ever seen or experienced before and as such each bend in the track brought us new experiences. When we reached the final 100m ascent we came across the thickest snow so far. This was located in the saddle and meant the we had to watch our footfalls quite regularly (especially me) as the snow was nearly waist deep. This led to another round of childlike discovery and wonder as we proceeded to jump in the deep snow, throw ever larger snow balls at each other and make a couple of snow angels. However with the peak looming above us we didn’t play long and instead prepared ourselves for the last climb. This last section was nearly vertical in places and left us feeling hot under all our thick layers of clothes, but eventually we made it to the peak.
Reaching Hartz Peak was breathtaking. The view was like nothing we had seen yet in our adventures and was an experience neither of us will ever forget. With wispy clouds hanging around the surrounding peaks, sunlight glinting off the lakes below and snow all around us it was truly awe inspiring. For a moment we were both stuck still and silent as we took in the view and took more pictures then I’ll ever know what to do with. However given that we were 1255m high it was freezing cold and as much as we wanted to spend hours enjoying the view we could only spend about half an hour at the top. We had packed warm clothes but neither of us had expected snow, so our shoes were soaked, our pants were damp and we weren’t wearing enough layers under our jackets to stand still for long. So after one last look at the view and more pictures then I could count we retraced our steps down the mountain and made our way back to the car.
Reaching the car just under two hours later we were grateful to stop moving, the whole walk had taken nearly five hours. However we didn’t regret a single thing as this was our best and most memorable adventure to date. We couldn’t wait to have another snowy day to come back to visit the mountain or maybe next time another having thoroughly enjoyed our walk to the peak and day in the snow.
