Queen's Birthday Tramping - Woolshed Hill

Snow covered landscape we were driving past
First serious frost of winter
Climbing
Alpine tramping, some snow
Alpine tramping, more snow

Darryl taking pictures
Climbing Woolshed Hill
Heading for a sheltered spot for lunch
Lunch away from northwesterly
At the end point, after descending through unmarked tracks and river crossing.

And so it was early monday morning which was queen's birthday holiday, 6 of us arrived at UCSA carpark at 7am to begin our day tramp. Initially our plan was to summit Mt Aicken but the weather was not too good, with winds at the summit expected to be about 90km/h. So we changed location and headed towards Woolshed Hill instead, which was further east, out of the northwesterly's direction. All of them were equiped for the tramp, with beanies, gaiters, boots, etc whereas I was wearing sports shoes (not a good idea as the ground is often uneven). It was the first winter tramp of the season and there was some snow due to the dump on saturday night. Snow was powedery (fresh). Darryl was saying powdery snow makes a crunch sound when you step on it. It is also the ideal type of snow for snowboarding and skiing. There were 2 germans, 1 french, 1 south african, 1 kiwi and myself. The germans and french was really quick even after 2 of them had done the half marathon yesterday. They were constantly ahead and had to wait for Darryl, Simon and me because we were busy taking pictures. In fact, Simon was so hardcore that his camera equipment weighed more than his tramping stuff such as food, water and warm clothing. The climb up was ok but steep at times. And for the 3rd week in the row, the tramping group I was with decided to venture beyond marked tracks. And for the 2nd week in a row, there was river crossing. Luckily we only crossed the river twice this time, but it was still freezing. Nonetheless, it was a decent tramp, even though we are all tired.