Solo Winter Camping in the Snowy Mountains ❄️ -9c.

Well g'day guys and welcome to the beautiful Australian Alps or the snowy mountains and what a cracker of a day. It's an absolute pearler, complete bluebird sky, there's not a single cloud in the sky. I chose a really good weekend to come out and do my first backcountry snow camp and to say I'm excited is an understatement. I've been looking forward to this all week and and the froth levels right now are like through the roof so really stoked to be out here. I'm just going to do an overnight camp, got some bad weather coming in tomorrow so just going to spend the night here. But yeah, just going to wander around, explore the place and we'll find nice little places to camp. All right, well the thing I'm going to do is probably make my way over to this hill over here and probably try and camp up over there because I think it's going to give me a really nice view looking over into the heart of the snowies. Man, I am so stoked hey. Honestly the froth levels are through the roof. I just feel like a little kid out here, I haven't been this excited for a camping trip in a bloody long time. It's just such a gorgeous place. I'm a soul around and I bloody love this stuff. I can't get over how good today is hey. It's such a perfect day to do my first backcountry snow camp. Although I keep thinking it would not be fun to be stuck out here in a blizzard. Trying to navigate in a blizzard out here would be pretty horrible. So I think the weather tomorrow is meant to come in I think after lunchtime. So I'm hoping in the morning it should still be pretty decent. Then after that I think it's meant to get progressively worse and I think it's meant to be about 30 centimeters of snow on Sunday. Today's Friday by the way as well. But for now it's absolutely gorgeous. It's such a shame seeing all these eucalyptus suffering die back. From what I read it's quite a big problem in the alpine region. It's caused by this native beetle called the longhorn beetle and what this beetle does is attacks the snow gums and basically ring barks the tree and causes the tree to die. Over the last couple years apparently it's been getting a lot worse. They believe due to potentially due to climate change or just how bad the last drought was. It sort of caused a lot of our alpine trees to stress and apparently this beetle likes to attack stressed out trees. It's done a real damage up in the alpine region. There's so many trees up here that are suffering die back and it's a real shame to see. There are quite a lot of saplings and new trees growing up underneath it which is good to see. But being the alpine region I think it takes a bloody long time to grow so it's going to be quite a few years before these new trees get to their form of glory. All right we've been walking for a fair while. I'm pretty keen to pull up stumps so I think I might try and camp around here somewhere because we're starting to get a nice view of the main range which is in the distance. So yeah that's the main range in Kosciuszko National Park and Mount Kosciuszko which is Australia's highest mountain. It's just over that way in the distance. So yeah I think this might be a nice spot. Definitely a nice place to watch the sun set. We've also got a full moon tonight which is gonna be pretty cool to watch over these mountains. So I'm thinking I might try and camp around here. You've got some nice open areas. You've also got a nice big rock as well I can sit down on and get my bum off the snow. So yeah I think this might do. All right so for lunch today we've got some barbell biltong and you've got this little atlas wild wild bar which is a salted caramel. Very keen. Now one of the best things about camping in the snow is ice cold beers. All right so in terms of gear for tonight I've got my Veschl external 110 which I've never used in the snow obviously before but I believe it is a four season tent so I'm keen to see how that goes. And I've also got an Emo tent slate insulator mat which has an R value of I think four. So I've also got this Exped closed cell foam mat to go underneath that to give me a little bit more insulation from the ground. Then I've got my Sea to Summit Ember 3 quilt which I believe I think the rating is to minus 10. To be honest it's probably gonna get close to minus 10 tonight. I think last night reached minus 10 out here so I think tonight's gonna be pretty similar. So hopefully this does the job. I've got plenty of thermals and stuff as well to rug up so hopefully yeah that keeps me nice and toasty. I've just got a little Sea to Summit pillow and then just some snow pegs as well so yeah let's get it all set up. Oh my fingers are frozen. I think it's time for some gloves. Oh right in the stump. Ow. I landed right in a fallen stump. Still trying to get used to these bloody snowshoes. Alright well we've got the tent all set up and we've probably got about an hour till the sun sets. So I think what I might try to do is try and get a fire going. There's plenty of like sort of dead standing timber around here so we'll see if we can get one going because if we can I think it'd be pretty nice to sit around that tonight. Struggling. Absolutely struggling. I think we might have it. I won't count my chickens just yet but I'm hopeful. Oh yes we have fire. Bloody hell that was the hardest fire I've ever had to get going. That was really difficult. That took me like gosh nearly half an hour I reckon. That was an absolute struggle. The sun's set but I think it's about time we crack open a beer. It's a well-earned beer that's for sure. Fire out. What a campsite hey. This would definitely have to be up there that's probably the one of the best spots I've been. Alright the sky just looks insane. There's so much colour in it. Well cheers guys. That is delicious. For once I've actually got ice cold beers. It's absolutely delicious. Alright so I figured since it's a nice cold night what's more heartwarming than bangers and mash. So we've just got some snags here. We've got some packet mashed potato with some gravy. We've got some corn and we've got some onion that we'll fry up as well. So I am looking very much forward to this. So let's get on the fire. I'm just going to add some milk powder and just some butter and just a potato mix. Oh man this looks so good. You hear that? Nothing. It's such a beautiful still morning out here. There's no birds. Barely a breath of wind. Yeah complete silence hey. It's so beautiful. Just wandering through these snow gums. It's a really beautiful place. Although we do have some pretty ominous clouds moving in so hopefully I'm out of here before that starts coming down. I think it's meant to snow later on today so I think I should be out of here. Yeah they look pretty threatening don't they? But I think it's about time we go back and get some brekkie on. The oil is like frozen solid. Oh man that maple bacon smells so good. Well this place is bloody magical. It is absolutely stunning. Even though it's yeah cloudy the visibility is so good. You can see all the way across the mountains. Oh man it's just so still. I just can't get over how beautiful and still it is up here. Absolutely gorgeous. This is definitely one of the best places I've ever camped. I wanted to do one of these snow camps for so bloody long. I'm so glad I finally got out here to do it. I think this is going to be a pretty regular thing in winter for me. I'm pretty keen to try and do another one before winter's over this year but yeah in years to come I'm definitely going to try and get any more often. It's just so bloody magical. It's so nice. Absolutely frothing. So anyway I've had my brekkie. That brekkie was so good. I'm so full now though. It was a lot for one person but man maple bacon oh you cannot beat that. It's so tasty but it's probably about time we start packing camp up and yeah start making our way out of here. So funnily enough I actually have a little bit of reception up here so I just checked to see what the weather was like last night and what the lowest temp was. I think it got down to around about minus eight or minus nine or something like that so yeah pretty chilly. Definitely yeah the coldest I've ever slept in but I didn't really feel it last night. I was pretty warm hey obviously having a good quilt and I had two thermals on plus some trackies and I had two thermals up top plus a hoodie plus my puffer jacket as well and I had like a little balaclava thing over my face and my beanie on and yeah I was actually pretty toasty. I didn't wake up cold at all. I woke up a couple of times because my bloody mat is still deflating. I tried to find the hole in it. I put it in the bathtub. I sprayed it with soapy water trying to see where the air's coming out and I cannot find it hey. So I don't know I think I'm gonna have to probably get a new mat because I can't keep dealing with that. It just keeps deflating throughout the night but apart from that yeah it was actually a pretty comfy sleep. All right well camp's all packed up and trying my best to fill in the fire pit but we're meant to get a foot of snow in the next day so that should cover that up nicely. But yeah the wind's just started to pick up now so I think it's about time we say goodbye to this absolute cracker of a view. Honestly I've absolutely loved this camp hey. It's been so much fun. Yeah I think it's about time we're walking out of here. I think one of the best things about hiking in the snow is you don't have to worry about snakes for once because the Kosciuszko National Park is renowned for being one of the snakiest national parks in Australia and yeah it's actually nice to not have to watch every step. Okay we've got some pretty heavy storm clouds moving in and it's a good time to be bailing I think. Bloody hell what a backdrop hey. But unfortunately this little snow camp has come to an end. I've had so much fun hey. Honestly I've absolutely frothed on any minute. I've had so much fun hey. I've absolutely frothed on every minute of it. Like I've been going to the snow all my life like skiing and snowboarding but this is the first time in snow camping and man to say I'm hooked is an understatement. I've absolutely loved every minute of it. It's been such a fun trip so yeah hope you guys enjoyed this overnight camp in the beautiful Australian Alps. If you guys did make sure you guys leave a comment below and a thumbs up and stuff just to let me know you guys did enjoy this video so that way I'd know if I should continue making more of them in the future but to be honest even if you guys don't like it I think I'm still going to do it because I've had so much fun. But anyway on that note I'll see you guys on the next one.