This story, written by Stephen Whiteside, chronicles the life and times of the now gone Summit Hut on Mt Bogong.

It was published in the 2025 print edition of Mountain Journal magazine (details here).

Header image: the Summit Shelter Hut, September 1938. From SCHUSS magazine.

The story of Mt Bogong’s Summit Hut, and what it tells us about climate change

One of the difficulties involved with conveying the seriousness and urgency of climate change is that the changes are so gradual, and have taken place over a much longer period than a single lifetime. Most people alive today have little concept of the depth of the snowfalls in the first half of the last century.

The story of Summit Hut at Mt Bogong illustrates this well. This can be traced through the pages of Schuss, the (mostly) monthly newsletter of the Ski Club of Victoria from 1935 – 1961.

The existence of the ‘Summit Shelter Hut’ is first announced in the September 1938 edition of Schuss, in an article by ‘Mick’ Hull. (The Cleve Cole Memorial Hut, in Camp Valley, had been completed the previous year.) To quote ‘Mick’: “The shelter hut, although not altogether finished, is the fourth step in the chain of defence against the weather in the plans originally made by the late Cleve Cole; the three previously completed being the Bivouac Hut, the snow-pole line and the hut in Camp Valley. The shelter hut is built of corrugated iron and sawn timber. It is situated just below the spring at the head of the Staircase Spur…” This location was chosen because the top of the Staircase Spur is so exposed, especially in bad weather. Every effort was made to strengthen and protect the hut from the effects of wind and snow.

IMAGE ABOVE:the summit hut, 1976. Photo: Maurice Molan.

The November 1939 issue of Schuss tells of a trip to the Summit Hut in August of that year. “Arriving at the top, the advance party met thick fog, and so the decision was made to stay at the Summit Hut. After a few minutes’ searching, about two inches of one corner of the roof was sighted, protruding from the snow. The party set to with hands and feet, like a pack of terriers, and in ten minutes had dug a tunnel large enough to drop through to the floor of the hut.”

In the November-December 1942 issue of Schuss we read: “Several sheets of roofing iron, which had been blown off the Summit Hut, were nailed on again…”

The May 1945 issue of Schuss offers sage advice for all potential users of Summit Hut. “The door of this hut faces the northerly storms, and great difficulty will be found in closing it under snow conditions. No matter how difficult, never leave the door unlocked – if necessary, the knob can be tied to the rail. Should an exhausted party find it impossible to undo the door bolt, as occurred on one occasion when the door was heavily iced, an application of force on the hinged side will do the least damage and permit of easy repair. This, of course, should be regarded as an extreme measure, but it has been found necessary, and, with the aid of timber inside, the door can be successfully jammed into place until the hinges are screwed back to the door frame.”

The Ski Club of Victoria placed a ban on skiing at Mt Bogong for the winter of 1946, as the conditions were so ferocious.

The May 1947 edition of Schuss contains a report on the condition of Summit Hut: “Anyone having seen conditions on the Staircase Spur, Mt Bogong, at the expiry of the S.C.V. ban on the mountain last winter, would have been quite justified in wondering whether Summit Hut would survive the thaw. A tunnel fifteen feet long was dug into the hut door by our party in September. The condition of the hut frame inside could only be described as pathetic. There was seven feet of packed snow above the front of the roof, and the truly glacial slide of this snow bank towards Mountain Creek was evidenced by the lean and fracture displayed by the frame of the hut.”

A second inspection was made at Christmas time. “Summit Hut was by now in obviously bad condition, having commenced to lose iron from the north-east wall, and the hut as a whole sitting at least six inches forward of its supports. The door would remain shut only when wired, the glass had broken from one of the windows, and the iron was all loose because of frame movement.”

The September 1948 edition of Schuss contains a letter to the Chairman of the Mt Bogong Sub-Committee of the Ski Club of Victoria from the Secretary of the Department of Public Works, in which a commitment is given to rebuild Summit Hut.

My collection of the Schuss magazines becomes patchy after 1948, so I cannot follow the progress of Summit Hut closely beyond this time. A report in the June 1958 edition refers to the hut, however, and then adds in brackets: ‘what’s left of it.’ It doesn’t sound very encouraging! An article in the 1953 edition of the Australian Ski Year Book also refers to ‘the ruin of Summit Hut, still an emergency shelter and a critical but inhospitable safety link in the mountain’s limited hut system.’ Comparing the two photos of the hut accompanying this article, however (one taken in 1946, the other in 1976 or 1977), I suspect it was eventually rebuilt.

Summit Hut was one of several mountain huts destroyed by arson in 1978. It was not built again after this. If a new Summit Hut were to be built in the same location, using similar construction materials and techniques – not that I am advocating this – my guess is that it would survive the vagaries of the weather, particularly the falls of snow, much better than was the case nearly ninety years ago.

 

Stephen Whiteside has been writing, bushwalking and skiing all his life. His book ‘Snow, Fire and Gold – the story of Bill Spargo and Evelyn Piper’s life in the Australian mountains’ was published in 2024. He also writes bush verse. In 2014, Walker Books published a collection of his bush verse for children, ‘The Billy That Died With its Boots On and Other Australian Verse.’