Mt Pinnibar is a remote and lovely mountain in north eastern Victoria. It’s quite a journey to get to, and a decent ski in from the gate which is locked in winter. The last time I tried to get in there I found myself in a logging coupe that cut across the road, where previously damaged alpine ash was being logged over again. Beyond the coupe, the road was blocked by an enormous tree that had been placed there by the loggers, which necessitated the most epic 28 point turn I have ever had to do.

I do find the access roads (there are a couple of options to get in there) a bit intense in mid winter. In these brief piece from Trevor Staats, originally published on the Australian backcountry facebook group, Trevor does note the need for all the ‘backcountry safety gear – wheel chains, shovels, recovery straps, air compressor, chainsaw, and more’.

Pinnibar Paragon – last week we had good snow to low levels, so what’s the first backcountry destination that comes to mind? Mt. Pinnibar of course! We set off Friday night with all the backcountry safety gear – wheel chains, shovels, recovery straps, air compressor, chainsaw, and more. We got up to Lind Lodge late, but a group of hunters were settled in there, so we continued on to the 6-Mile junction and camped there.

There was plenty of snow on the tracks up there, but a few vehicles had been through so the drive up to the Pinnibar gate was pretty easy. In the sheltered areas, the bash plates were still ploughing snow though. We parked at the Pinnibar Tk junction and skied up from there. The gate had been cut and stood open and vehicles had been past here. However the 2m+ deep washouts in the track 200m further on put paid to any 4WD summit glory!

ALL IMAGES courtesy Trevor Staats.

The climb was great with superb views all around – Kosci to the left and Bogong to the right. The sheltered summit bowls were stacked with fresh, dry, untracked snow which we enjoyed very much! The ski back down on the exposed northern side was a bit tricky, with rocks not far under the surface in a couple of spots. We walked the last kilometre as the overgrown, ruttted track had “knee injury” written all over it. Saturday night camp was at Gibson’s Hut which was fantastic.

We did a short Sunday morning ski on the logging tracks around Mt. Boebuck before heading back to civilisation. Great snow, amazing weather, fantastic views – a decent weekend!

As a side note, the Pinnibar region has been devastated by recent fires. I was shocked by the scale of damage to snow gums in the summit area the last time I was in there. All the more reason for the Victorian government to take action to protect the snow gum forests of the north east.