Mount Feathertop
Mount Feathertop is the second-highest mountain in the Australian state of Victoria and is part of the Australian Alps and is located within the Alpine National Park. It rises to and is usually covered in snow from June to September. Unlike most mountains in the Australian Alps, Mount Feathertop has steep summit slopes instead of a rounded summit dome. Snow remaining in the summit gullies until late spring gives the appearance of feathers, hence the name. Mount Feathertop's proximity to the Mount Hotham ski resort has led to it becoming a popular backcountry skiing destination. A large and highly dangerous snow cornice usually forms along the summit ridge in winter and early spring, the collapse of which has claimed the lives of a number of people who have (sometimes unwittingly) stood on it or too close to it. It is also known for its often dangerously icy slopes on which skiers and walkers have lost their footing with fatal results. History Mt Feathertop was sighted and named in early 1851 by Jim Brown and Jack Wells, stockmen from Cobungra Station. While looking for summer pastures they became the first non aboriginals to systematically explore and name locations around the Bogong High Plains. They named the mountain after the feather shaped plume of cloud that is often seen downwind from the summit. They dubbed nearby Mt Hotham 'Baldy'. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the mountain hosted gold mines and mountain cattlemen, but as the gold ran out, the activity it provided on Feathertop was replaced by tourism. The Feathertop Bungalow operated as a commercial ski lodge from 1925 to 1939 and the mountain almost became a major ski resort. Today it has reverted to a relatively isolated and undeveloped peak with only two refuge huts. Dr (later Baron) Ferdinand von Mueller achieved the first recorded ascent of Mount Feathertop. Unaware that the peak had already been named, he proposed that it might be named Mount La Trobe after Charles La Trobe who was Victoria's lieutenant-governor at the time. Members of the Bright Alpine Club made the first winter ascent in September 1889. A track from Harrietville was cut in 1906 along a similar route to the current Bungalow Spur track and a rough shelter was built near a spring on a flat area below the treeline. The shelter was replaced by Feathertop Hut in 1912. In 1925, the Feathertop Bungalow was built, with materials and prefabricated sections transported by packhorse and sled. It had 24 guest beds and provided commercial accommodation on the mountain before being lost in the Black Friday bushfire of 1939. Vegetation Forests of Mountain Ash cover the lower slopes of Mount Feathertop up to an altitude of about where Snow Gums begin to dominate. Above the treeline at around , vegetation consists of alpine shrubland and grassland. Access routes The main access routes on Mount Feathertop are the Razorback (north and south), Bon Accord Spur, Bungalow Spur, North-west Spur, and Diamantina Spur. Hiking on the