Lunch at Stillwell Restaurant

This alpine autumnal day walk will set forth from Charlotte Pass (1835m) and follow the Mt Stilwell walking track 1.9km above the tree-line to the summit of Mt Stilwell (2054m). Along the way and from the top there’ll be panoramic views across the Snowy River Valley to the Main Range, including Mt Kosciuszko. From Mt Stilwell we’ll head off track, continuing up Kangaroo Ridge to a high point (2077m) on the Rams Head Range overlooking the Thredbo Valley. Then it’s along the exposed range to Stilwell Restaurant. Lunch is strictly BYO as the restaurant, once the highest in Australia, hasn’t been open for 50 years. The ruins are part of a chairlift that operated during the 1964 & 1965 season between the Thredbo Valley and Charlotte Pass. High winds caused operational difficulties and the operators had great difficulty rescuing passengers if the chair broke down. Because the chairlift traversed remote thickly wooded areas on the Ramshead Range, passengers were at great risk of death by exposure. After lunch we’ll follow Trapyard Creek down through unburnt stands of gnarled old snow gums and across Johnnies Plain to Spencers Creek carpark (1730m). This walk is weather dependent. If there is snow, we’ll take snowshoes. Total distance will be about 10km (+320m vertical).