Everesting Mt Feathertop – Take 2

08 January 2022

Plan was to do 7, it seems like I might need to give this another few goes until I actually finish it. It’s not easy.

Harrietville (like the other tourist towns in the area) was buzzing with families in 4WDs. There were lots of people on the trail and at Fed Hut, which was both a blessing and a problem. It was a blessing because I wasn’t alone and it was a nice distraction (well most of the time) from the hurt, but also a problem because I stopped and talked to nearly all of them, adding way too much to time on feet.

I also spent a lot of time fiddling with gear (especially at the car), restocking food/drinks, changing into clean/dry clothes, stopping for photos (can’t help myself) and for regulating HR. I also stopped to eat on the 3rd and 4th lap, pretty much forcing down the food.
I’ve met a few really nice people on this adventure: Cath and Andrew on my first way up, Kyle, Jason and Tom, the three young army guys from Wodonga – spoke with them several times on this journey, a group of hiker ladies on the summit (they took the pic for me), Adam, whom I’ve met on top of Mt Feathertop on the second time I was on the summit (he took the photo), Callum, the young trail runner who recently moved to Albury and whom I’ve met on my last time on the summit and after hearing what happened offered me food and of course Simon [Neale] who was running uphill when I was snailing up on the last lap. We had a quick chat, then another one near the summit, when Simon was heading down going towards NW Spur.

I had this strange anxiety on my first way up, HR was too high, I was worried about snakes… hot and humid day. Didn’t mind the humid part, though, reminded me of holidays in the Whitsundays.

I wanted to go very slow up and run the downs but after the first descent of the steep part I decided to “easy roll” downhill. Feet and toes started to hurt on the second descent, the third downhill was autopilot with a few toe kicks and the fourth was very slow and painful (even more toe kicks and two slides).

So many bugs, cob webs and some leeches! Extra torture! Saw a rabbit next to the tree at the Cross, two roos at the bottom where I parked, a frog guarding the track (nearly stepped on it on the way down in the dark), lots of birds and wild flowers. I found out I am allergic to one of the grasses, my arms were red and itchy for the whole time. On the downhill during the night something got into my left eye, two days later it’s still itching.
The first two times on the summit was sunny with some clouds, third and fourth time it was foggy and a bit windy. Before reaching the cloud on the night section, I sat down, turned my torch off and gazed at the millions of stars – it was pretty special.

Food

It seems my sandwich strategy is not working, next long run will try pull apart breads with lots of flavour. The pizza slices were great on the first two laps, but then even that didn’t feel appetising. The 2 min noodles were yummy, bananas (had one on each lap except for the night section), yoghurt pouches went down well until the last lap. In fact I hardly had anything on that 4th lap.

Drinks

I had water with dextrose monohydrate and cordial, ginger beer, water with cordial only and ginger beer on the go and non-alcoholic beer after each lap. The beer was nice and cold and it went down well except for the night break (it was too cold). I had half of it and saved the other half for until finished. I need to cut back on cordial, it adds too much fructose to the equation.

The parking was still “Bungalow Spur drop off only”, so that added some worry to my journey… I have left a note explaining what I was doing, but a young woman driving by in a 4WD told me off for parking there. I told her why I parked there, when she kind of rolled her eyes and said “Ah, you are one of those ….” – I didn’t understand the last word, because she drove off.

Gear

Salomon Adv Skin 12 vests – 2 different editions. Changed before starting the night section, because it was wet and cold to put on.

Salomon S-Lab Motion Fit 360 jacket – didn’t need anything warmer, only wore it between the Cross and the summit.

Lululemon Fast and Free 8” shorts – these were brand new, never worn them before. Very comfy, could’ve done the whole thing in them, but again putting them back on cold and wet didn’t feel good.

Lululemon Fast and Free 19” crops for the last two laps

iOMerino crops tops, tanks, thermals and socks

Did the first two laps in the Saucony Excursion TR14 1st pair and the other two in the Saucony Excursion TR15

I missed the moon by 2 seconds

Third time on the summit

...and fourth

It was foggy

This is my planning book

Map