This was taken at the start of the third day's walk from Mintaro to Dumpling Hut, via the Mackinnon Pass.

Up until this point the weather had been glorious, with temperatures in the mid 20's or above, so it was a bit of a shock to wake up in the morning to the sight of heavy snow! An unusually cold "southerly" came in overnight, which dumped snow down to around 200m above sea level. This was very unusual for the time of the year. There was around 18 inches of snow at the top of the pass, along with high winds and well below freezing temperatures. The Mackinnon Pass is a fairly stiff climb even in good conditions. At one stage it looked like we weren't going to be able to get over. In the end, the Park Rangers guided us over the top of the pass (the track wasn't visible). Neena got very tired on this part of the walk, and it ended up taking 11 hours to get to Dumpling Hut, rather than the 5-6hrs we expected. All in all, the conditions were the worst I have ever tramped in.

Looking back, now that the pain has eased, it was actually a pretty good and somewhat exciting day.