Tackle Mount Buller on Australia's first alpine via ferrata.
The clanking of "gear" at 1700 metres mingles with the distant screech of black cockatoos in the Delatite Valley almost a kilometre below. Helmeted and clipped in by the carabiners attached to my hip harness, I climb around the rockface, then pause to reach behind for my chalk bag... I mean, water bottle.
I feel like a badass and, from the photos that emerge later, I totally look like one too, but this is rock climbing anyone can do (providing you meet weight and height requirements, and can climb a ladder). Located on the west face of Victoria's Mount Buller, RockWire is Australia's first alpine via ferrata, a concept that has been growing in popularity around the world since its early beginnings in the European Alps in the 1800s. Italian for "iron way", via ferratas employ a ton of iron stemples (rungs), wire ladders and steel cable bridges bolted into the cliff face to help climbers negotiate steep - occasionally, near vertical - terrain. It makes for an exhilarating yet totally secure alpine adventure.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers and hikers are drawn to Mount Buller's playground, but until they've come face to face with the mountain's west face, they ain't seen nothing yet.
"We all tend to go to the edge of a cliff and look at it from a lookout, but we don't get to experience what's beyond," says founder and expert mountaineer, James Webb. "RockWire allows you to go over that edge and enjoy the view from a totally different perspective."
Here, that's a side of Mount Buller that's been virtually unseen until now. With my nose within centimetres of its crusty lichen-covered curves and random purple daisies, I get a really good look at this west face, but James reminds me to look around occasionally, too. Behind me, the views are vast, the land falling away steeply to green tree-covered folds morphing into hazy blue ridges as the mountains ripple into the distance. It might seem too precarious a perch from which to take my mind off the job, but we're safely clipped onto a continuous steel cable system running the length of a route that loops across the western face like a game of snakes and ladders. Progress is slow and steady, and though none of it is technically difficult, the varying levels of exposure may challenge a few.
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By the time we "top out", pulling ourselves back over the lip and onto the terra firma of Frenchman's Ridge, my muscles know they've done something but my mind feels altered, too. It's as though I've been privy to something held secret from most. Every year, hundreds of thousands of skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers and hikers are drawn to Mount Buller's playground, but until they've come face to face with the mountain's west face, they ain't seen nothing yet.
SNAPSHOT
Where: Mount Buller is a three-hour drive north-east of Melbourne. Sleep on mountain at the Mount Buller Chalet, from $265 per night. mtbullerchalet.com.au
How much: A three-hour guided experience with RockWire, until end of season on April 30, is $199 per person midweek, or $229 on weekends and public holidays. Next season, when two more routes are due to open, starts November 1.
Explore more: rockwire.com.au
The writer was a guest of Buller Ski Lifts.
