The long weekend was mountaineering weekend. Paulius, Fishie, Rachael, Jacquai and I climbed Mount Bogong, Victoria’s highest mountain. We drove up on Sunday afternoon, had dinner in Mrytleford, and then set up camp at the bottom of the mountain. It rained all sunday evening, and we setup a tarp against the Defender, and Fishie and I put our tents up underneath it. Paulius and Jacqui decided to sleep just under the tarp. They were surprised when in the middle of the night a gust of wind blew the tarp away and they found themselves sleeping under the stars… but it was ok, because the rain had cleared. We had had a few beers so we woke up fairly late, we drove into Mt Beauty to buy some stuff. We could see that overnight that a heap of snow had fallen on the summit. We started hiking at about 11, we were climbing Staircase Spur and it was a very vertical climb. It took about 3 hours to get halfway (about 4 kilometers – to Bivouac Hut). Fishie and Rachael turned around halfway, not sure they’d make it up and back in daylight. Paulius, Jacqui and I pushed on, getting to the Summit in under an hour and a half. I nearly stepped on a Yellowfin Bellied Black Snake that reared up ready to strike.. luckily I backed off quickly enough for it not to. The top was cold, even though most the snow had melted. We only stayed up there for a few minutes before beginning our descent via another spur. We got to Michell hut at about 6pm.. where we had planned to sleep. We had some dinner and decided to push on to meet back up with Fishie and Rachael. We walked for 2 hours in the twilight, before we had to put lamps on. We got back to the car at about 9. We drove down to the camp with "Easy Lover" playing fullbull, and flashed the highbeams on Fishie and Rachaels tent until they emerged. We erected tents, had half a beer each and then crashed in pain. We slept.. We woke..and then drove home. Next Summit: Feathertop, Victoria’s second highest mountain.