Escape to Victoria’s High Country this summer

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For active, outdoor-loving travellers, Victoria’s High Country is the perfect place to spend quality time in the wild. Let’s go!

The ski fields of Victoria’s North East have a secret passion: summer. When the snow melts and the mountains materialise, the fun is only beginning around the High Country. It’s a time for alpine hikes and trail runs, mountain bike rides, and lake and river paddles. In summer, these mountains – the highest in Victoria – truly shine.

Mountain hikes reach their literal pinnacle in the High Country. The Razorback Walk, stretching north from Mt Hotham to Mt Feathertop – Victoria’s second-highest but arguably most spectacular mountain – is one of Australia’s finest alpine hikes. The 22km return route sets out from Diamantina Hut, 2.5km before Hotham Village, and follows a narrow, craggy ridge to the lofty vantage point of 1922m Mt Feathertop.

Mt Hotham is also the finish post for the three-day, 37km Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing. A true exploration of the mountains, this hike combines high alpine ridges up to 2000m above sea level, snow gum stands, historic High Country huts and the namesake ski resorts at its either end. It’s unceasingly spectacular, with two campsites 14km apart along the route.

Mt Buller is also strung with walking trails, from a fun ‘Gnome Roam’ in which the kids can hunt out the mountain’s resident garden gnomes, to a two-hour Summit Nature Walk. Download the Mt Buller Walks app for ideas and interpretation along the trails.

Prefer a faster pace? The High Country peaks provide the sort of expansive views and cool climate that make them prime trail-running territory. On Mt Buller, step it out among the snow gums on the four-kilometre Gang Gangs Lazy Loop, or descend into sky-scraping mountain ash as you cross the Delatite River on log bridges on the 14-kilometre Delatite Drop from Mt Buller Village to Mirimbah.

Mt Hotham presents runners with the Cobungra Ditch, a near-level track beside an abandoned gold-mining water race, built in the 1880s, more than 1500 metres above sea level.

The High Country is The Man from Snowy River country, with much of the…

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