I started on the truly uphill phase of this walk this morning at 8:30, wearing cross-counrty skis, and having heard many bad reports about the weather at the top.

The going was strenuous and a litle wet, but not uncomfortable. I had no blister problems. The only thing that was a little distrubing was the fierce, driving wind when I neared the top and hour and a half later (I now know how long it takes to ski up the Thredbo ski resort).

I rested and regrouped (with a photographer from the Herald) in the Eagles Nest restaurant on Mount Crackenback (1930 metres) while I waited for the National Parks bloke to skidoo over from Perisher. He was due at 10. The wind was blowing at 80km/h outside, and visibility was next to zero. At 11:30 he called to say that he was stuck in a hut halfway from Perisher, navigation was next to impossible, he was scared of getting lost himself, and there was no way that the walk was going ahead in such conditions.

So I got on the chairlift (my first ride anywhere in three weeks) and went back down the mountain to Thredbo. I was 6km and 300 vertical metres short of my destination.

I'm getting on a bus back to Sydney this afternoon. The weather looks like it will continue like this for a couple of days, and there are some important personal matters that I need to get back to Sydney for, so there's no chance that I'll stick around and wait here. It's possible that I'll come back here in the next couple of weeks and complete this thing (I guess that's allowed), but I doubt it. Not the way I'm feeling at the moment.