The traverse of the Crown Range is a good day touring where the objective is to complete the traverse and unless very fit there is not a lot of time for runs off the ridge – good as they appear to be. It is a good trip to do when the avalanche hazard is higher as you can make a safe day of it with good route finding and group management.
Jo, Adrian and I did it on a day when the hazard was high and some natural avalanches had run from cornice breaks on the Cardrona side of the range.
We left our car at the bottom of the Cardrona ski area road and hitched (easily) up to the carpark below the base buildings.
From there the route is pretty obvious. The trickiest piece is the steep climb from the lowest saddle to the northern Peak of Mt Sale. We crossed the low angle terrain from the saddle to ascend the less steep ridge.
At Crown Peak we had been planning to carry along to the Crown Saddle and highway but with snow down to the Crown Terrace (and having already skied that section on a previous trip from the Crown Saddle we opted to ski west off the ridge down to the Terrace. It is always nice to keep skis on to the road.
Hitching was straightforward and the beer and chips at the Cardrona Pub a stupendous end to a great day.
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