Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Anthony Sharwood, Hachette Australia, $32.95.
The title gives a hint into what transpires in this book, the highs and lows, the need for change and a sense of accomplishment. It was very brave of Walkley Award-winning journalist Anthony Sharwood to put aside his decade-long career in digital journalism and solo-trek the Australian Alps Walking Track (AAWT).
A lifelong lover of Australia’s High Country, the skier and hiker took the chance to escape, cleanse and reset himself from hectic lifestyles. It is an extraordinarily stimulating story. This is what solitude, soul-searching and survival on Australia’s toughest hiking trail is all about.
The track is the country’s most gruelling and breathtakingly beautiful mainland hiking trail, which traverses the entirety of the legendary High Country from Gippsland in Victoria to the outskirts of Canberra. It is seriously tough and extremely remote in places.
The journey started in a blizzard and ended in a blaze — through the 2019-2020 bushfire season — one of the wildest summers that Australia has seen. There are moments of fear and humour, touching encounters with caring strangers, as well as the heart-wrenching failures and returns related to the tools of survival and seasoned campers will understand when trail snacks are mentioned.
Along the way, this lifelong love of the mountains came to realise that nothing would ever be the same — either for him or for the imperilled Australian Alps, a landscape as fragile and sensitive to the changing climate as the Great Barrier Reef.
Not many people would walk the track that is 660km long and starts in the very picturesque Victorian town of Walhalla and finishes near the village of Tharwa on Canberra’s southern outskirts. There was plenty of opportunity for Sharwood to reflect on his circumstances, but it also gave him the opportunity to test his survival skills.
The book’s pace begins gradually, with some quick steps followed by a blistering end that sees him rescued from the bushfires. Climate change is discussed and it’s “also a serious journalistic work about our delicate and precious mountain environment”.
As Anthony puts it: “From Snow to Ash is an internal monologue which meanders like the trail itself. You really get inside my head as I undertake my first ever long through-hike.”
What is the length of the AAWT? If your answer is correct, then you could be one of two winners to receive a copy of From Snow to Ash. Entries should be sent to [email protected] by Monday, 8 March 2021. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column on 9 March 2021.
