20/7/1984 – 22/7/1984 Guthega – Gills Knob – Mount Tate – Consett Stephen Pass return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Distance: 13.6km Total Ascent: 780m Total Descent: 780m
Participants: Greg Christlo, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report)
Friday 20/7/1984
Completed trip shopping after work, then prepared food and packed ready to go at 5:00pm, arriving at Island Bend around 11:00pm to find the ground frozen rock hard. A tough time getting pegs in.
Day 1: Saturday 21/7/1984 Guthega – Mount Tate – Gills Knob – Consett Stephen Pass return
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2048 m
Total climbing: 775 m
Total descent: -779 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Awoke about 8:30am to clear blue skies. After some porridge, bread and honey we packed up and left for Guthega resort. There was not enough snow cover to attempt our planned new route to Mount Tate via Illawong Lodge, across the dam and up along the creek we went, across Gills Knob to Mount Tate. This proved very heavy going early climbing very steeply but thereafter proved to be an excellent route. It was windy on top until about midday before becoming still and very clear.
Greg brewing a hot drink
The snow on top was still a bit patchy but certainly better than the awful cover around Guthega, with some fresh soft stuff about 10cm deep on top. Skiing on these patches was superb and it proved very difficult to drag ourselves away, finally leaving after 3:00pm. We returned via Consett Stephen Pass and the ridge. In the late afternoon shadows it was very difficult to tell up from down. The upper ridge was an excellent ski, turned freely at will, despite the numerous exposed shrubs. Lower down where it had been in the shade for a few hours longer it was frozen solid, making it very difficult to get an edge in to make a turn, the increasing numbers of shrubs along our route didn’t help either.
Back to the car at 5:30pm to be second last out of the carpark. Set up camp at Island Bend after stopping along the way for Greg to “freshen up” with a wash in the creek. It was here we noticed one of his Gortex mitts sitting in his Laser’s rear wiper, the other one elsewhere. Despite returning very slowly to Guthega and driving around Island Bend it remained MIA.
Dinner: Veal Cord en Bleu with sweet and sour vegetables. Managed some star gazing under the clear skies, trying to pick out various constellations. The trees made that a little difficult. Jupiter was clearly visible in Sagittarius.
Day 2: Sunday 22/7/1984 Perisher Resort Skiing
Up at 7:30am breakfast, packed and away by 8:30am. A renewed search for Greg’s missing glove. Group A knows where friends in Subaru are camped, so we head off in pursuit. What luck, there was the mitt sitting right in the middle of the road.
Drove over a rather bare link road into Smiggins and up to Perisher. The cover was very patchy and icy with plenty of exposed rocks and bushes. Skied parallels as it seemed the only safe option. Day ticket with regrets. Hard and sliding conditions. Snow began falling around midday gradually building up in thickness to about 3cm by 5:00pm enabling us to return to some telemarking in the afternoon. A couple of slow 360’s included. Continued skiing until 5:00pm, Greg having retired a little earlier.
Fortunately my chains just managed to fit onto Greg’s Laser with a single link to spare. It took one hour to drive to Smiggins and another two and a half to Jindabyne. Didn’t arrive back in Dapto until 1:15am after driving through light rain the whole way back. This included a good thick fog from Robertson to Macquarie Pass. After unpacking and showering I made it to bed just after 2:00am.
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