27/7/1984 – 29/7/1984 Guthega – Guthega River return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Distance: 10km Total Ascent: 530m Total Descent: 530m
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Peter Davies
Friday 27/7/1984
Took fully packed ski kit to work in car ready for early departure. It had been raining all week and was it continued to rain all the way down. Met up with Peter Davies, Steve Campbell and Jenny Brunker at Cooma as planned just after 7:00pm. After stuffing around outside the Clog shop swapping gear around in the rain we headed off. Pete had had a heavy cold all week whilst at the snow and I had picked up a very sore throat a couple of days ago. Had a chat with the ranger whilst purchasing season ticket for $24. He reported snow on the road at Piper’s Gap and very slippery conditions, so it wasn’t long before our chains were on. After a couple of adjustments we arrived at Guthega overnight car park about 11:00pm in the rain.
As we didn’t want to get ourselves or our tents wet before heading out we grabbed our thermarest, flattened to seats as much as we could and slept in the car. It was actually pretty comfortable.
Day 1: Saturday 28/7/1984 Guthega – Guthega River
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1897 m
Total climbing: 372 m
Total descent: -251 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Awoke at a reasonable hour, just to stare at rain pouring down on the windows. It didn’t look at all inviting. Peter was feeling really bad with his bug. Finally got some porridge and milo on the Triangia setup outside. A lot of discussion followed, we couldn’t visit grandma in Bombala being sick, so what to do but wait. About 11:00am the rain had subsided enough for us to be tempted to head out. We organised our gear and headed out across the dam wall and up the ridge alongside Guthega River. Pete was still suffering so we took it very slow and steady. Snow not terribly deep and when we were approached the top the wind and the rain both started up again. Camp was set up by the Guthega River in time for lunch. In the arvo I went back up the ridge to find the snow quite OK for a few turns but very windy and icy on top.
I turned to ski back to the tent and wow, what a difference having your back turned to the wind made. Now it was straight into the face, visibility was very poor and telling up from down was problematic. This resulted in plenty of falls and little in the way of useful turns, how can you when you don’t know whether your moving or not! Back into the tent about 4:00pm
Had apricot slice and almond and honey slice for afternoon tea. Veal Cord en Bleu with sour vegetables for dinner was great. Now snowing heavily with very large wet flakes. The spare tent pole (still waiting replacement of broken one), homemade from cane, not standing up to the conditions very well. After breaking it putting it into the tent, I spent another hour trying to fix it. Later after making ourselves comfortable we turned out the lights about 9:00pm.
Day 2: Sunday 29/7/1984 Guthega River – Guthega
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1760 m
Total climbing: 158 m
Total descent: -277 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Snow falling heavily all night, pretty wet and heavy flakes to start with but getting colder and drier. Awoke with plenty of fresh snow around, a fall of up to 60cm over some of the tent pegs with about 20cm falling over the slopes. Porridge, fried muffins and ham and eggs for breakfast. Skied about zzz tan out and up down near tent. Snow still falling heavily and a stiff breeze blowing. “Difficult: to see what one is doing, if not impossible to distinguish ups from downs, consequently the skiing was mainly guesswork with great apprehension to attempting turning, not knowing how fast you’re going nor how steep the slope your on was! A real shame as the snow had become excellent powder with ski sinking into it about 5cm. Anyway, we were forced to give up, have lunch and pack up with the weather worsening. Skied down the valley but swore to never again come this way, Peter absolutely hated it and swore the same. Lower down the shrubs beneath the snow would frequently give way under our weight, leaving us not knowing if any given forward movement would result in collapse or support. There were also many small creek crossings with the skis disappearing to knee depth on many occasions. This route did, however, provide good shelter from the wind.
We arrived back at Guthega Dam about 2:00pm. The snow was melting as it hit the ground, consequently there was no increase in snow depth down at this altitude despite the heavy falls further up the hill. We loaded the car, put the chains on and headed off still dressed in ski clothing. The chains were off at the Power Station and bitumen. A windy drive arriving home at 8:10pm
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