21/09/1984 – 23/09/1984 Thredbo – North Rams Head return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Distance: 10km Total Ascent: 270m Total Descent: 610m
Participants: Ian Burns, Greg Christlo, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), John Meehan
Friday 21/09/1984
After a quick shopping trip returned home to prepare Saturday dinner and pack. Greg Christlo arrived at 5:00pm and John Meehan at 5:30pm. We arrived at Rutledge’s hut about midnight where the annex on John’s Mazda van went up for us to sleep in.
Day 1: Saturday 22/09/1984 Thredbo – North Rams Head area
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2083 m
Total climbing: 206 m
Total descent: -54 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Ian arrived from Dubbo about 2:30am. The weather was looking pretty good from down here, probably just the usual mountain deception.
On the lift at Thredbo by 10:00am to find it very windy with lots of spindrift on top. We were having second thoughts about leaving the shelter but we did anyway.
The visibility was very poor. With us almost going around in circles we decided there was little point in going off to Townsend as originally planned. The tents were put up about midday on the side of a relatively sheltered hill on which we could get some good skiing if the weather cleared. We took a long lunch and finally got out about 2:00pm to try a few runs but were back in the tents by 3:00pm. The conditions were very trying, between low and no visibility, snow with a slight crust which tripped you over when you made the slightest deviation from a perfectly carved turn.
After playing cards for a while we started dinner preparations by 5:00pm, heating snow to get water as we were not near any running water. Dinner consisted of nutty ginger chicken and home-made fried rice which was ready around 7:30pm. It was very tasty but hardy worth all the effort required. We had a lot of condensation inside Greg’s new silver lined tent, the door on each side was a good idea but it was too narrow to be very useful. John’s dome tent on the other hand was very spacious, we had four in there playing cards with room for more. We managed a quarter of a cheesecake supreme each for dessert.
Day 2: Sunday 23/09/1984 North Rams Head area – Thredbo
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2085 m
Total climbing: 60 m
Total descent: -555 m
Average speed: nan km/h
The weather had not improved overnight. Gusty winds, snowfalls and a pile of spindrift half way up the back wall of the tent, which shortened it, making it impossible to lay flat in bed. John took half an hour to dig his tent out. Only got out of the sleeping bag, which was very wet from all the condensation, at 10:00am.
The decision was made to head back to top station and ski there if it was more sheltered. It was, so we spent 90 minutes telemarking and paralleling easily on these groomed slopes. Hence we put our packs and John on the lift and Ian, Greg and I skied down to middle station, some more successfully than others.
We were at the bottom at 1:30pm as the weather was really closing in again with heavy cloud reaching halfway down the mountain and snow falling in the village. We had a beer at the Sundeck Hotel and lunch at Rutledges Hut before parting ways with Ian and heading home. Listened to radio as my team, the Bulldogs, beat Parramatta 6 – 4 in the grand final. Home at 9:15pm.
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