6/10/1984 – 7/10/1984 Thredbo – Wilkinsons Valley – Byatts Camp return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Distance: 32km Total Ascent: 1990m Total Descent: 1990m
Participants: Greg Christlo, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Peter Davies
Day 1: Saturday 6/10/1984 Thredbo – Byatts Camp
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2143 m
Total climbing: 1181 m
Total descent: -1201 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Away last night with Greg by 5:30pm, swung by Queanbeyan to pick up Peter and to find only six people (including Ken whom we had met on our recent at Grey Mare trip) in Rutledges Hut by 12:30am.
Spent the morning skiing the Anton run at Thredbo on a wet, very forgiving snow cover. After a midday snack and drink at Eagles Nest we headed up to the southern side of North Ramshead over towards Cootapatamba Hut. We had an excellent ski down into the valley with many linked telemarks with our packs on, fantastic value! Checked out Cootapatamba Hut – very small red two bed emergency shelter. Had lunch earlier up near North Ramshead before skiing across to Wilkinson’s Valley below Byatts Camp. Spectacular water hole about 5m vertical snowbank into raging creek. Rigged up an ice cream container with cord run through the basket of a stock to retrieve some to drink.
Water collection 7/10/1984
Skied up to Byatts Camp (2159m), after leaving Peter behind as he was stuffed and had sore feet after doing an 18km run around Lake Burley Griffin on Monday (I think I told him to get fitter for skiing!). Disappointed by the ski down as the sun had been off my run for a while and it had crusted over. Forced to innovate, it seemed best to leave all the body weight over the back ski, with body down as low as possible (knees highly bent). Only then with the weight off the front ski turn it and edge it, slowly applying weight until the turn is properly initiated. Ah well, it seemed to work most of the time but not so well when one is getting tired. Pete managed a couple of shots, in poor lighting, with the Olympus OM2N and 70-210mm Tamron zoom and winder combination.
Ripped back up the hill with camera to catch the sunset since the day had been excellent with clear blue skies and virtually wind free. Watched in go down and took 10 shots but left a little too early as the red sky remained vivid for another 30 minutes, so I missed the most intense colours.
Day 2: Sunday 7/10 /1984 Byatts Camp – Thredbo
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2219 m
Total climbing: 798 m
Total descent: -787 m
Average speed: nan km/h
The usual slow start with porridge for breakfast and not onto then snow until 10:00am. A few clouds rolling in from the south-west. Headed off towards Abbot Peak – Byatts Camp. Just below it’s cornice (nice slide off it too!) got some absolutely brilliant telemarking in on the way back to the tent, with several hills too steep to see over until we were halfway down them. Extensive use was made of the 70-210 zoom and auto-winder, in all 6×36 rolls of PanF taken, mostly telemarking down these slopes.
Greg telemarking below Abbott Peak 7/10/1984
We were back to tent by midday for lunch. Then packed up and off towards Kosciusko with the snow becoming very wet, as expected. We probably should have gone for a ski last night as the moon was almost full.
Sidled around Kosciusko to the south-east ridge. I (alone again, raced to the top) which was covered in clouds reducing visibility. It was a very slow ski off the top of the peak but superb further down along the southern ridge towards Cootapatamba. Even with packs on we got some A1 telemarks in, finished last of film here. Would really love to try this slope under good winter snow!
Peter telemarking below Abbott Peak 7/10/1984
We got back to Eagles Nest at 4:30pm with no one around, threw our packs onto the lift and skied down to middle station getting an enjoyable ski in on really chopped up snow which was turning firmer in the shadows. The only people off the mountain after us were the ski patrol!
Weather for the day was sunny with about one hour clouded over. Left carpark at 5:00pm, dropped Peter in Canberra at 8:30pm before arriving home at 11:00pm after a quick shower and clean up hit bed at 12:30am.
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