16/08/1985 – 18/08/1985 Guthega Power Station – Whites River return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Distance: 24km Total Ascent: 1720m Total Descent: 1720m
Participants: Peter Davies, Stephen Davies (Report), + Two female friends
Friday 16/08/1985
Threw in all my gear and headed to Wilton. Peter and his female friends didn’t arrive until 10:00pm, after another hour of gear sorting and packing there we left to arrive at Island Bend at 4:45 am. We pitched our tents and finally crashed.
Day 1: Saturday 17/08/1985 Guthega Power Station – near Whites River Hut
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1852 m
Total climbing: 1138 m
Total descent: -706 m
Average speed: nan km/h
An amazing display of resilience had on the snow by 10:00am, as had become our habit. About 40 other people left the Guthega Power station as we were getting ready leave. Peter and I had two runs along the pipes before heading off up the road to our current favourite hunting ground. It was a rather slow trip with the two beginners.
The tent was pitched fractionally lower alongside the creek this time. Lunched on what Peter had prepared. Then we headed up the hill which proved to be very soft, sinking 15cm with skis on. We managed a few clean runs through the afternoon session. Flat lighting meaning we could not quite see what was there, upsetting the sense of balance.
Sunset arrived just as we were getting ready to descend on our last run. We managed to get a couple of great turns before crashing out. I had brought two sets of skis with me but decided at the last minute to only use the alpine gear. They proved to be excellent climbing the hills with skins and great downhill, I will just have to learn how to parallel properly.
Day 2: Sunday 18/08/1985 Whites River Hut – Guthega Power Station
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1852 m
Total climbing: 590 m
Total descent: -1001 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Had a few good runs up and down our favourite hill. We were joined for a while by three other blokes, one wearing a top hat and tails.
We gave the girls a 90 minute head start for the return trip before we finished our local skiing then we packed up the gear and headed off. Unfortunately skins were required on all the uphills but I still managed to pass over thirty other skiers on the way out. Something to be said about the extra control you get from these wide skins and heavier, higher and more rigid boots. The road was really quick, returning in 75 minutes but full of tracks, firm but not icy. Excellent control down the final steep pinch in the road with other skiers on lighter gear falling everywhere. Lost some control down one hill so let the skis run away with me and allowed them to slow in the softer stuff.
We were back to Wilton around 10:00pm.
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