4/10/1985 – 6/10/1985 Charlotte Pass – Mount Clarke – Mount Northcote – Moraine Pass – Little Austria – Mount Lee – Carruthers Peak – Elevator run
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Friday 4/10/1985
Distance: 16km Total Ascent: 1120m Total Descent: 1120m
Participants: Steve Brown, Debbie Christlo, Greg Christlo, John Eddy, Sue Eddy, Chris Davies, Joanne Davies, Peter Davies, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), John Meehan
Friday 4/10/1985
Drove up to Wilton and waited for the Newcastle crew.
Day 1: Saturday 5/10/1985 Charlotte Pass – upper Club Lake Creek campsite
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1898 m
Total climbing: 194 m
Total descent: -133 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Drove up to Charlotte Pass with the weather not looking the best. Trish and Dave wisely decided not to come out as Dave had left his tent poles at home (or at least that’s what he was claiming!)
The Snowy River crossing was very interesting as usual. Peter, Chris and Steve Brown brought their wet-suit booties of the crossing. Peter shuttled those three pairs back and forth for our comfort a total of seven crossings. We headed up between the creeks towards a campsite under Mount Clark, this trip requiring a lot of walking with a patchy snow cover.
Snowy River crossing 5/10/1985
After much stuffing around we selected a high campsite under the cornice on Mount Clark. Steve Brown, Steve Davies, Chris, Jo and Peter set up camp on the snow, whilst John Meehan, Sue and John Eddy decided to pitch on a nearby grassy patch.
Rain began as we prepared our lunch, then we all dozed off for an afternoon nap.
A crowded tent
John Meehan’s dome tent was not up to the gusty wind and rain. It was raining just as heavily inside his tent as outside. So six of us retired to Peter’s tent for dinner. Veal Cord en Bleu with vegetables and brown rice followed by a pecan cheesecake.
Day 2: Sunday 6/10/1985 Clarke – Northcote – Little Austria – Carruthers Peak Tour
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2127 m
Total climbing: 939 m
Total descent: -967 m
Average speed: nan km/h
A much improved day greeted us so we decided to go for it. Today was sunburn weather. We lost Chris and Jo fairly early so they returned to the tent for the day bumming around and eating the cheesecake everyone else failed to finish off the previous night. They later complained about being left behind (completely justified), just poor leadership on my part (or lack thereof).
The rest of us climbed Mount Clarke via Moraine Pass before heading to Mount Northcote. Here I took my first decent off the corniced north-east face of Mount Northcote. Thank goodness for the alpine skis and skins. Peter and Ed followed.
John Eddy telemarking
Up Moraine Pass and over Mount Northcote again, then Northcote Pass and Mount Lee where we traversed over to the western side and headed down for an excellent into Little Austria to escape the wind for lunch on a rocky-grassy patch near the creek at 147-691. From here we were up across the ridge before descending on a long run down into Lady Northcote Creek to the treelike towards Alice Rawson Peak for a top run. We crawled back out over the cornice back towards the lunch site. Then up the ridge to the top of Carruthers Peak before skiing the usual (east side off top traverse west, then down). Peter followed me down and really enjoyed it after a two year wait to get there this was his moment. It really thrilled him.
Some really slow snow was encountered from Club Lake back to the tents.
Took my first fall of the day on the steep stuff whilst attempting a 360.
Greg and Debbie were at camp on our return. With Greg having a go off the cornice above the camp.
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