26/10/1985 – 27/10/1985 Charlotte Pass – Mount Lee – Club Lake – Little Austria return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Distance: 19km Total Ascent: 1620m Total Descent: 1620m
Participants: Ian Burns, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), John Eddy, Peter Clark, Dave MacDonald
Day 1: Saturday 26/10/1985 Charlotte Pass – Mount Lee – Club Lake
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2072 m
Total climbing: 617 m
Total descent: -565 m
Average speed: nan km/h
We left home in wet weather and it continued to rain most of the way down. Occasional clear patches along the way raised our hopes. We arrived at Rutledges Hut early Saturday morning. Ian left his skis at home, my old ones fitted. Good luck!
It was a very casual stirring in the morning as the weather outside was poor. Wet and looking miserable. We eventually drove up to Charlotte Pass and got onto the snow about 11:00am. After 8cm of snow on Thursday it looked like there was a better cover than on the recent long weekend.
With there not being a lot of cars around we were able to park opposite the Charlotte Pass turnoff. From here we skied for all but 100m down to the Snowy River crossing before wading across in a pair of old sand-shoes brought along especially for the purpose. Our skis were back on immediately after the second crossing and we were able to ski all of the way to our campsite near Club Lake (~157686).
Here we found that another party had pinched our preferred site! We camped nearby on snow and there was no ground reached after the “kitchen” dig, so still some good cover around.
The afternoon was spent going up and down Mount Lee. The snow was a bit slow, with the newer snow being wet and slushy and the older stuff looking too dirty to ski on.
Peter Clark telemarking
Campsite below Club Lake
Day 2: Sunday 27/10/1985 Club Lake – Charlotte Pass – Little Austria
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2081 m
Total climbing: 994 m
Total descent: -1050 m
Average speed: nan km/h
A morning mist caused us some concern about where we could go today but this soon cleared. We day tripped over to Little Austria via the cornice between Mount Lee and Carruthers Peak. With way too much confidence, whilst perched high on Carruthers Peak’s western ridge, and after watching both Dave and John take falls, I also attempted the descent. With poor snow, as it had firmed and was in the shade, I also had a couple of falls. One great, out of control slide at pace towards rocks led to some attempted evasive actions to avoid hitting them. In performing this manoeuvre my ski tip clipped my head during a “recovery roll”, leaving a 2 to 3cm long cut above my eyebrow. I then yet slipped again on the exit cornice before joining the rest of the group back on top of the hill to the south side of the ridge. Time to leave this slope!
Here the snow thaw was just right and the skiing great! Our tracks must have been visible to other groups, as about 30 people descended on our location (all probably being the only people skiing in NSW). We had lunch on top of the ridge soaking up some sunshine before heading back to camp, packing up and turning for home.
Heading towards Carruthers Peak
“War wounds”, Stephen – Little Austria 26/10/1985
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