22/08/1997 – 25/08/1997 Guthega Power Station – Schlink Pass – Orange Hut return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Pat Brown (left Sunday), Ian Burns (arrived Saturday), Steve Davies (Report), John Meehan, Phil Parle (left Sunday)
This was our delayed annual week ski trip. I had wanted to travel reasonably lightly as between building my new darkroom and being down with a bad back recurrence I had only managed 15 minutes of exercise (on the nordic-track) in the two weeks preceding the trip (so I felt a little unprepared). My new tent missed out on a being christened again! This time because we needed a three man tent.
Basic gear: TUA’s & skins, Ian’s three man tent, sleeping bag & silk inner, EOS10 + 35-80 zoom, 3 pairs new socks in attempt to beat blisters.
My Food: 2 days of breakfast: Meusli, dried Milk and milo
Lunches: Dried tomato, cheeses, smoked ham, sardines, pate
Suey drove me to John’s place for a 6:00pm start on Thursday evening, we were to miss Ian as he had been delayed by a late work commitment on Friday morning. John dottered around and we were away near 7:00pm. As the National Parks ticket booth was closed when we arrived we were forced to return to Jindabyne to camp the night in the caravan park.
Day 1: Friday 22/08/1997 Guthega Power Station – Schlink Pass
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1829 m
Total climbing: 811 m
Total descent: -309 m
Average speed: nan km/h
We left Guthega Power Station around 10:00am and headed up the Aqueduct route determined for a very slow and steady pace to avoid blistering with tight fitting boots. Onto snow in about 10 minutes but stopping about every 40 minutes to remove right boot and air the heal.
John was suffering badly from after effects of the flu so was stopping to rest FREQUENTLY. This caused me a lot of concern. The pace was very very slow. We arrived at Schlink Pass at 3:00pm! Here we found the north-west wind was howling across the ridge tops – strong and cold so we diverted from John’s planned campsite up high to one very well protected (from the west and south by ridge tops and trees in both directions) this site sat flat and nestled amongst the snowgums and included a suitable campfire rock but had no running water nearby. It gave excellent access to good ski hills directly adjacent to the campsite.
Campsite near Whites River Hut
Phil and Pat arrived soon after us.
We spent some time exploring the neighbourhood looking for some skiable snow, this proved next to impossible as the lighting was very flat and the slopes covered in mostly breakable crust mixed in with icy patches and small amounts of windblown deposits – none of which was distinguishable from the other under the flat light. So we toured out to Schlink hut for a very windy late avo ski and didn’t arrive back at camp until after dark.
We ate well on John’s home dried Rogan Gosh and got to bed by 10:00pm.
Day 2: Saturday 23/08/1997 Schlink Pass – Orange Hut
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1829 m
Total climbing: 608 m
Total descent: -609 m
Average speed: nan km/h
John was still feeling poorly and kept a low profile for the day. There were not too many options for skiing so it resulted in a long sleep in followed by a slow breakfast.
I did another location checkout and took some photos. The only realistic ski option was to stick to the road, so we planned to ski down to meet Ian on his way up. We made it to the hill almost opposite White’s and found a small hill that was skiable (but at times very windy). Sue heard reports on the news of winds gusting to 200 km/h whilst we were out! Exposure to the wind must have kept it a bit harder here. When this finally softened we headed off to Orange hut – it started to snow whilst we were sitting in the hut around 3:30pm (Ian still not in sight – surprise surprise!), we arrived back at camp just after dark (and it was too!).
Ian rolled into camp shortly after Phil, Pat and myself had headed out for a little tour. He had camped in a hotel in Cooma overnight and had only started skiing about 12:00pm before arriving around 3:30pm.
We ate well again with the weather turning – snow falling around dinner time, bedding down in turn about 10:00pm with snow falling heavily by this stage. The snow fell heavily all night, necessitating a 2:00am dig out of the tent – which was bloody cold on the bare hands!
Day 3: Sunday 24/08/1997 Schlink Pass
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1843 m
Total climbing: 293 m
Total descent: -288 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Still snowing in the morning, about 40-45cm all up of fairly heavy wettish snow. This made for very slow skiing. Slept in very late reading Ian’s Saturday edition of the SMH. The clouds were down around us and it was still windy, but easing. The visibility was very poor – very difficult/impossible most of the time to pick ground contours.
Ian, not getting up yet!
Phil and Pat packed up and left after lunch by which time the snowfalls had almost stopped.
Ian and John ventured out to Schlink Pass and back again (the best part of ONE km!).
I did five afternoon runs alone, in heavy and slow snow. The greatest difficulty being in picking the lay of the land. It seems like a hill with lots of potential given suitable snow. Retired to the comfort of the campfire with Ian and John.
Day 4: Monday 25/08/1997 Schlink Pass – Guthega Power Station
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1848 m
Total climbing: 402 m
Total descent: -878 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Visibility now variable from poor to OK (with some sunshine through breaks in the clouds). Took in some more runs (once again alone) the first was perfection – floating through the soft cover with smooth tight rhythmic teles. The whole trip was worth it for just this one run! Bliss.
Turning weather
After wandered around taking a few more photos, we had a leisurely lunch before packing up camp and leaving around 1:00pm. Very heavy and slow even on the downhill “runs” on the way out, but on the upside the TUA’s climbed every hill without requiring skins (that is a first!). Maybe I would have been a whole lot better off if I had waxed my skis? Took the road out as it’s shorter and was covered by snow the whole way, but got down to skiing through to the road base on the last run into the power station.
Too short a trip and no blisters in sight.
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