12/9/1998 – 13/9/1998 Dead Horse Gap – South Rams Head return
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Peter Davies, Stephen Davies (Report, Photos)
Day 1: Saturday 12/9/1998 Dead Horse Gap – South Rams Head
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2003 m
Total climbing: 609 m
Total descent: -472 m
Average speed: nan km/h
I spent a lot of Friday trying to get up to date snow/weather info as forecast was for rain and more rain along with poor snow cover.
The alarm was set for 3:30am but was changed to 4:30am when I was still trying to get to sleep at 11:00pm. Peter arrived from Sydney after visiting friends about 10:00pm in Chris’ falcon. We awoke just before the alarm, packed the car and were away just before 5:00am. Peter hadn’t heard any forecasts so was oblivious to the poor prospects.
We arrived a couple of minutes after 10:00am. It had been cloudy with occasional drizzle the whole way down but there was no traffic. We then worked on repacking our gear and moving out but jumped back into the car when the rain started again. It was just as well we had bought the Sydney Morning Herald to read. As the rain eased off around 11:00am we headed off. We walked about two thirds of the way to camp, pitched the tent at the usual spot but this time on grass!
The (wet) new tent christening 12/9/1998
We were in the tent for 5 minutes when it started pouring – it was so raining so hard we had a long lazy lunch and indulged in more newspaper reading (by now looked forward to catching the Canterbury v Newcastle elimination final on the radio). As the weather eased around 3:30pm we ventured out for a late afternoon ski. We enjoyed some great spring skiing, which proved to be very forgiving and we found plenty of cover above our campsite. The solid rain also kindly stayed away with just the occasional spot of drizzle and gusty breeze.
Pete skied superbly for someone who hadn’t been on skis for a couple of years. It was a pity he was being hampered by a bad throat bug. It was so good to be out I completely missed the game! It was later reported to be one of the best finals games ever played, with the Bulldogs being down 22–0 just before half time, Daryl Halligan converting from the sideline with a minute left to make it 22–22 at fulltime, before the Bulldogs ran away in extra time to win 38–22)
We enjoyed Veal Cord-en-Bleu and Cus Cus for dinner as the rain returned. A comfortable night ensured in my new Macpak Olympus snow tent, it’s first real test as it really bucketed down during the afternoon. The only leaks where a couple of minor dribbles where the external guy ropes attached to the outer, where I suspect the seam seal gets ripped with tent movements.
Day 2: Sunday 13/9/1998 South Rams Head – Dead Horse Gap
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1787 m
Total climbing: 276 m
Total descent: -412 m
Average speed: nan km/h
We got out and made the most of continuing damp/drizzle/rain conditions. Got some really fun skiing was had on the usual runs just above the camp site, but we decided it was best to end it all early as heaps of the gear was saturated and no real prospect of any weather improvements.
Peter telemarking 12/9/1998
We were home around 9:30pm to the surprise of our wives Sue & Caroline who were having a great time drinking Champagne and chatting together.
Clickable icons on a world map which open the related trip report
A detailed, searchable trip list with links to reports, photo galleries and other content
