8/9/2010 – 13/9/2010 Dead Horse Gap – 1770 Creek Camp – Rams Heads
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Distance: 40km Total Ascent: 2930m Total Descent: 2930m
Participants: Damien Aggio, George Copeland (1 day), Stephen Davies (Photos), Chris Simpson (2 days)
Day 1: Wednesday 8/9/2010 Dead Horse Gap – 1770 Creek Camp
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1784 m
Total climbing: 188 m
Total descent: -6 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Left home at 5:30pm after Damien arrived earlier than planned. Stopped for a Subway at Goulburn and arrived at Dead Horse Gap at 11:30pm. Started skiing out at 12:00am, with Damien climbing without skins. Arrived at our campsite at 1:00am a little light headed, finally into sleeping bags at 2:10am. The wind rustle through the tent overnight waking us several times. There was plenty of snow on the Ramshead side but only a few drifts over on the Cascade side.
Day 2: Thursday 9/9/2010 1770 Creek Camp local runs
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1984 m
Total climbing: 787 m
Total descent: -786 m
Average speed: nan km/h
After some light overnight showers it was now cloudy and windy. We were out skiing by 8:30am, completing two runs from Rams Head saddle to the tents on very firm but softening quickly snow, with a noticeable difference between each run.
Lunch for about an hour. Did a few of runs further north from the rock outcrop above the trees as the wind had become very strong, I even used my neoprene face-mask in the afternoon. Some great runs. My left Archilles tendon was now a little tender (had started on last nights ascent). Damien skiing well, mixing parallels with some basic telemarks with relaxed style. On plastic boots and patterned based skis.
Left to return to the car to pick up my googles and book to read. Had a great run down through the trees in soft wet snow. Arrived back at the tents about 5:00pm. Noodles with ham and fresh vegetables washed down with some green ginger wine. It cleared late and we had a starry sky by 8:00pm. Tried to stay up to a reasonable hour listening to Pink Floyd and Zavier Rudd as the rain started but could only make it to 8:30pm. There was heavy rain overnight.
Camp at dusk 9/9/2010
Day 3: Friday 10/9/2010 Dead Horse Gap Camp runs
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 1914 m
Total climbing: 797 m
Total descent: -798 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Gusty winds from all directions and lots of overnight snow. The tent had some minor leaks, so obviously needs some seam sealing done. My 2L water bottle blew away this morning. Off skiing by 8:50am, got one good run just to the north on easy wet and fairly heavy snow but poor visibility hampered those efforts. Climbing back up for another run the weather closed back in and it began snowing again, the visibility being very poor we returned to the tents. There was about 5cm of large soggy flakes in the hour to 11:00am.
Returned to the slopes after an extended lunch by which time about 12cm of fresh snow was on the ground. Did several more runs from just above the tree line and one below the camp amongst the trees.
Returned to camp for early dinner aiming to depart for car at 5:00pm to meet Chris later. A good run but fading light and low cloud made navigation difficult. Arrived at the road just as it was becoming very difficult to judge what we were doing. Had a beer with Damien and waited for Chris to arrive. We got very cold sitting around for the next six hours, only seven cars going by.
Chris arrived just before 11:00pm. We were away from cars at midnight under a cloudless sky. Chris was kitted up well with a helmet and kneepads but did’t make him go faster (uphill at least). Ended up following neighbours tracks back towards camp up on eastern side of the last hill. The creek crossing required a rock hop midstream with skis as there were no snowbridges after last weeks heavy rain. The creek was up about 1.5m with a layer of black ash marking the high water mark. The banks had been heavily undercut at the bends. We helped get Chris’ tent up and were finally in bed at 1:00am. Another pitch black, moonless night made the trip up with fading batteries (turned down to LEDs) more interesting than it should have been.
Day 4: Saturday 11/9/2010 Dead Horse Gap Camp runs
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2022 m
Total climbing: 443 m
Total descent: -443 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Up at 7:30am after us all getting cold overnight, this wasn’t surprising as it was still cloudless. It was great to get moving but a persistent cold wind remained. We were away from camp at 9:00am to see where we might ski. The strength and coldness of the wind meant after a quick look over the sustrugi covered ridge we stayed lower around Rams Head and did five runs where it was more sheltered.
Damien and Chris climbing Rams Head 11/9/2010
Cloud descended around 1:00pm so we had lunch and decided to head lower, getting some good turns off the south-eastern side of Rams Head. Cleared enough to try end of northern ridge of South Rams Head but the snow a little inconsistent and crusty in places. Good run back down to the tree line on a firm base with light crust but we all started falling a bit later due to increasing crust. Back to tents by 3:30pm. No more skiing today on this rubbish.
Natures artwork 11/9/2010
Day 5: Sunday 12/9/2010 Dead Horse Gap Camp – North Rams Head return
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
Max elevation: 2182 m
Total climbing: 709 m
Total descent: -698 m
Average speed: nan km/h
Sunny morning with a cool 2C in tent, -6C overnight outside and up to 7C by the time I had dressed. Up to 33C in middle of tent after a morning walk. George Copeland arrived at 8:00am. We headed off on our planned Leatherbarrel Creek assault around 9:15am.
The weather changed before the top of hill with a cold 70km/h wind and we were soon in cloud. Ended up with thermals, shirt, fibrepile and goretex on with beanie, hat and neoprene chin. Resorted to GPS navigation from before Rams Head to my DH005 waypoint target. With the whiteout and windy conditions we mutually decided to head back lower to get under the clouds. We all made fools of ourselves trying to maintain our bearings on the return and had an especially difficult time estimating the distance we were covering.
We had lunch under the lee of Rams Head with some visibility after getting over the “pass” to South Rams Head. A fairly good run back to the tents. Out of the clouds before 2:00pm. Skied the afternoon on the usual baby slopes in heavy slightly crusty snow which was OK but didn’t allow fluid turns. George, having tendon trouble, was putting in lots of short telemarks all the way down. Chris was also really good but with much longer turns. Damien mixed very long radius parallels and telemarks.
George left for his car by 3:00pm and Chris around 4:30pm.
Encountered an echidna crossing the snow below camp. Went for photo walk and found the water bottle that had blown away days earlier. There was wet snow falling by 6:30pm bed at 9:30pm.
Echidna near camp 11/9/2010
Day 6: Monday 13/9/2010 Dead Horse Gap Camp ???
Gusty winds with overnight rain and about 5cm of snow, only got down down from 1C overnight.
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