24/09/2011 – 27/09/2011 Guthega – Guthega River – Consett Stephen Pass – Mount Tate – Mann Bluff
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participant: Stephen Davies
Day 1: Saturday 24/09/2011 Guthega – Upper Guthega River
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
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Left Barrack Point 7:07am arrived Guthega about 2:00pm. Was overcast with occasional showers.
Bruce Easton at Wilderness Sports recommended Guthega, so I bought a map and was off. Changed and packed at Island Bend campsite. Dropped off my pack at Guthega before driving 1km back to the overnight carpark and walked back. Looking forward to my first trip on with new skis, boots and skins.
Followed the ridge line until 1km from camp, then skins off and followed snow leads to Guthega River. A much wider more open lead was observed a bit further up past the campsite but low cloud meant poor visibility had concealed that option. Used the GPS to head the right way.
Spoke to a Tasmanian couple at the bottom of the ridge – her mum lives near me at Jamberoo.
Arrived at camp about 4:15pm. Set up tent and did two short runs. The patterned ski base had limited grip, slipping several times. They turn well but I will need to adjust my style to account for the extra stiffness in the plastic boot.
The dehydrated Beef Satay turned out great. Read some of Allen and Mike’s telemark tips and made more scanning software (Vuescan) notes. Another filling feel out of my teeth, this time an upper left molar.
A little drizzle just after dark then light snowfall, very calm (no wind) but cloud base-level just a fraction up the hill tonight.
Day 2: Sunday 25/09/2011 Guthega River – Consett Stephen Pass
This route was reconstructed from memory using Google Earth Pro and GPS Visualizer.
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Overnight dusting of snow, remained calm all night with the occasional puff of wind. Bright by 6:00am, breakfast 7:00am and still overcast.
Hung around reading until 10:00am as wet snow was falling. Grabbed six runs over the next 1 1/2 hours. Only company was a pair of magpies and one native mouse which scurried between bushes.
I’m going to need to work on my technique. These skis ski quite differently to the my just retired TUA Expressos. They seem slower (or is that just the wet snow?) and it’s much easier to catch on the new edges. Not as much feel through the boots. The extra stiffness seems to exaggerate edge catches. Will need to to learn to keep my feet closer together and stand more upright.
The pattern base gripped just fine in the 1 to 2cm of fresh snow which has covered yesterdays old wet granular stuff. All of the snow that had been sitting in the trees had gone by 12:00pm.
Retreated for a long lunch with snow flurries easing by 1:00pm, so off up the creek towards Consett Stephen Pass and Mt Tate. Phoned Suey. A very cool breeze had the hands very cold. Great run back down until the bottom where very wet snow really put the brakes on the run!
By 4:15pm the sun had slipped behind Tate East Ridge. More study but around 5:00pm walked a short distant along Guthega River and took some photos. A big contrast to the morning snow. Finished the day with another excellent dehydrated Beef Satay and lots more reading till around 10:00pm.
Day 3: Monday 26/09/0211 Consett Stephen Pass – Mann Bluff
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Awoke around 6:00am and the clouds were all gone. My water bottle sitting on the tent floor had party frozen overnight, a cool one. A good frost covered the tent.
The days plan was to follow the ridges (and snow) along the range – Tate, Anderson and beyond if good enough. Left the tent at 8:10am.
A sensational day after a jittery start. 50min of climbing saw me on top of the ridge. The overnight freeze and previous light dusting made for easy climbing but I really do have some readjustments to make with this new gear! The combination of new sharp edges, extra sidecut and inappropriate technique, especially with rear ski meant little control on the ice and a couple of hard landings.
The tops hard patchy cover. After walking one patch after Mann Bluff I arrived at a very gentle baby slow that was just before a potential longer walk. As the snow was just starting to soften I got into trying to figure out the Madshus Epoch skis and Excursion boots. I figured it would be much more productive to practice telemark technique with the new gear than to explore further (better done when there is a full cover). So I spent until 12:15pm going up and down thinking about and practicing some of Allan and Mike’s really Cool Teletips. That sure did make a difference.
Got some good rhythm going by keeping the skis nearly parallel in each turn and keeping the legs just slightly apart with very restricted forward / back movements. I kept more upright and kept both hands well forward. Leading forcefully with the upper body resulted in easy unweighting between turns and probably some of the tightest turns I have ever done.
I lunched on a grassy patch, rang Suey and turned back to camp. Along the way I found a longer steeper hill and completed 3 ½ runs in softening snow. Great turning but pretty useless trying to force them too quickly.
Reached the final descent after 3:00pm and got lots of great turns in on this much steeper hill above the campsite. I felt like I had achieved some style, unlike during the morning on the icier surface.
Was back at the tent at 3:50pm. The snow was really good on the way down as the Sun was only just starting to get off it.
Day 4: Tuesday 27/09/2011 Guthega River – Guthega
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There were showers in Sue’s forecast from yesterday and plenty of clouds and a much warmer night. The snow cover had not refrozen overnight, just a bit firmer. This saw me pack up and be ready to leave by 9:00am to avoid getting wet gear. I tried one local run but decided it was time to move out.
I avoided the snow bridge which easily spanned the creek due to the overnight warmth. I managed a rock hope nearby but needed to kick in two steps to get over a 1.2m high snow bank. I then skinned it straight up the ridge, with lots of rest stops along the way. Thank goodness for the heal risers!! The final ascent and ridge crossing required about 700m of walking before getting back onto the snow.
Not too far along the ridge a decent slope demanded to be looked at. I ended up doing six really good runs before threatening clouds got me thinking again. I also had lunch and crossed paths with Bruce and John who had just done a crossing from Selwyn! Five days and ¾ of the time walking – surprise surprise.
Managed to ski all the way back along the ridge with a few small detours, and got to about 200m from the weather station (2:15pm). Back to the car at 3:00pm
I stayed overnight at Island Bend. I really enjoyed the surprise appearance of some warm afternoon sunshine but expect rain by morning. The sounds of galahs screeching to farewell the day and overnight sounds of wallabies masticating on grass just outside the tent.
There were a couple of short showers overnight. It was also very warm, I had to through open the sleeping bag about 1:30am after developed a sweat with just my ski top on. Awake by 5:45pm and home before midday.
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