Thursday 20/09/2018 Charlotte Pass – Mount Townsend – The Racecourse – Lake Albina
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Davies and 22 others!
Today a mixed ability group in excess of twenty people, led again by Colin Ridley, set out in an attempt to summit Mount Townsend. Along with our NSW Nordic Ski Club group we had visitors from Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. Sue and I left separately a couple of minutes earlier, heading further up Kosciuszko Road than the main group to take some panoramas of the Main Range.
Max elevation: 2183 m
Total climbing: 1032 m
Total descent: -1022 m
Average speed: 6.88 km/h
Total time: 06:53:06
Main Group: Included 22 from Craig Austin, Margaret Baz, Jopie Bodegraven, Derrick Brown, Mark Bruce, David Carter, Maureen Carter, Helen Cromb, Karen Darby, Stephen Davies, Sue Davies, Trish Elmore, Bill Fordyce, John Fuller, Terry Gralton, Geoff Kelly, John Hardy, Gina Hopkins, Bob Horder, , Kathy Husselbee, Marie Maguire, Bill Metzenthen, Annette Miller, Tony Murphy, Maggie Pavlou, Jacque Paynter, Stephen Poole, Colin Ridley, Sally Schaeffer, Rob Wales, Sue Watson, Marianne Watt, Merilyn Whimpey, David Whittle, Peter Whittle, Darrell Williams, Richard Winthorpe
After traversing the resort’s downhill runs Sue and I followed the route of Kosciusko Road several kilometres past where the main group departed towards the Snowy River. Along the way we enjoyed the cool clear air, bright blue skies and fantastic panoramas to our west. Heading “off track” before Etheridge Ridge towards Muellers Pass presented us with a fantastic panorama of Muellers Peak and Mount Clarke with all of our main group snaking their way towards a morning tea break below Muellers Pass.
After a short break Sue and I were off again up Muellers Pass where the snow was softening nicely, it was oh so tempting to take a run back down but we pressed on. Deciding to try to conserve energy doesn’t always work as planned! In traversing the south slopes of Muellers Peak in an effort to avoid loosing height that we would have to regain later, we found ourselves crossing a very hard refrozen surface which in places barely managed to take an edge. A slip here would have resulted in a long painful slide and at least a few bumps and bruises. Fortunately, not everyone followed this route but descended from Muellers Pass and climbed more directly up Mount Townsend from lower in the valley.
Approaching Mount Townsend it was becoming colder and cloudier so we continued to the summit without delay. After enjoying the views and taking more photos we were back off the summit for a quick sit down and munch on a sandwich.
Sue skiing down The Racecourse
As we were getting cold we collected Stephen Poole, Margaret and Helen before heading east to look at our options down towards Lake Albina. We certainly noted how cold it had become, as the snow was refreezing below our skis as we went. After a short deliberation we opted on The Racecourse descent to Lake Albina. We all enjoyed a great run, even if we were quite tentative with many of our telemarks due to the patchiness of the snow refreeze.
After our climb up to Northcote Pass we mutually agreed that the planned Mount Northcote, Mount Clarke ridge route home would be abandoned. Considering the cold wind and hard cover we favoured getting a great ski down into the valley towards Club Lake Creek in the morning sun softened north-east face of Mount Northcote. Such is life, you can only dream, the reality today was different as the drop in temperature had already taken effect in starting to freeze the surface snow. This resulted in another challenging descent, the only real winners being the elements and Stephen Poole on his AT gear.
Once down to the creek were moved very quickly on the slippery refrozen surface and in next to no time were on the pole line. Back near Foreman’s ruin I left the group and headed up along the Snowy River a short distance for a look before crossing a snow bridge and climbing to Charlotte Pass. Another short climb from here had me at the top of Pulpit T-Bar for a great final run back to the lodge on the groomed slopes.
The rest of the main group returned by a couple of different routes. Some descended via The Racecourse before following Lady Northcotes Creek directly up onto the pass at its head and then returning via the Snowy River. The main party returned via the same route they had come. I believe everyone ended up reaching the summit of Mount Townsend and those that had tried and failed in previous years were very satisfied with their day and thankful to Colin for his endless encouragement and support. A very satisfying and a times challenging day was had by all.
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
