Sunday 15/9/2019 Charlotte Pass – Spencers Creek – Snowy River – Tate East Ridge – Mount Tate – Pounds Creek
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Helen Cromb, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Trish Elmore, Celesta Fong, Kenn Clacher (Leader), Ian Houghton, Ken Moylan, Gordon Newell, Stephen Poole, Robert Webber, Jean, Jacque, Susie, Damien
Day one of the annual NSW Nordic Ski Club’s Southern Alps Ski Lodge week for 2019. With excellent snow cover and observing how well covered Betts and Spencer Creeks were on the trip up from Perisher Valley Kenn Clacher suggested a day trip to Mount Tate via Spencers Creek. A party of fifteen headed out at 9:00am.
Max elevation: 2123 m
Total climbing: 1857 m
Total descent: -1840 m
Average speed: 6.02 km/h
Total time: 07:08:19
On a multitude of different types of ski gear from narrow waxed track skis to AT gear and everything in between we headed east along Spencers Creek. With above zero overnight temperatures the already soft slow snow was going to put a speed limit our trip. Crossing Kosciuszko Road past Guthrie Ridge we descending towards deeper into Spencers Creek to take advantage of the current excellent snow cover. Quickly across a snow bridge to the eastern side we worked our way along the Spencers Creek towards the Snowy River with one high detour to negotiate the side creek off Perisher Range, passing some lovely snows on the way. The opportunity for a couple of slow turns came on the gentle descent to Illawong footbridge. There, on removing my skis I discovered part of my binding had fallen off somewhere in our previous 6km, quizzing the group a couple of people recalled seeing it several kilometres back next to Spencers Creek.
Snow gums along Spencers Creek
After a short break over the bridge I split off from the rest of the group to cross Pounds Creek and head up Tate East Ridge as I been up the creek route on sufficient occasions recently. As I climbed the wind continued to pick up and lingered throughout the rest of the day. Through the middle of the day there were numerous gusts to 70km/h and more. Being somewhat more sheltered along Pounds Creek, the rest of the party would have to wait a little longer to feel the full impact. The route along Tate East Ridge is very scenic down into and beyond Pounds Creek, early on providing good views back to the resort slopes at Guthega.
Along the end of the ridge I merged back in amongst our now very stretched out group. Twenty minutes later I was atop Mount Tate with the early arrivers. After quickly taking in the views from the summit we dropped a bit lower where it was a little more sheltered for a quick sit down lunch of packed sandwiches.
The ski back, down along the creek was very heavy going. Concentration and preparedness was required for the occasional dead slow patches. I should have waxed the ski after lunch instead of waiting till two thirds down. Heading back I was following Stephen Poole about 20m away from the creek when the snow gave way beneath us both, Stephen dropped to below his knees with tangled skis and I went to about calf deep straddling a 3m deep “crevasse”, it would have been an interesting extraction if either of us had initially placed our skis slightly differently. There was no hint on the surface snow!
My waxing worked, I managed a very slight improvement in downhill slide and slipped extremely well back down the hill every time I tried to go up. Refusing to put skins back on for the short climb out of Pounds Creek made it very hard work and time consuming.
We returned to Charlotte Pass following the same route as used on the way in, very fortunately for me I found the missing piece of my binding sunken into the snow alongside Spencers Creek. By the time we were heading back up the valley to Charlotte Pass, the wind had strengthened to a 80km/h head-on. Needless to say it was pleasing to get back safely and with gear again fully intake. The day had also proven to be a good, first time touring test of my new Scarpa T2 boots, proving to be more comfortable than my ageing Garmot Excursion boots whose liner have passed there use by date.
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