Thursday 19/09/2019 Charlotte Pass – Little Austria – Lake Albina – Abbott Ridge – Mount Townsend – Mount Northcote – Mount Clarke
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Helen Cromb, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Trish Elmore, Kenn Clacher (Leader), Ian Houghton, Ken Moylan, Gordon Newell, Stephen Poole, Bill
Opting for company today I joined up with Kenn’s group who were aiming for Little Austria. With snow bridges still strongly present we were quickly across the Snowy River and climbing towards the pass between Mount Lee and Carruthers Peak. The short steep ascent up and over the lip of the ridge proved challenging to those with lighter boots and skis.
Max elevation: 2242 m
Total climbing: 1588 m
Total descent: -1566 m
Average speed: 6.80 km/h
Total time: 07:24:51
A few light clouds had appeared during our ascent and many more were visible once atop the ridge. It took a while for everyone to complete their ascent before we proceeded a little way around to the western side of Mount Lee and commenced our first big run of the day, about 200m vertical, down towards “Little Austria Creek”. Towards the end of “Little Austria Spur” at 1860m the snow was becoming heavy. Here half the party continued along the steepening valley to Lady Northcote Creek whilst Gordon, Ian and I climbed up to about 1950m on Carruthers Peak’s western ridge for our second run of the day. The descent was fascinating as each turn on my freshly waxed skis resulted in rapid glide – stick – glide – stick confusion. Completing the descent we followed the creek back up “Little Austria Creek” and over the ridge until we were directly above Lake Albina. By this time everyone else was at Lake Albina, sitting and enjoying their lunch, we were quick to join.
Ian skiing in Little Austria
Being so close to Mount Townsend I put out the suggestion for the small extension to it’s summit. Only Stephen Poole and I headed up The Racecourse after lunch, with clouds gathering as we climbed. Once on top of the ridge it is only a short, flat trip across to Mount Townsend for the final summit climb. By now the cloud cover was almost complete although we were under most of it and not in it. A few snapshots and panoramas later, at 3:00pm, we were commencing our descent back down The Racecourse, across Lake Albina and climbing up toward Mount Northcote. Skiing the small slope down to Morane Pass I wasn’t bothered in removing my skins and was able to continue the climb to the top of Mount Clarke without stopping from Lake Albina. The route from here worked it’s way around a few grassy and rocky patches but we consistently headed towards Foremans ruins. Once almost down we crossed the Snowy River on a snow bridge well up from Foremans Crossing. Today we didn’t see the echidna I’d sighted a couple of days ago but others did sight one in the same location on another day. A slow climb back up and along to Charlotte Pass had us on the final, resort downhill slope for our last descent of the day. We were back to Southern Alps Ski Lodge about 4:45pm.
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