After six years in
Australia, it was finally time to go ski touring. Yes, ski touring,
in this dry, sunburned country when most of NSW was in drought, there
was a reasonable snowpack around the higher elevations of Koscuiszko
National Park. Of course, we wanted to minimise driving, which is
only somewhat possible when you live on the south coast of NSW, and
we also wanted to ski somewhere we had not walked, so we chose to ski
north from Guthega Power Station (GPS) towards Mount Jagungal.
Doug skiing along the Rolling Grounds
We planned a route that
may have been somewhat unusual by Australian standards but made
perfect sense when you looked at it from a Canadian ski traverse
mentality. That is, get up as high as possible as quick as possible
and stay there for the duration of the trip. So, we drew a rough
horseshoe route on the map that followed ridgelines around the
Munyang, Valentine and Geehi Rivers starting and ending at GPS and
reaching an apex at Mount Jagungal, packed four days of food and
sucked up the long drive to GPS.
Plugging along up the road
There were, however, many
unknowns, not the least of which was how we would fare on skis, with
big packs, after so many years away from the sport. I was fairly
certain I would end the trip with sore, swollen, generally beaten up
feet. Over the years, I've done about two dozen long ski traverses
and every trip has ended with what I call “ski traverse feet.”
Pulpy, swollen and looking more like some kind of unsavoury processed
meat product; these are my feet after a few days in tight ski boots
under a heavy load. We had, however, forgotten that Doug is
susceptible to pressure urticaria, a similarly painful skin
condition, and which he usually treats with frequent low dose
aspirin. Unfortunately, we packed no aspirin and a bag of gluten
containing wraps for lunch, thus practically guaranteeing that Doug's
urticaria would manifest at some point during the trip.
Near the Rolling Grounds
Day 1: GPS to 1996
A recent stormy period
meant that there was snow right down to 1350 metres at GPS. Not much
snow, but enough to ski right from the road, which was nice as our
packs felt heavy enough without adding skis to the load. We skinned
up the road following the switchbacks to around 1560 metres, where we
left the road heading roughly west and aiming for the height of land
that runs north to the Rolling Grounds and Dicky Cooper Bogong. It
was as easy a start to a ski trip as I have ever had. No bush,
gentle climbing, no avalanche hazard, good weather and minimal ski
penetration.
Doug near Gungartan
After a couple of hours,
we had gained about 600 metres of elevation and were near the alpine.
We stopped to eat lunch on an exposed granite boulder and I doctored
up the first blister on my heel. My feet were at the uncomfortable
but not painful stage. A bit more climbing and we were up on a broad
relatively flat ridge heading north. Our big alpine touring ski
boots certainly felt like overkill in this terrain which is generally
quite gentle and probably ideal for a lighter touring set up.
Gaining the ridge
There were strange dark
clouds to the west but little wind and it was quite pleasant skiing
along the ridge top with the gentle mountains of the Great Dividing
Range spread about. Around 4.00 pm we started thinking about making
camp, and at 4.15 pm we coasted out into a broad saddle just below
the ridge and made camp. I had forgotten how much extra time camping
in winter takes compared to summer. Gloves make everything clumsy,
and melting snow for water, stamping out tent platforms, and walking
in a few tracks around the tent took us until sunset. It was rather
chilly for coastal dwellers, down to about -11 Celsius overnight so
it was early evening when we crawled into the tent. We had with us
our Integral Designs winter tent from Canada which is smaller than
the tent we usually use in Australia, and it was a snug fit for the
two of us. I did wonder how we had managed to spend days tent bound
on previous trips without going quite mad, but we eventually got
ourselves sorted out and into sleeping bags.
Camp near Granite Peaks
Day 2: 1996 to Schlink
Hilton
We waited until the sun
hit the tent in the morning before getting out, and then hung out
sleeping bags and rotated the tent to try and dry off the thick coat
of frost that had formed overnight. Unfortunately, it clouded up
almost immediately and remained cool so things did not dry as well as
we had hoped. I had developed a swollen shin from the plastic cuff
of my ski boot banging onto the bone with every step the day before,
and I was very slow shuffling along behind Doug as we continued
skiing north along the broad ridge line. No amount of boot
tightening, loosening or general foot wiggling seemed to ease the
pressure and I was limping awkwardly by the time we got to Dicky
Cooper Bogong.
Near the ridge crest
We had hoped to ski right
along Kerries Ridge to near Mawsons Hut for our second night but that
was beginning to seem impossible given my sore shin and limping gait.
Our route would take us right past the Schlink Hilton where we
thought we could have a good look at my boots and see if any
alterations could be effected. It is only a couple of hundred metres
descent down to the Schlink Hilton but with the exception of skiing
isothermic snow in the Rocky Mountains of Canada, this short descent
probably ranks of one of my worst ever. Thick breakable crust that
swallowed up poles, skis, pack, and skier if you broke through. Doug
only crashed once, but went down hard. I had a hat-trick of crashes,
on each successive fall I seemed to crater deeper than the one
before. It was a relief to shuffle along the track to the hut and
take pack, skis and boots off.
View over Windy Creek
After a lot of fussing
about in the hut, which was delightful, we managed to stick a piece
of pack towel down between the plastic cuff of the outer boot and the
inner liner which lifted off some of the pressure from my shin. Doug
however, discovered that his pressure urticaria had developed much
more quickly than ever before and his feet were really looking and
feeling quite ugly. Heading further north did not seem like a good
idea. We changed our plans to rest our feet for the remainder of the
day and day trip from the hut the next day.
After only one night out,
it still felt wonderfully decadent to have a hut to hang out in until
bedtime. Doug slept in the hut, but I slept in the tent under some
large gum trees with a huge moon lighting up the valley.
Schlink Hilton
Day 3: Gungartan, Tin
Hut, Big Brassy Peak
Another day of light winds
and a fair bit of sun throughout the day. We skied up easy slopes
east of the hut to a saddle near Gungartan and wrapped around the
east side to the 2068 metre high point. Apart from about 5 steps,
the entire route was skiable. We spent a short time on the summit
with our map trying to get a better sense of the surrounding terrain.
Working out which ridge was which was a little awkward as the
terrain is so gentle and the contours so widely spaced.
Tin Hut
From Gungartan, we managed
to coast with skins off almost 4 km to Tin Hut near the Brassy
Mountains. This was a good spot for lunch although the hut was quite
dark as the only window was buried by snow. After lunch, we skied
north just below the crest of the ridge towards Big Brassy Peak.
Although we were at around 1900 metres, there was very little snow,
most having been blown away in the common westerly winds. With a lot
of weaving around rocks and bare meadow, we did manage to ski all the
way to the top of Big Brassy Peak, but a couple of warm days would
see much of the snow gone completely.
More looking at the map
and the terrain from a slightly different angle, and with the
compass, we picked out the location of Mawsons Hut. Mount Jagungal
is obvious. Our feet were getting pretty sore, so instead of
continuing another 4 km to Mawsons Hut, we decided to ski back to
Schlink Hilton via Kerries Ridge.
Doug near Gungartan
It is a gentle descent off
Big Brassy Peak, which is probably good as the upper section had thin
snow and big rocks, but Valentines Creek was well bridged and easy
to cross. I had picked a route up snow filled gullies to Kerries
Ridge but Doug suggested a slightly different route that looked as if
it went to the same place, so we followed that route instead. It's a
shame we didn't pull out the map at some point as instead of
following Kerries Ridge we ended up skiing up Valentines Creek to
Gungartan Pass, and around the east side of Gungartan before we
finally looked down on Dicky Cooper Creek and hut locale.
Near Gungartan Pass
We wanted a ski down to
end the day, so had to ski across the rocky western slopes of
Gungartan until we could ski all the way back down to Schlink Hilton.
The breakable crust was quickly reforming, but with only day packs,
I was able to avoid crashing. In the hut we inspected the damage to
our feet. Doug's were really very inflamed with red urticaria all
over the soles and instep, and they looked very painful. I had one
big blister but otherwise was in pretty good shape, except for a head
cold I had developed.
West side Gungartan
Day 4: Schlink Hilton to
GPS
Although we had one day of
food left, we decided to ski out. Doug's feet were a mess and I felt
lethargic and foggy headed. Skiing out via Disappointment Ridge was
not a favoured option as there was not that much snow on the windward
side of the valley and the trees looked thick. Instead, we would
take the tourist route along the fire road to GPS. We knew from
studying the map that we would go up, down, up and finally down.
What we didn't know was whether the angle of descent would be steep
enough on the first down for us to ski from Schlink Pass to the
bridge over the Munyang River without needing skins.
Whites River Hut
It turns out we could, and
quite easily, although the snow was still frozen and a bit unpleasant
to ski. Past Horse Camp Hut we started encountering weekend skiers
heading out for two days. There was a surprising number of people on
relatively heavy telemark gear, and even snowboards. By the time we
got to the top of the final switchbacks, the snow had softened nicely
and the final ski down was pretty good. Down near the GPS, there was
only a foot wide strip of snow at the side of the road which Doug
managed to ski all the way, although I had to walk about 5 steps, but
remarkably we did ski right to the road.
Valentine Creek valley
