Sunday, August 26, 2018

Ski Touring: Gungartan, Big Brassy, Dicky Cooper Bogong


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

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