Ski Touring The Main Range

Almost a month to the day and we are back for some more ski touring in the NSW Alps, this time we are heading for the main range. I am not sure exactly what constitutes the "main range" but it seems to be centred roughly around Mount Kosciuszko and extends at least as far north as Mount Tate and south to the alpine area above Thredbo. Almost all of Australia's peaks over 2,000 metres lie within this small area, although calling the numerous rounded bumps on ridge lines "peaks" is perhaps somewhat lofty.

Apparently, it is becoming a bit of a thing to hike up all 26 to 33 (interpretations vary) of these high points. Tick lists such as these are always objectively arbitrary but subjectively meaningful. I've had numerous weird tick lists over the years, none of which I ever completely finished but which were fun, in a strange way, when I was obsessing over them.

Day 1: Guthega to Carruthers Ridge

Anyway, back to ski touring. This time we started from Guthega, about 5 km southwest of Guthega Power Station (GPS). The road deteriorates quickly past GPS. It is two wheel drive, but windy, pot-holed and dusty. Guthega is a bit of a weird place. There are a few lodges and a chair lift that runs for 1.5 hours in the morning, presumably to take downhill skiers over to the south side of the mountain. Many of the north facing runs are completely melted out and there is hardly anyone about when we arrive, just a couple of other ski tourers heading out. In the month since we were last skiing, the wind blown bare patches have greatly expanded and the height of snow has shrunk by about 25 cm or almost a quarter.

We start skiing around 11.15 am, and head south roughly following the Illawong track. Between the parking lot and the suspension bridge over the Snowy River we have to take our skis off once and a few times we ski across bare vegetation. Ski travel along this track will not last much longer. There is a big warm bare spot around the lodge so we stop for lunch where we can take our boots off and enjoy the sunshine.

Once across the suspension bridge it is easy skiing along the western bank of the Snowy River to Carruthers Creek. We are after a bit of shelter for camp against the incessant westerly winds as we will leave the tent for two nights while we day trip around the area, so as we skin up beside Carruthers Creek we are looking for a sheltered campsite.

Doug finds a great campsite behind some stunted snow gums and a big boulder at around 1800 metres. There is even a snow melt trickle above camp which obviates the need to melt snow for water. Although we don't have evening sun the site does get early morning sun and the setting sun paints delicate shades of pink and red around the surrounding hills.

It is a bit weird to be camped where we can see the lights of the groomers plying the ski slopes. This is definitely not deep Canadian wilderness, but it is always nice to be camped out and skiing is a bonus.

Day 2: Mounts Clark, Northcote, Townsend, and Lee, Muellers, Abbot and Carruthers Peaks

The sun lights the tent early and it is a delightfully warm morning cooking breakfast and packing for the day out. We begin by skinning up to the ridge above camp and then contour across the broad basin that drains into Club Lake Creek. We dodge dry patches of ground and skin up to our first "peak" of the day, Mount Clark, which is a round flat bump. A short descent, we don't bother to take skins off as the snow is still frozen and we are soon on top of "peak" number two, Mount Northcote.

We don't really have a firm plan for the day but we have been up Mount Kosciuszko before, and, although it is the highest peak in NSW, it is actually one of the least inspiring, with a very long gentle north ridge and a lot of bare ground showing on all aspects. Instead, we skin up Muellers Peak, a short section on the east face actually requires kicking a few steps as our skins are sliding off the icy slope.

Skins off for the descent off Muellers Peak and we are able to coast across the broad basin below to Abbot Peak. On the map, Abbot Peak has two closed contours and we are unsure which is actually higher so we ski up both, tackling the western one first, then the eastern one as this gives us a better run down to the base of Mount Townsend. Mount Townsend is probably the most impressive looking peak, but it too is an easy skin up the southwest side. From the top we can see a couple of skiers on Mount Northcote and this turns out to be two sea kayaking friends of ours who are doing day trips from Charlotte Pass. We exchange a couple of text messages as they head off to Mount Kosciuszko and we have a surprisingly good corn snow descent down to Albina Lake.

From Albina Lake we skin up to Mount Lee and along the ridge to Carruthers Peak where we meet two other skiers, also day tripping from Charlotte Pass. There are a couple of other named peaks in the area we could tag - Alice Rawson and Mount Sentinel - but it would be good to have a couple of new peaks we can come back to another year so instead we ski down to camp on the ridge. Another party has camped about 60 metres below us on the ridge and they ski past just as we arrive at camp.

Day 3: Little Twynam, Mounts Twynam, Anton, Anderson, Tate and Mann Bluff, return to Guthega

Another warm morning but the west wind blows all day and it takes until 11.00 am for the snow to soften. We pack up camp and contour around to Crummer Spur. We follow Crummer Spur all the way to Little Twynam where we have to remove our skis to touch the top as the snow is all melted. It is very windy and our skis act as sails in our hands. It is windy all the way to the top of Mount Twynam, but from there the wind is behind us and not near as annoying.

Unfortunately the descent of Mount Twynam is solidly frozen and it is a chattering descent down to the base of Mount Anton where patchy snow on the west side means it is easy to walk to the top that try and ski. From Mount Anton we continue north and ski up to the top of Mount Anderson where we meet a young bloke out for a day trip from Guthega.

The east ridge of Mount Tate is almost all completely bare of snow but by weaving around a bit we are able to ski all the way to near Mann Bluff. We leave our packs and skis for the short hike up to the top of Mann Bluff and then ski over to the base of Mount Tate. We leave our packs at 2,000 metres on the ridge and skin up Mount Tate, the rocky top is blown clear so we walk the last bit.

Back at our packs, all the plodding has released pent up demand for some downhill skiing and as the snow has nicely softened we make turns down the east facing slope of Mount Tate gradually also traversing to the south as we go. Travel in the Guthega River valley looks tedious. The creek has melted out and there is not enough gradient to slide downhill so we continue traversing until we are roughly above the footbridge over the Guthega River where we get some more turns. There are quite a few old ski tracks, this is obviously a popular descent, and we follow the tracks, turning and traversing until we ski right out to the foot bridge.

On the east side of the Guthega River the snow has melted off so we have to walk until we reach the dam road where we can ski again until skis come off to cross the melted out dam wall, then skins and skis back on for the final 1 km ski up to the parking lot.

It was a grand three day trip involving ski ascents of 13 little peaks and two very fine corn snow runs. Another month, however, and there will be much more bare ground than snow, so that is probably it for our skiing this year.

In Search Of The Batemans Bay Wave Rider Buoy

Happiness is having a group of friends who think the perfect Sunday is spent paddling about kilometres from shore in a sea kayak searching for the wave rider buoy for no other reason than it sounds like fun.

When Mike, hence forth known as “local knowledge” proposed this trip I was, as usual, stoked to be invited. What could be more fun that heading out to sea looking for a small buoy in a big ocean. Two years before, Mike had found the buoy 800 metres from the last published location. This time, it would be a little different.

I planned to paddle over from our local trolley accessible beach at Sunshine Bay as the best adventures are those that start, hobbit like, right from your own front door. But, I knew I would be the slowest paddler and crossing over from Sunshine Bay to Maloneys Beach where Mike proposed to meet would add 10 km of extra paddling to the day. No worries, I would arrive early and eat a leisurely breakfast on the beach while I slurped down tea and rested prior to the arrival of the rest of the group.

And then, half the group – the strong half – also decided to paddle from Sunshine Bay – and when I arrived a full hour before our agreed upon departure time at Maloneys Beach, the rest of the group was already there with sails on kayaks and fully kitted out ready to go! So much for my leisurely breakfast.

Five minutes after the appointed time we headed off east to Three Islet Point. We had a position location from the relevant government site but no-one really expected the buoy to be that easy to find. Pete gave us a bearing and with compass and GPS we paddled for another 1.5 hours until we arrived at the buoy location. No buoy. No buoy in sight. Local knowledge refused to give any guidance on where he had last found the buoy, yet despite that, we managed to organise ourselves into a rough kayak grid search and spaced out over a kilometre or so we paddled roughly north in search of the buoy.

No buoy, no buoy in sight. Grid search back to the east and south again. Local knowledge is now providing some information about where we might find the buoy. No buoy, buoy in sight. We've been out for a few hours now. People's bladders are filling while stomachs are emptying and patience may also be ebbing away.

John suggested we sweep south one more time and, just as we are about to give up, Alison somehow manages to spot a tiny yellow speck that is intermittently just visible on the horizon. She is off going like the clappers, and those at the back of the group, doddling about drinking tea, who know who you are, are not sure what is going on.

After 15 minutes, I can see a small yellow speck, and then John can see a small yellow speck, finally we can all see a small yellow speck which does gradually get larger and resolves itself into a low lying yellow buoy with a small black flag atop. The wave rider buoy is found. We are 4 or 5 kilometres off shore and 6 kilometres from the last recorded buoy position. Selfies with the buoy aren't really possible as a brisk northerly has come up, but we do congratulate each other.

Mike and Alison head off back to Maloneys Beach, apparently they had good sailing conditions all the way. Doug, Pete, John and I head southwest to the Tollgate Islands and on into Sunshine Bay. Despite a solid 5 hours in the kayaks, John, Pete and Doug can't resist a paddle through the passage between north and south Tollgate Island while I, the slow one, plug along trying not to hold up the entire group.

We are all glad to land at Sunshine Bay after 5 hours and 33 kilometres. And that's happiness.

Up Joes Creek With A Paddle

After a significant hiatus, I've been getting back out in the kayak. Today I trolleyed down to our local beach and paddled north into the bay. I paddled along Caseys Beach and past Observation Point and pulled out in a small dumping wave midway along Corrigans Beach where Joes Creek forms a big lagoon behind the beach. It was early and the beach was quiet.

I dragged the kayak over the sand to the lagoon and almost capsized launching the kayak into the knee deep lagoon. I had positioned the kayak above a little sand shelf thinking I would just rock forward and slide gracefully into the water. But the stern of the boat got stuck and like a cow in quicksand I wobbled from side to side dangerously close to dunking completely. This must be how it is for Mirage owners launching off the beach.

In the lagoon, I paddled past the wildlife park where there are dozens of different ducks in the water. The Beach Road bridge made a low long tunnel to narrow to paddle through so I palmed along the roof to pass under the road. Passing behind the High School I was a source of great hilarity to the resident inmates but the school bell rang and they went back to their cells.

Passing under the Glenella Road bridge I was running out of water and a cyclist going by looked at me strangely perhaps wondering why I was kayaking in a drainage ditch. The birds love the creek, there were hundreds. Corellas and lorikeets, egrets, spoonbills, cormorants, many different species of ducks and other waterfowl.

On the way back, an old lady walking her dog turned tail and fled as I paddled past, perhaps thinking only monsters come out of creeks. While the couple I met walking their dog along Corrigans Beach thought the whole thing a grand adventure. That's how it is when you do something slightly unusual: you are either a genius or a nutter.

Winging It

It has been way too long since I was out in my kayak. Distracted by other activities, but mostly, waiting for my new kayak to arrive and thinking how much faster I would go in my new smaller, lighter kayak. But, that new kayak is now a long way away off and it is time to regain some kayak fitness.

I took a wing paddle. Supposedly, wing paddles are 5 to 6 % faster than Euro blades with the caveat that you must have pretty impeccable technique to see that increase in speed. I am not good with a wing, I'm not that good with a Euro, either, but I'd be pretty happy to not always be the last paddler struggling to keep up.

It's hard to manage a wing, however, when you are focusing on keeping up with the group, so paddling solo is a great time for me to work on technique.

I trolleyed down to Sunshine Bay, our local beach and paddled over to Cullendulla and back via Snapper Island. It was glorious. Warm sun on the water, no wind. The water was a little murky after some recent storm events, and I'd forgotten how interesting it is paddling around Snapper Island.

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

The Blue Cave: Tollgate Islands

A short video from a paddle around the Tollgate Islands earlier this week is here.

Trolley: The Movie

A movie mostly about trolleys and hardly at all about sea kayaking, watch it here.