[SUBW-A] Trip Report - Skiing Weekend

[jsve6349 at mail.usyd.edu.au]

Trip Report: Dead Horse Gap to Mt Kosciuszko, 13-14th October 2007

Party: Tom Murtagh, Dave “Fritz” Lee, Nicole St Vincent Welch, Andrew
Bovis, Catherine Barnes, Jiri Svec

The alarm went of at 2:30am but I didn't sleep, two coffees the day before
made sure of that.To increase my chances of staying awake I had another
one before we left. By 3am Andrew, Cat and Myself were in the car, skis
and all heading south along King St. I was drugged up ready and to drive
the first leg down to Michelago. Initially, the lack of sleep wasn't an
issue, Bogong moths constantly exploding on the windscreen kept me awake
and entertained. However, near Canberra my vision started to get blurry.
Combination of tiredness and the fact that I ran out of water for the
windscreen wipers. At Michelago drivers were changed and I didn't wake up
until Rhythm Sports in Cooma. Even though the store was open the lady
behind the counter couldn't help and had no idea when or even IF someone
that could help us would be coming. Bakery was the next natural stop. We
conveyed the message to the other car and I chose the most obvious
landmark to meet up. Minutes passed, no call, no car. Would you believe
there is more than one Woolworths yet no 3 phone service in Cooma?
Luckily, Bruce at Wilderness Sports in Jindabyne was happy to see us and
after a couple of jokes and a $240 worth of equipment we were finally
ready to head up the mountain.

Dead Horse Gap was covered in a blanket of new snow and apparently it even
snowed down to Jindabyne the night before. Blue skies, fresh snow – pretty
good for mid October. Too bad the fresh snow was rather annoying as we
climbed up the initial 400m in our walking shoes. Tom probably had the
most fun, wearing his new formal volleys. As we crossed Bogong creek the
cover became more consistent and it was time to get our skis on. Climbing
steadily past the Rams Head South, the group was encompassed by low cloud
and the wind increased substantially. By the time we reached Rams Head
visibility was reduced to less than 20 metres and it was time to seek some
shelter from the wind. We dug a nice wind break on the downwind side of
Rams Head. In the process, Fritz managed to fall through a small cavity
into a snow cave and we realised we were more than 3 metres off the
ground. Since there was nothing else to do, we enlarged the snow cave to
the point that some of us even contemplated spending the night there.  By
5pm we all had enough and it was time to set up the party tent and
well
party. Night was young, gluewein, port, kirsch and bailey were
flowing so good time was had by all. We were all out by 9:30pm.

Next morning I managed to get up to catch an amazing sunrise as the sun
came up over the Rams Head Range. Soon after, the clouds rolled back in
and the wind picked up again. Not surprisingly, breakfast was served in
bed. After breakfast, Nicole and then Andrew decided to find a suitable
spot for a loo with a view. Nicole came back without an incident but
Andrew unaware that people were approaching, was greeted by a party of
snowshoers. Trying to be discreet and not to stand up, he was forced to
squat for 10 minutes as the group slowly dragged themselves up the hill.
When the clouds lifted slightly around mid morning the majestic hill of Mt.
Kosciuszko could be seen in the distance. As difficult as it looked (one
could drive a bus to the base at 2100m until the 1982), there was no way
we could go back without conquering the towering peak. We followed the
jagged Rams Head Range down to Cootapatamba Lake and then up to Mt.
Kosciuszko via Rawson’s Pass. The views were impressive, untouched
wilderness followed by the sight of port-a-loos at Australia’s highest
alpine pass. By this stage the wind was gusting over 100km/h on the ridge
and it was very difficult to walk let alone ski up to the peak. Visibility
was once again reduced with beautiful intermittent views down to the Geehi
plain and along to Charlotte pass. For something different on the way Cat,
Fritz and Tom skied/tumbled off the steep Cootapatamba Ridge down to the
Lake back while I waited at the top. Skiing was phenomenal; the snow was
nice and soft. It was also saturated with melted water which flowed down
through the snow pack until it reached an ice layer where it spread out
and lubricated the above layer. Yes, that’s right, I was the idiot that
went last and managed to cause a small avalanche in the process. No harm
done, just a quick ride down about 10 metres skilfully captured on video
by our camera man Fritz.
As the weather was getting worse it was time to go back to camp, pack up
and head down below the clouds towards South Rams Head. Few more telemark
turns on the way and we quickly descended down to Thredbo Valley. Walking
down to the car was relatively easy as all the snow from the previous day
had already melted. The cars were reached by 3:30pm. This was a wonderful
trip and I would like to thank everyone that attended. Hopefully there
will be more like this one next year.
Photos and videos will be shown at the next slide night.

Jiri



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