(Click on a photo for large view)
Guthega area
Looking towards Blue Lake
Snow Gum
Island Bend camp area after big snowfall
Next to blue lake, up from Illawong hut.
Island Bend camp area
Old settlers hut near Jindabyne picnic area
To give instant heat, Mr Buddy heater.
Walking from skitube towards Thredbo diggings camp area.
Lake Jindabyne
Alpine Touring skis I borrowed. Very good on downhill
Dead Horse gap
View of kosi range from victorian side
Little house in the prairie (Keeble's hut). Free entry.
Had all of August to enjoy Kosiusko NP. A luxury... this time no shuttle bus driving which could get quite tiring, especially weekends.
A good break from my job building trails in the Grampians, which can be a bit bleak in the winter.
A good break from my job building trails in the Grampians, which can be a bit bleak in the winter.
Tried a bit of snowboarding (limited success), did some X country on icy terrain mostly. Realised September is a better season for x country - less windy, less cold, snow is less icy on the high plateau.
Linked up with Pierre who I had met on queen's birthday, and did a backcountry tour to Ramshead with his Alpine Touring (AT) skis. Heavier skis and boots than my Nordic skis. Basically regular wide skis with a binding that converts to freeheel for flat and uphill. Need to put skins on for the latter.
They turned out great on the downhill... great sense of mastery with the rigid boots etc.
Another day, we did 5000m total in Thredbo ski resort, using the lifts, and I got pretty much private tuition for my downhill parallel skiing, and improved a lot.
This also meant I shared some evenings and dinner , which broke my isolation to some degree.
It occurred to me during the trip that It might have been less spartan to go to Bali... also that for Mountaineering, I'd be better off flying to Europe and using a place like "La Berarde" or Chamonix as a base camp... easy to find climbing partners, gentle weather, a network of mountain huts etc.
There was a degree of loneliness with living out of the van in spartan cold, which I had not expected.
The photos were taken with a new camera, good for nightshots, which I can use for timelapses later:
Sony RX100 MK3. A very powerful and compact camera.
At the end, I drove the windy road into victoria and walked the easy walk to Keeble's hut... some very nice old huts, would be good to do a thru-hike in the lower alpine areas.
