Jagungal Weekend Ski Trip
18-19 August 2007
All content copyright © Ashley Burke 2007. Not to be copied, duplicated or used for any purpose without permission.
Jagungal Weekend Ski Trip 18-19 August 2007
All content copyright © Ashley Burke 2007. Not to be copied, duplicated or used for any purpose without permission. |
On the weekend of 18-19 August 2007 I skied from Guthega Power Station to Jagungal via Schlink Pass, Mawson's Hut and the Jagungal wilderness. I was joined by Jiri Svec and Catherine Barnes who accompanied me as far as Schlink Pass. It was a great weekend with some long distances of solo skiing in the wilderness of the Snowy Mountains. The time alone was tempered by Jiri and Catherine's company at the beginning and end of the trip, and also by a chance encounter with friends who I happened to bump into along the way.
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On Saturday morning we climbed from Guthega Power Station up the Schlink Road on patchy snow until we reached the deeper snow cover here at Whites River. |
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Whites River, near Whites River hut. |
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Making tracks. After parting with Jiri and Catherine I headed up solo onto Kerries Ridge. Here there were no other ski tracks apart from my own, and the views of the Greymare Range under darkening skies was dramatic. |
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The open wilderness of the Kerries Range along which I skied before reaching Mawsons Hut for lunch. |
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My first views of Jagungal, from the top of Kerries Ridge. |
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I finally reached the top of Jagungal at 4:50pm on Saturday afternoon and wisps of cloud were threading themselves around the summit. But to the west, shafts of sunlight penetrated through gaps in the cloud. |
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Mist around the summit of Jagungal. |
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The setting sun created shafts of light to the west. |
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The weather looked threatening but there was no wind, no rain and no snow. It was unusually mild on the summit, not freezing cold as Jagungal usually is! |
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After skiing down from the summit I pitched my tent as the sky lit up in the setting sun. |
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From my tent at the base of Jagungal, a beautiful sunset was seen. |
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Next morning I had a long ski back to Schlink Pass via Gungartan Pass. |
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Until I reached Gungartan Pass, I was skiing in whiteout. Only when I reached Gungartan Pass did the whiteout begin to dissipate, and here the first translucent scenes of a sunny day beyond the cloud were seen. |
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Finally the whiteout cleared and as I skied down towards Schlink Hut, splendid views across to the Greymares were seen. |
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At Schlink Hut I met up with Jiri and Catherine again and we skied together up to Schlink Pass for lunch. Here Catherine tackles a steep section. |
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At Schlink Pass we bumped into Roger Lembit, Ian Wilson and Rob Hynes, and we all had lunch together. |
All content copyright © Ashley Burke 2007. Not to be copied, duplicated or used for any purpose without permission. |
