BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BOGONG- trip report by Steve England. Pics Graeme, Steve, George.
NSW Nordic Ski Club members
The background to the trip is that Graeme and the two
Steve’s have been planning a six week skiing trip in the Indian Himalaya
(Kashmir and the Kullu Valley) for February and March next year, and a week on
the Main Range in July and this week to Bogong were training/preparation trips
for India. George had expressed some
interest in the
This was Graeme’s 3rd trip to Bogong having done a solo exploratory trip in 2006 in lousy snow conditions. He and Stephen Poole had also had a week down there last year in less than ideal conditions but had managed to get some good skiing in. As always, this had allowed Graeme to compile a list of “must-do” chutes and runs.
But first… Graeme and Steve E met George and Steve P on Saturday 30 August some 5 or 6 ks down the road from Hotham resort on the Harrietville side to do a day trip out to “The Twins”.
Three kilometres or so skinning along a fire trail past the Wangaratta Ski Club’s private rope tow and a steepish climb brought us up on to The Twins. We got a couple of good steepish runs in gullies on the south side before lunch. One more nice gully after lunch then decided we would run down the east side (seen on the left of the pic above) of The Twins and pick up the fire trail. BIG MISTAKE!! The snow was about two feet deep and absolutely rotten. It was impossible to turn on without dropping right through the base to the rocks and bushes below. After some messy skiing and some traversing we hit the tree line, hoisted the skis on the day packs and post-holed our way back to the fire trail for the skin back to the main road. Anyway, it was a very satisfying day.
Sunday was spent at Graeme’s place at Cobungra, packing, re-packing, talking gear ad infinitum getting ready for a Monday start. A front was due in and brought some rain at the lower elevations.
So to Bogong…
Away at about 9.00am for the 2 and a half hour drive via Omeo to the start of the Mulhauser Spur – our route up Bogong to the Cleve Cole Hut. Just before we hit the snow line we came across Ubiquitous Steve. Ubiquitous Steve who has taken it upon himself to keep the 4WD track up to Mulhauser Camp clear. It was a little disconcerting coming across a guy in the wild wielding a chainsaw, but all was well and it was terrific that he had come in ahead of us because he had cleared a lot of fallen timber from the road.
The snow was too deep to continue so we left the car
about a kilometre before Mulhauser Camp and donned our gear. After a quick lunch by the car we were
off. The first couple of hours we
carried our skis up the top of Mulhauser Spur, turning west onto Long
Spur. Graeme was testing a new technique
– using “off-road crocs” with Seal Skinz waterproof
socks to ease his sore heels and so had the added weight of his boots as
well. Finally, after rocky ground mixed
with postholing in slushy snow, at the second saddle
on Long Spur the skis were on and it was a quite tedious process getting along
the ridge and up and over Bossiae Hill to Cleve Cole Hut. We arrived around
Tuesday dawned with snow, high wind and fairly poor
visibility. The front hadn’t done with
us yet so we got a couple of runs below the hut through the trees towards Wotan
Creek. Good conditions to start with but
soon becoming very heavy as we got lower.
We then skied across to locate and view
Back to the Hut for lunch. During the morning the sun had been making
some brief appearances, so after lunch we decided to climb up along the ridge
to get a look across to the
Wednesday saw us back up towards the summit. We started off in quite cloudy conditions but it cleared during the morning. We had a first ski down Cairn Gully from Audax Point. This was a lovely long blue run in great spring snow conditions with a dusting of fresh snow which soon disappeared as the sun stayed out mid morning.
A long skin back up the
gully and lunch at the summit before
starting to pick off the gullies.
The different gullies and ridges and runs are extensively marked on the
Bogong Ski Club map and identified as blue and black just like at a
resort. The only pity was that there
wasn’t a lift to haul you back up to the top.
However, as they say there is nothing like earning your turns. “Death Cookie”
was our first gully. The spring snow was
very easy to ski and this gave us plenty of confidence. Then we took on “Bermuda”
(Graeme skied the top of
At this point a little bit about gear. Three of us were on new gear. Graeme was on some very light Ski Trab Duo
Sint Aero Alpine Touring skis. With very
light Dynafit bindings, the whole combo was feather-light and much
appreciated. Stephen Poole was on new
Black Diamond Stigma Skis as well as new Voile tele bindings with a free pivot
position for climbing. This makes for
much less resistance when climbing and is again a very welcome relief. I must confess that this year I have also
gone over to “the dark side” and have purchased an AT set-up. Dynafit FT 10.0 mid-fat
skis and Dynafit bindings. Again a fairly light set-up.
After a week beforehand on the resort at Hotham I was very comfortable
with them. It had originally actually
felt quite strange having my heel locked down after 15 or so years. George
was a lighter touring tele gear (Fischer Rebounds) with cable bindings. The patterned base was certainly an advantage
at times but overall the gear was a bit underdone for the slopes we were skiing
and so there was much hut talk about the merits of some fatter tele skis for
the
Thursday was more of the same – a warm up down Westons on the way back up towards the summit and then three more gullies – “Boggaramma”, “Cable Layer” and “Hesitation”, the last 2 joining up lower down. Our climbing path back out of Cairn Gully was getting very well used. We were pretty thirsty at the bottom of Cable Layer and there were some holes in the snow revealing Cairn Creek. Graeme made an attempt to find a way down to the creek and ended up falling into shallow water, but enough to get wet up to his waist!! Luckily we had a bit of extra warm clothing amongst us and he was soon sorted out aside from wet socks. We decided to go for a last run on Hesitation before heading back to the hut ahead of the late afternoon chill. The area in front of the fire looked like a Chinese laundry with all of Graeme’s wet gear strung out to dry.
The big decision was Friday – do we just pack up and go in
the morning or do we head back up and try to get one more good run in before
leaving Bogong for this year. We were
addicted, so we got an early start and headed up towards the
A quick lunch at the Hut, a sweep and clean and we were back off to the car. Three and a half hours out compared to 5 and a bit in shows what a lighter pack and gravity can do for you.
In summary a sensational trip! Bogong had always been on my “Must do one day” list. Now it is definitely on my “Must do again next year” list. We only skied a tiny fraction of the area available, confining ourselves mainly to the chutes off the summit ridge. There is amazing skiing available off the Hooker Plateau and over from the West Peak as well the Audax and Westons areas – not to mention lower altitude tree skiing all around – enough to keep us satisfied for years. Oh and by the way, the Crosscut Saw” looked really good from the top of Bogong. While a bit more of an effort to get to and needing a good snow year to do it, it seems like we will be making the effort the next good year we get.
Now for
Steve England
