Below is the story of our July Blue Lake
trip with lots of photos and commentary from everyone. 
Our
trip to Blue Lake started in Guthega and after hiring some
gear in Jindabyne the four intrepid adventurers spend 2
hours packing and sorting gear at the lift station before
setting to some of the best ice-climbing ever 
seen
at Blue Lake. Never mind the blizzard conditions for the
next few days. Even though the approach to the lake was
hard due to our heavy packs, excellent navigation by Patrick
got us to our campsite below the mouth of Blue Lake in just
over 4 hours. We spent the next three nights in two tents
who were continuously pattered by gale force winds and spindrift.
We had to clear the snow every few hours and all would have
been lost if we wouldn't have found a secret ice cave provided
kindly 
by
some previous adventurer. So we set about "improving"
the cave amidst the raging storm and turned it into our
own little palace. It was
to entertain us with lots of gourmet cooking (kindly sourced
by Bryan), endless discussions about the most bizarre topics
as well as charades and mind-games. "Dave" the
cave was our savior and without it we would not have withstood
the force of the storm. Whenever the storm eased for a while
we would venture outside to the perimeter of the lake and
marveled about the fantastic blue ice. But we did not just
marvel and ice-climbing was our main agenda. There was plenty
of it and nobody else around so picking a good spot at the
West side of the lake was easy. Neither of us had never
seen that much ice at the lake and climbing it regardless
of the 
howling
storm was a fantastic experience. The severe wind belted
us with spindrift as we bouldered and climbed the immaculate
ice-formations at Blue Lake and we could only image what
it would be like to climb in sunny conditions. Our day of
return came much to soon but since the storm continued we
decided to return in better conditions. It was an invaluable
experience for all of us who will go on to climb Mount Cook
next year.
Thanks Bryan, Will, Patrick
for making this a great trip.
Lucky Escape
by Patrick Dagassan
Here's a short account of what can go
wrong at Blue Lake when you are exploring some of its snow
gullies. Before I discovered this beautiful place in 2000,
I spent many years in the European Alps doing ski tours
without any problems at all, always aware of the risks involved
and making sure I knew the weather and snow conditions before
I took off. Then came Mt. Kosziusko National Park with its
unpredictable weather, blizzards, white outs, remoteness,
etc. No problem I thought, despite some pretty challenging
gullies (number 3 is still on my tick list), the mountains
I had skied in Europe were much steeper than the "hills"
around the lake. So after two days of sitting in a snow
cave with my three (increasingly smelly) mates, I was looking
forward to a leasurily tour to the summit of Little Twynam,
starting from the lake, climbing up the wide gully on the
right just after the main ice section. The weather that
day was overcast, strong wind, no snowfall, pretty good
visibility. Two days earlier we had been hit by a blizzard
with high winds and heaps of snow. So before I started up
the gully I checked out the conditions to find a very firm
base with maybe 5cm of fresh snow on it, perfect! About
150m above the lake, after passing the narrowest section
(the "funnel"), I continued my ascent in large
zig-zags up a widening 30 degree slope, when suddenly I
heard a loud bang. Avalanche?! In Australia?! No way!! Immediately
it felt like the ground beneath me was giving way, and I
found myself sliding down the mountain at increasing speed.
I was now facing downwards, still standing, wide stance,
trying to ride the beast, heading for the funnel where the
blocks of compact snow were starting to pile up, not looking
good. Just as I was heading for the trouble zone, the whole
thing just came to a stand-still, barely 100m lower. Needless
to say that I was shaking badly, realizing how awfully wrong
this could have gone. Looking back up the mountain I realized
that the whole bloody slope had been triggered 200m above
me, about 300m across, half to one meter thick. My first
instinct was to get out of the danger zone, so I headed
to the left and found myself on blank ice. I heard Roman
shouting from the lake, so I let him know that I was ok.
Roman later told me that they were ice-climbing when suddenly
the whole mountain just came sliding down, big blocks of
snow and ice,
piling up on the lake. His first thought? "Amy (note:
that's my lovely wife) is going to kill me!". Anyway,
I should have known better. The ice I was standing on was
the real base, the snow storm had just dumped a nice load
of snow on it, which was then covered by a new layer of
ice due to freezing rain the previous night. The result
was a very instable slope just waiting for some stupid person
to trigger it. But that was not the end of the story. Because
I was standing on a steep section of ice flanking the funnel
I started sliding again, this time heading for a rock ledge
at high speed. No way (again)!! So instead of just walking
away from this mess, shaken but unharmed, I was going to
smash into rocks. Great, Amy was really going to kill me!
So what did I do? Well I
have always wanted to star on MTV's Jackass show, so shortly
before impact I ejected side-ways free-falling 4-5m back
into beautifully soft snow blocks formed by the avalanche.
Better than rocks I reckoned. Damn, nobody there to film
the stunt (bye bye MTV), so you'll just have to take my
word for it. And that was basically it. Another lesson learnt,
more to come no doubt. Moments later I was at the lake again,
looking back up, lucky that nothing more serious had happened.
And yes, I was looking forward to getting back into that
stinky, but safe, snowcave.
Patrick from China 24.Mar06.
Blue
Lake July 2004 documents:
Please find below a list of relevant download
materials for the preparation of the first Blue Lake trip
on the 22nd of July 2004. The documents are provided in
Excel format.
Download Will's
Training Schedule HERE.
Download Roman's Gear list HERE.
Download Bryan's Food list HERE
Blue Lake July 2004 "revised"
documents:
To be added !
