 Blue Lake is supposed to be an annual event, where we could cut our teeth and get out into the wildernesswild again, but for many reason's it gets just a little more impenetrable each year. It gets a little trickier to organise amidst life's busy waves, find mates who have the time and importanly very short memories to forget about past hardships and perhap more difficult to fill the spaces available in between. Because of this, each year when the ice-climbing season competes with the march of global warming in Australia's high country, past memories surface ever more strongly and force themselves on our subconscious. Surely we need to do one more trip. This year several people showed interest: Breanna got in touch about it first and Jason was also keen. Then Jack also decided to join and suddenly we head a strong team of four climbers and no more excuses for 2023. Preparations went well and the four of us met at Jindabyne to discuss our approach schedule, unfortunately we had missed the good weather window and storms with rain were forcast, but we had no alternative dates left, since all of us had other committments the following week. So it was do or die and we headed up to Guthega in the van on Thursday early morning.
The road was still calm early in the morning but by the time we hit the dirt road for the last stretch the rain started setting in. First lightly to lead us on but, once we were at the skilift drop-off point at Guthega to unload our heavy packs - it suddenly unleashed. The winds picked up and the rain turned to sleet. We were wet before we finished unloading the car and the temparture now dropped swiftly. We regrouped in the skilift buildin, where another group on a back-country course were stranded. While we watched them practise how to put on their crampons we decided to go for a quick walk without packs to the river to check the conditions. Jack and Breanna both tried out snowshoes for the first time and progressed nicely. But by the time we crossed the bridge and climbed up to the knoll across from the dam, conditions were fierce. We could battle our way through to the bridge crossing the snowy river, but there was little snow (apart from the fresh stuff falling right now) so we would have to sludge our way through the bushes and hope for better snow on the other side. I hate to admit it, but in the end the thought of a hot jacuzzi and sauna won us over. Drenched we returned to the car and bailed, but not before heading up to Perisher for a few laps up front valley. Was it worth it ? Absolutely, because Jason had already dreamed up another plan for the next day. |
