​One of the GPS waypoints along the Cane Line.
​This one known as the R-line.
The canes have to be core drilled into the ice, similar to ski race gates.

​Official log on to VNJ Casey (Comms) for the duration of the trip was “Robbo’s ski party”. Mandatory “scheds” are done twice daily at 1900 and 0800 hrs. Advise Station of our position, welfare of members, weather obs, intentions, state of track and vehicles etc, and also confirm CO2 monitoring is on.

 A big 10 days in Victoria, running several AST1 courses of 16 with two instructors. Hung out with a heap of awesome people, and got immersed in the backcountry stoke of the Vic BC Festival. The intensity of the terrain, the breathtaking views, the vibe - we loved it all. Here are some photos from those weeks.

We were heading up to Thredbo for a tour when we received a message from a client with his report of being caught and buried in an avalanche at Etheridge Ridge the previous day. His description was so detailed and he truly thought his life was over, we changed our plans immediately and headed out there to view the site and try to understand how and why the slide happened. Below is an abridged account from the victim and the photos we took today. We are so grateful that the victim shared his story and hope it encourages others to share their observations and experiences so we all can learn and stay safe.

On our first AST1 course in NSW this season, we had an example of a class 1 sign from the carpark that morning - an avalanche under the cornice on East Tate Ridge. Assumed it was a natural slide. Next day though, one of our course participants sent us this video. Rider and photographer unknown...

The story of this trip was first published in the September 2 edition of the Australian Town and Country Journal in 1899. (It appears to have been written by a house journalist, probably based on an interview with Kerry because the details of the route are fairly vague). Most of the quotes in this story are sourced from this article.
 
Backcountry legend Elyne Mitchell, in her Discoverers of the Snowy Mountains, also provided some valuable coverage of this unique event, based on a remarkable correspondence had in 1943 with one of the expeditioners, the then 79 year old Edgar Holden, and through her access to an article he had written in the October 2 1899 edition of the Dalgety Review (mailed to her by Holden).
 
In addition to Edgar Holden, a great skier and friend of Kerry, the Jagungal summiteers featured some of the best-known stockmen and skiing identities of the Snowy in those days.
 
Of particular note were Harry Bolton, stockman, skier and guide from Snowy Plain, and Stewart McAllister, manager of the Grey Mare mine, guide for the expedition and recognised as the best skier in the district. (Holden was no slouch on skis either, apparently having developed what was, in effect, a Telemark turn, when others still grappled with a single pole between their legs, if you will excuse the expression!)
 
They set out on horseback from Jindabyne on August 4, travelling north along the Eucumbene River and spent their first night “at a solitary miner’s hut” at Snowy Plain, about 30 kilometres from Jindabyne, via the Kalkite Gap and crossing the Gungarlin River (The hut was the home of John Bolton, Harry’s father.
 
Bad weather was developing.
 
“Owing to the preceding rains, it was found that the mountain passes and ‘sidlings’ had become treacherous, even to the sure-footed Monaro horses; but save a few nasty falls and the excitement of attending the fording of swollen mountain torrents of doubtful depth, the day’s journey was accomplished  … drenched to the skin from the alternative mountain mists and sleet storms….”
Left: Full page picture story of the trip using Kerry’s photos that appeared in the September 2 1899 edition of the Australian Town and Country Journal that accompanied the article that reported on the trip
 
They intended to journey the next day up onto the ”Bogong Mountains” and to stay at the Grey Mare mining camp (staying in the old Grey Mare hut, approximately 2 kilometres south of the current hut), which had been arranged prior to the trip. The unidentified author of the Town and Country article is vague about specific routes but it seems likely that they headed for the Brassy Mountains, because this was the general route often taken by McAllister, who used to ski from the mine down to Jindabyne once a week to collect the mail (as reported to Elyne Mitchell by Edgar Holden).
 
Originally, they planned to remain on horseback until they reached the foot of these ranges but heavy snow set in and they donned their “Norwegian snow shoes”.
 
On this second day, as they approached the “Brassy Gap” (between the Big Brassy and Brassy peaks) “a veritable inferno presented itself.”  They were confronted by 80 kph winds and swirling snowdrifts, which forced them back to the Snowy Plain hut.  A few of the members abandoned the expedition and headed home.
 
“Next morning, diminished in numbers, but firmer in purpose, the party made a second and successful attempt, encountering on route their enemy the blizzard from a different quarter. Soon after midday the temperature fell to 10 deg. Fahrenheit, the intense cold freezing beards and moustaches solid, with masses of ice and Alpena stocks becoming glued to inmittened (sic) fingers in the most uncomfortable fashion.”
 
Then conditions worsened.
 
“All these were minor discomforts, however, and faded into significance when, late in the day, the party became enveloped in a dense fog and temporarily lost the run both of each other and of their direction.”
 
The group stuck together by continually calling out to each other (“vociferous hailings”) and when one of the group showed signs of hypothermia (“snow-sleep”), this “necessitated his experiencing a somewhat rough handling ere he was set going again.” Tough love!
 
They travelled west, most likely between Cup and Saucer Hill and Mailbox Hill, and then approximately 5 kilometres (as the crow flies) across to Grey Mare hut.
 
Almost miraculously, given the whiteout and blizzard conditions, and little or no navigation equipment, their guide led them to the hut (“a mere dotlet in the virgin snowfield”) where they were snowed in for the next two nights.
 
During their “incarceration” the author claimed the temperature dropped as low as 1 deg. Fahrenheit and they kept the fire going having found a brush fence to burn.
 
To supplement their rations, there was “abundantly generous tucker, including fresh meat, which had been killed in April and hung frozen in the storehouse, animal heat was sustained – animal spirits too.”
 
The sun came out on the third day and, 10 kilometres away to the north, the object of their journey made its appearance.
 
“The landscape began to unfold itself and Big Bogong … shaped gauntly out of the mist.”
 
Holden informed Elyne Mitchell that six or seven feet of snow had fallen during the storm, with some of the snow gums at higher levels almost buried. Holden told her that Stewart McAllister assured them this was not unusual and perhaps confirming this ‘ …high up in the branches of a tree in a sheltered spot, was discovered the skeleton of a horse …’.
 
The group then travelled up through snow gums (“glades of half-buried Alpine eucalypti”) and approached the mountain from the east.
 
“Emerging from the timber limit, it was found that one enormous spur leading to the summit had been softened in contour by the tremendous snowfall and that snow-shoeing upon it was actually practicable to within a hundred yards of the cairn itself.”
 
First they had to cross a still-exposed stream and achieved this by throwing their skis across and then jumping the gap.
 
It took them about 90 minutes to cover the last kilometre to the peak and the following description gives a marvellous view of what one sees from the top of that lonely mountain.

“As far as the eye could reach were snow-capped mountains and abysmal gorges – Kosciusko, 30 miles distant, the Victorian Bogong, 60 miles distant, and the principal peaks of both colonies appeared as within a stone’s throw. Fully 100 miles of the Murray Valley lay at the foot of the mountain, and the whole landscape, in blue and white, was flecked by vaporous cloud-masses thrown here and there at random.”
 
The team descended the mountain (a little over 2km from the cairn to the river) in quick fashion but one of their number did it very fast. 
 
“The tremendous speed which it was known would be attained decided most of the party to ride their break- sticks hobby horse fashion, but Mr. W.S. McAllister, being requested to give the party a hair-raising exhibition of his skill as a ski-boler, cast aside all encumbrances, and covered the distance in 75 seconds.”
 
The Town and Country article reported, without further immediate detail, that they began the return journey the next day.
 
“The party beat all their previous records by accomplishing the return journey to Jindabyne, 17 miles on snow shoes and 18 miles on horseback, in one continuous stretch, swimming their horses across the Eucumbene River in full flood at midnight, arriving at their destination safely, but nearly unrecognisable from snow-tan and exposure.”
 
Rather than travelling “in one continuous stretch”, Holden told Elyne Mitchell that they spent the night at Jack Bolton’s hut on Snowy Plain, “being roused early on a dark morning because the rivers were rising.” They most likely would have travelled east/southeast from Jagungal, down off the ranges (Mitchell suggests toward Rocky Plains Creek) before travelling south to the Bolton Hut.
 
The next day they forded the Gungarlin River, rode down through the Kalkite Gap and crossed the rapidly rising Eucumbene River.  By any measure, it was a fast and challenging return journey.
 
They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

It should be noted that, two years previously, the main actors in this story also accomplished the first recorded winter ascent of Kosciuszko. And that is another story worth telling.

Author: Paul Pearce
 ​

​On this first day, according to Kerry, the temperature rose to 80 degrees F. at 3 pm and fell that night to 15 degrees below.
“On one of our coldest nights … one Queensland representative was able to count up 29 separate garments on his person, among these being 11 shirts, sweaters, and under garments, three pairs socks, and three full suits of clothes. That he looked corpulent goes without saying….”
They survived up on the summit for several days before the dray arrived with the bulk of the equipment, including the main “Arctic tent”, and their sleeping bags (the dray had been delayed by a capsize on one of the approach slopes).
They were very proud of the tent, made of “hurricane canvas” and their sleeping bags, which “are made of long woollen sheep skins carefully cleaned and tanned and sewn into bags about 7ft. 6 in. long. The wool is turned inwards, the outside covered in canvas.”
(The tent lasted two months before a storm threatened to blow it off the mountain and so they cut down the centre pole, flattening the tent and weighting it down over their equipment. The party then crawled along the Etheridge Range and descended to the Thredbo River. The following year a permanent hut was built to replace the tent.)
Kerry and those not directly involved in the weather recording stayed quite some time on the mountain travelling around the various peaks and lakes in the vicinity and he waxed lyrical about much that he saw,
“The gorgeousness of sunrise and sunset as seen from Kosciusko was a scene never to be forgotten. On a bright, clear evening our panoramic view of 100 miles over the Monaro plains and 70 to 80 down the Murray valley gave place to a pillowy sea of clouds, which the setting sun touched with a deep purple. These sunk until Kosciusko and a few sister peaks were the only islands in this vast sea. Sunrise was, if possible, even more beautiful still.”
This description from 120 years ago will resonate with those of you who have toured in this region.
The saga of the Wragge weather station can be read in an earlier article on the Alpine Access Australia website, but Charles Kerry’s description of the trip from Jindabyne to Kosciuszko to establish the station stands as one of the first recorded in any detail.

• Charles Kerry, born at Bombala in 1858, was one of the earliest promoters of skiing in the NSW Snowy Mountains. He was largely responsible for introducing ski tourism in Kiandra, taking guided groups annually from the mid 1890s.

In the winter of the year he accompanied the Wragge expedition, and with minimal ski experience, he and a small group made the first winter ascent of Mt Kosciuszko. In the winter of 1899 he toured from Jindabyne to Jagungal. 
He was instrumental in persuading the NSW Government to establish ski and snow holidays in NSW, including the construction of a road from Jindabyne to the Kosciuszko summit in 1905. Apart from all if this, he was famous for his pioneering photographic images, including those of the Snowy Mountains.
Author: PAUL PEARCE