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After a very busy, windy, snowy June, July & August, September has presented some opportunities to get out to the far reaches of the Main Range. Three days out, we identify Monday as a Twynam day. The day dawns with moderate NW winds up high, so the perfect wind-less day it will not be! All we can do is head out there and hope the sun does its job. Up from Illawong it’s a landscape of white rolling hills punctuated by tree and rock ridgelines, and far in the distance are the higher peaks which are round on the eastern side and drop off precipitously to the west. The legendary western faces. A solitary figure kilometres away makes their way up the Twynam ridgeline. A group of two can be seen taking a break in the lee of a small wave-like feature. We push on into the relentless nor’wester, the imposing face of Twynam looming ever closer. The snowpack is a patchwork of ice and snowdrifts – all of it softening by the minute. The last leg, across the saddle with Blue Lake below us to the south, opens up a view to Kozi, Townsend, Northcote, Lee, Carruthers, the magnificent southern end of the Main Range. The top of Twynam is a wide plateau. It feels ancient. A trig somewhat wind-battered is perched there, surrounded by a thin icy layer of snow. We walk over to survey the western side. It’s breathtaking. Wherever you look are steep, enticing lines – untracked. Wide faces, bowls, chutes, cliffs. All dropping into remote wilderness. It’s early afternoon, and we see a lone adventurer taking the route out along the ridge of the Watsons Crags. Wondering if they really intend to drop in to one of those lines at this hour of the day… The thing about the western faces is that those lines are soooo alluring, you soooo want to drop down there. The equivalent of summit fever. And yet you have to recognise how remote these places are, and take a moment to assess the time it’s going to take to get back out, whether your physical fitness will cope with a tough climb, maybe bootpacking with crampons, and then the long haul back to the trailhead. When things go wrong out here, they go badly wrong. For us, it’s a day to search for softening eastern aspects, and to leave the west side for another day. Beating into the wind for hours has worn us down, and hitting the eastern side of Twynam is a relief. And brings sweet rewards. A few more climbs and lines underneath those lee-side wind lips and bowls around Mt Anton, then a big old schuss in the corn to the Illawong bridge. And already planning a mission back out there next time there’s a perfect wind-less day… - Pieta Herring My favourite way to spend a Winter Sunday: 7 am – Head out of Jindabyne in time to avoid the August weekend traffic snarl. 8 am – Skins on and a peaceful amble up the road to Eyre, watching as the Perisher resort slowly comes to life 9 am – First lift up Eyre and some excellent runs down the untouched groomers. 10 am – Coffee & BLT at the Eyre cafe 10.30 – Time to run away from the crowds and head to the empty untracked playgrounds of the Perisher sidecountry. Time stands still – A few hours of solitude in the silent sparkling backcountry, not a breath of wind, and a myriad of untracked slopes to choose from. Several powdery descents and meditative climbs later, along with a healthy dose of adrenaline and endorphins, it’s a half hour trek back to civilisation. 1.30 - Sunday lunch hour – seems like the crowds have started heading home, so who could resist a couple of fun runs around Mt P. What an awesome Sunday, these are the days I dream about as winter approaches each year. - Pieta Herring Most people reading this who venture into the backcountry will expose themselves to risk at some point whether here in Australia or overseas.  Obviously technical knowledge is paramount to staying safe. The more we know about the snowpack, weather, terrain and avalanche formation and release the better. But what about when human factors cloud our judgment? Avalanche awareness and training have historically been focused on the premise that by teaching people about technical factors like the snowpack and avalanche terrain, they would make the right decisions, but the stats were showing that this alone was not keeping people out of trouble. The ‘human factor’ was affecting people’s ability to make good decisions. One study by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center found that nearly 90% of accidents were primarily caused by human factors not avalanche factors such as terrain or snowpack. Always challenge what you think you know and ask yourself, “How might I be wrong? Can I tolerate the evaluated risk level today?” Investigations into avalanche accidents has found that the victim either didn’t notice the danger or overestimated their ability to deal with it.  Planning and decision making – which involve the human factors - are at least as important as technical knowledge. Experienced BC tourers and professionals counter the influence of human factors by being systematic in their approach to evaluating risk. Training, check lists, procedures, practice, all contribute to a system aimed at aiding the decision-making process essential to staying safe. Equal to getting educated on the technical aspects of mountain safety, we have to become more aware of our own foibles and recognize our ability to make mistakes, then factor this into our decision-making.  Mental shortcuts or ‘heuristics” that we use to get us through the day-to-day complexities of life can adversely impact our decision-making in the backcountry. We tend to take more risks when we use some of these shortcuts like: FAMILIARITY: We feel more comfortable with the familiar and can be complacent and take more risks as a result. “I’ve been here before.” ACCEPTANCE: Peer group pressure. Seeking acceptance by others. Not speaking up when maybe we should. No one wants to kill the party! COMMITMENT: Summit fever. Committed to a goal. “I have hiked all day and I am damn well going to ski it.” Sometimes you have to be able to say, today is not the day! EXPERT HALO: Following an expert who really isn’t one. “He knows what he is doing, doesn’t he?” As the saying goes “a little bit of knowledge can be very dangerous”! SCARCITY: Powder panic. Competition for fresh tracks. Competition and danger go hand in hand. SOCIAL PROOF: The herding instinct. Blindly following someone else’s tracks. Most people will agree they are bolder in a group than alone. People also believe their action is correct because other people are doing it. To learn more about “Human Factors” and everything to do with avalanches, do youself a favour and get a copy of Bruce Tremper’s “ Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain”. Absolutely a must-read for those who like to go beyond the resort boundaries. Two more extremely important resources. One is an online award-winning article from the New York Times “The Avalanche At Tunnel Creek”, and “Rescue at Cherry Bowl” is another online story that must be told. Google them. And for those that love a statistic. 1: 47% of avalanche deaths occur when conditions are reported as “Considerable”. 2: 74% of all human triggered slides occur on slopes between 34 and 45 degrees. 3: Terminal velocity of an avalanche reaches over 150km/h. 4: Wind can deposit snow 10 times faster than snowfall from a storm. 5: Over 150 avalanche related deaths globally each year. Average annual deaths in the US 27. There were 75 deaths in Europe in Dec/Jan 2016. 6: In Utah it is estimated that three out of four avalanche victims did not consult the avalanche advisory before heading out and two out of three were not wearing beacons. 7: Most people trigger the avalanche they are caught in.  Note: In Australia we now have an avalanche advisory website in the form of “Mountain Sports Collective” http://mountainsportscollective.org/
Have a look and support this volunteer service. KNOW BEFORE YOU GO! - Dave Herring
She did it on heavy wooden skis and simple Kandahar cable bindings. Even today, these vast slopes of the western faces of the Main Range are skied by the very few but throughout her long life, Elyne came to know this remote alpine area with the familiarity of her own back yard. Once bitten by the bug, backcountry skiing and exploration became her lifelong passion. Elyne was the daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Chauvel, the leader of the Australian Army Light Horse in the First World War. She married an upper Murray valley local and leading skier, Tom Mitchell, in 1935 and lived on the family property at Towong Hill for the remainder of her very interesting life. She was the author of 22 books on subjects ranging across skiing, history, ecology and fiction, including her quite famous Silver Brumby series of children’s books. Her introduction to skiing began in 1935 when she and Tom rode up to Mt Buller on horseback and she was left by him and his mates to get into her skis for the first time on her own, with no lesson on what to do next! She was a fast learner. The next winter they rode from their property up the Hannel Spur and toured across to Charlottes Pass. The next year she represented Australia in the Inter-Dominion race with New Zealand. The year after, she won the Canadian Women’s National Downhill. This woman could ski and she was tough – during her years of skiing she broke her leg twice and suffered numerous other injuries pursuing her passion. The few years before the outbreak of World War II seem to have been her happiest, when she and Tom constantly toured and skied over Main Range terrain from Townsend in the south up to Grey Mare mountain and Mt Jagungal in the north and across to Mt Pinnibar due west of the Tom Groggin station, which is on the Murray River. There were no roads up onto the range then, just cattlemen’s trails, many, doubtless following earlier age-old indigenous tracks. Her most common entry points to the Main Range were by the aforementioned Hannel Spur, or up along the ridges of the Grey Mare range (near today’s Geehi Dam) and also via Wolsey Gap which was closer to their home. Tom went to war and had the great misfortune to be an officer in the AIF’s 8th Division that surrendered to the Japanese in Singapore in 1941. He spent the remainder of the war in Changi prison. The war years were very tough ones for Elyne. As well as fearing for her husband, she had to run the cattle property. These were the lonely years when she began her long career as an author but also a time when she continued her love affair with the nearby mountains. This was when she first ventured down the Western Fall. “A long schuss in light powder snow over a firm base, and then two quick turns brought us to the drop into the narrow gully. I swung down into it and found myself almost in a funnel, somewhat icy, in which I could only swing banked turns on one side and then the other. It narrowed swiftly and then suddenly rushed me out on to a steep, sticky snow slope. Below were some rocks with only a narrow opening to let me through on to a practically invisible slope beyond.” This was Elyne’s first venture onto the western faces and she was describing her descent down Strezlecki Creek off the saddle between Twynam West Ridge and the Sentinel. She climbed out and proceeded to ski down the gully between Carruthers West Ridge and the Sentinel, after some lunch, of course! “The top of our gully… was icy, and I made my first turn with great caution. Below, far below, was what looked like a hanging valley. Then I … swung down and down, still further wondering to find myself skiing on the wall-like side of the Main Range with the strangely bottomless feeling that these great gullies give.” This was a drop of 1000 vertical feet or 300-plus metres, with an exhausting climb out on heavy skis and rudimentary skins – the second big climb on the same day. Tough. Two weeks later she skied the northern face of Twynam West Ridge mentioned above. After the war and Tom’s return, their adventures continued but in the years to come one gets the impression she never quite recaptured the full delight of skiing with her partner. In 1958, Tom suffered a serious leg injury on the property and never skied again. Elyne skied well into old age and enjoyed teaching each of her four children how to ski and enjoy the mountains around them. These two were also responsible for naming a couple of the iconic places on the Main Range. In 1934, Tom Mitchell and his mate George Day did the first known descent of Mt Townsend and on their way out of Lady Northcote Canyon on the opposite side towards Mt Lee they named the face they climbed ‘Little Austria’ for its Arlberg-like appearance. Elyne named “the sharp, narrow peak that guards the gully below the Twynam/Carruthers saddle Sentinel Peak.” These days it’s just called the Sentinel. In fact another famous ski tourer, Bert Schlink, called it the Razorback but her name stuck. The Mitchells not only dared to ski many of the forbidding runs of the Western Faces but also undertook some hair-raising adventures in summer. In 1948 they and two others drove two army jeeps from their home at Towong Hill 120 kilometres to the Chalet at Charlottes Pass. There were no roads, just steep terrain, heavy bush, numerous river-crossings and bogs. Elyne Mitchell died in March 2002 at the age of 88, having established a legacy of unbowed optimism and courage. Once you know her story, it is hard not to ponder her exploits whenever one tours the Main Range. These days, the word ‘legend’ is too easily used to describe some often soon-forgotten feat or person of note. Legend is most fitting when applied to Elyne Mitchell. She embodies the term both in her exploits on the snow and in the way she lived her life. - Paul Pearce
Ever wondered how those high peaks on the Main Range got their names? Most of us have heard the story behind the naming of Kosciuszko but some of the others are less well known. Paul Pearce gives a brief history of the naming of these peaks.
Kosciuszko (2228m) On 12 March 1840, scientist and explorer Paul Strzelecki climbed the peak we now know as Kosciuszko. A native of Poland, he named it after a Polish general and military hero, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. For many years it was thought that he had actually mistakenly named Mt Townsend (which he climbed first) but the weight of expert opinion now supports him having then climbed and named Kosciuszko. He ascended from the Geehi Flats up what is now known as Hannel’s Spur. It nearly got the name “Wellington,” in remembrance of the hero of Waterloo, who died in 1852, but this was averted and “Kosciusko” made it onto official colonial maps in 1853. Townsend (2209m) The mountain is named after the great surveyor of the Main Range, Thomas Scott Townsend, who surveyed the entire range, including the Ramshead Range, right up to Mt Tate in 1846 and 1847, without actually naming any of the peaks himself. Ironically, Townsend was one of the few peaks upon which he never set foot. For some years in the late 19th century, Townsend was known by the local cattlemen as Mueller’s Peak, after the botanist who ascended the mountain in the 1850s. Mt Twynam (2196m) Named after Edward Twynam, who was the Chief Surveyor for NSW in the 1890s. Earlier in his career, in the 1860s, Twynam had succeeded Thomas Townsend (the surveyor of the Main Range) as District Surveyor in Albury. Just a few degrees of separation! The Ramsheads There are three notable 2000m peaks in this group that is the most southerly in NSW and arguably part of the Main Range. The central one is The Rams Head (2193m), 4 kilometres south of Kosciuszko. This group also includes North Rams Head (2178m) and South Rams Head (2053m). Most likely named by an early grazier. Stewart Ryrie was the first European to ascend this range on 15 February 1840 – “…on gaining the summit saw one of the highest points covered with snow to be distant to northwest about three or four miles but finding it too late to reach that point.” That point was Kosciuszko, which was first ascended by another European just one month later. Alice Rawson Peak (2160) A major peak in its own right, Alice Rawson lies along the ridge to the north of Townsend and is physically and figuratively overshadowed by its mighty neighbour that seems to tower above it. The peak is most likely named after the daughter of Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson, a British Admiral and Governor of NSW from 1902 to 1909. Alice’s main claim to fame was for her role in taking over the ‘first lady’ duties of mother (Lady Florence Alice Rawson) who died at sea while returning from a trip to Britain in 1905. Abbott’s Peak (2159) Named by Austrian zoologist Dr Robert von Lendenfield after a visit to the area in 1885 – Abbott was the name of then NSW Minister for Mines, …”whose liberality and protection of scientific research demands the esteem and gratitude of every scientific man.” Not laying it on too thick mind you! Carruthers Peak (2142m) The field naturalist Richard Helms (of the Sydney Museum) named this peak in the early 1890s after the then Minister for Lands, Joseph Carruthers, who went on to become Premier of NSW. Mueller’s Peak (2145) Named after the German botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, who made trips to the Alps in 1853 and 1855, escorted by a famous Jindabyne cattleman and mountain guide, James Spencer, who had a property at Waste Point (now under the lake). As often happened in the early days, there was a time when this peak was called Mount Clarke, after another avid explorer of the 1850s, the Rev. W B Clarke. Mt Northcote (2131m) Most likely named after the Governor-General, Henry Stafford Northcote (1903-1908), also known as Baron Northcote of Exeter. Very posh but apparently not very bright. Mt Lee (2105m) Little information, but most likely named after Charles Alfred Lee, a NSW politician, and co-founder of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme, who took over leadership of the newly formed Liberal Party of NSW in 1901 after the withdrawal of the favoured candidate, Sir Joseph Carruthers, the namesake for the neighbouring peak. Mt Clarke (2100m) Named after the Rev. William Branwhite Clarke {“WB” to his mates, no doubt). Clarke, a geologist, was commissioned by the Governor of NSW in 1851 to find minerals in the Snowy, particularly gold. He didn’t find much gold but his name lives on with this famous peak. He is also remembered for confirming that glaciers once existed on the Main Range. He was also a headmaster of the Kings School at Parramatta. Mount Anton (2010m) Originally called Mt Eadith Walker (yes, Edith with an “a” in it), after a wealthy and generous patron of the Geographical Society in the mid 19th Century. The current naming is quite recent, named after Charles Anton an Austrian migrant, who is remembered as co-founder of Thredbo and for many other achievements, including the establishment of the only two ski lodges on the main range – Albina (destroyed by fire) and Kunama (destroyed by avalanche). Mount Tate (2068m) Named after the geologist Prof. Ralf Tate of Adelaide. The South Australian connection continues with nearby Gills Knob being named in the 1850s after Thomas Gill of Adelaide, Treasurer of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia. Jagungal (2061m) As the most northern of the 2000 metre peaks, Jagungal is the dominant peak on the northern skyline. It was noted and mapped by the government surveyor Granville Stapylton in 1833. First named on maps in 1851 as the “Big Bogong” and in 1853 formally received its current name. “Jagungal” is thought to be a derivative of an aboriginal word relating to the Bogong moth that migrates to the Alps every year. Those planning to ski this lonely mountain need to allow for a multi-day trip. Mount Anderson (1997m) Named, most likely by the naturalist Rev. Milne Curran in the 1890s, after the geological surveyor William Anderson. Curran is also responsible for naming Hedley Tarn (below Blue Lake) after his travelling companion and fellow naturalist Charles Hedley. The Sentinel (1905m) While not viewable on the Main Range skyline from the east, this razorback formation is quite prevalent from the west and is one of the most dramatic peaks in the Snowies when viewed up close. It was named in 1941 by the author, grazier and pioneer backcountry skier, Elyne Mitchell, who described it thus: “…sharp-pointed, beckoning, beautiful.”    Photo: Mike Edmondson www.mikeedmondson.com.au
Extract from Skiing the Western Faces Kosciusko, Alan E J Andrews, Tabletop Press 1993    
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