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Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Author

2012 Blue Lake Ice Conditions

bultitude

3-Jul-2012
11:49:49 PM

Anyone got a clue? Any early season photos lurking? I'll be out there next week and will post up what we find otherwise.

citationx

4-Jul-2012
8:44:32 AM

I'll probably be skiing past on Sunday. Guess I can't help telling you prior to your trip...

Bultitude

5-Jul-2012
2:01:08 AM

Well be in the snowies from friday, but might not make it to blue lake till tuesday... Let us know what you see!

Bultitude

15-Jul-2012
5:51:10 PM

36 hours in the tent in a pretty severe blizzard. Camped on Crumner Spurr but never skied around the corner to the lake cause it was all too rough. Good times but. Skied to and from guthega. Pretty good cover once you get past the beginning.

citationx

15-Jul-2012
5:55:44 PM

Having baulked, then planned, then seen the forecast and cancelled, and then considering heading up for just today... I stayed in sydney. However, good to know that the conditions (wx) were crap (though it would've been a great resort day, it seems!)
you're basically saying that... it's not really possible to cross guthega creek, go up the hill and get down to the flats near illawong hut on skis?
or is that all skiable anyway?


SteveC

15-Jul-2012
7:34:46 PM

If he is saying that, he is wrong. I went up from Illawong about a week and a half ago, it was very skiable. Although it's always a bit of a shitty traverse through the trees before you get down to the flats.
Some snow would have been lost in the rain, but there was also a reasonable dump of wet snot after that and then 10ish cm of good dry stuff last night.

citationx

15-Jul-2012
7:41:35 PM

completely glazed over the "skied to and from guthega". Guess it just gets better the further you go. Yes, yes. Remind me of the 10cm again :-P
On the bright side next weekend is looking even better...

grangrump

16-Jul-2012
9:11:17 PM

and of course it's a pansy trip now without the flying fox at Guthega


Phil S

16-Jul-2012
10:37:18 PM

The flying fox was like, 3 meters long. It was easier to jump over the bloody creek than muck about with the stupid thing.


SteveC

17-Jul-2012
8:01:45 AM

If it all feels a bit retro bridged, you could always eliminate the illawong bridge and use the SMA flying fox downstream a little. Byo pulley and harness.

Bultitude

17-Jul-2012
8:57:34 PM

Nah it's skiing the whole way, i just meant that for the first little bit there was some exposed heather and creeks... nothing to stop you but.

steve peckman

26-Jul-2012
1:14:52 PM

Hows the ice looking currently? I'll be out therre in about 10days.


SteveC

26-Jul-2012
5:48:28 PM

I went out there on tuesday to have a look as a plan B after my ski partners bindings fell off at Illawong. The ice looked pretty thin around the elephant and grey buttress A couple of lines would definitely go with a bit of rock and fresh tracks looked like a few people had been out there giving it a crack. probably on the weekend prior.
If you picked a good line on the amphitheatre ice you might get 2 sections with 3 metres of vertical ice each with 20 metres of snow plodding in between.
Ignoring my slightly dismissive tone (it's just that I think skiing is more fun at the moment) and take a look at some
photos that I took to decide yourself


capt_mulch

27-Jul-2012
3:40:20 PM

From Steve's photos it looks like there's some decent snow cover. The ABC news said it was raining in Perisher yesterday, then they were expecting 25-30cm fresh snow to fall. I'd keep away from the Grey Buttress area and stick to the south facing slope (fresh snow pack over ice = lots of avalanche potential). Watch out for the cornice that builds up to the right of Grey Buttress - if it has built up to any significant amount I wouldn't go anywhere near it. Remember that the reason that the glacier used to arise from Blue Lake is because it's a snow trap - with lots of snow and a westerly blowing the western side of Blue Lake accumulates heaps more snow than the surrounding area. It looks pretty good for a trip up there no matter what.

technogeekery

27-Jul-2012
5:33:52 PM

Ive got to say, releasing the rock climbing guide book for this area in winter is really frustrating! Lots of great looking things to climb and can't wait to get up there - but have no interest in the cold white stuff covering it all at the moment :-)

Bring on summer...

citationx

29-Jul-2012
8:26:27 PM

On 27/07/2012 technogeekery wrote:
>Ive got to say, releasing the rock climbing guide book for this area in
>winter is really frustrating! Lots of great looking things to climb and
>can't wait to get up there - but have no interest in the cold white stuff
>covering it all at the moment :-)
>
>Bring on summer...

Don't worry, the thrill will soon wear off after the 8km walk to discover that the only things worth climbing are a 13 corner and a 19 crack (if you even like them in the first place).
You might have fun not dying on a nearby 16.


rocksinmyhead

29-Jul-2012
9:06:01 PM

On 27/07/2012 technogeekery wrote:
- but have no interest in the cold white stuff
>covering it all at the moment :-)
>
>Bring on summer...

when you might still have to kick steps and step across a mini 'schrund in January....

technogeekery

29-Jul-2012
9:28:04 PM

somewhere between 13 corners and 19 cracks are my idea of heaven... I'll take sherpas for the walk.


Paulie

30-Jul-2012
7:33:38 PM

On 17/07/2012 Bultitude wrote:
>there was some exposed heather and creeks...

We're not in England anymore Toto ha ha


vwills

14-Aug-2012
8:22:05 AM

Still a bit of ice at Blue Lake- can link up about 5m of vertical (at best ) into some low angle ice and then another 2m flow to give about 20m of "steepish" climbing. The 5m high good ice section covers about 20m at ground level so made for quite fun soloing/ ice bouldering variations but I'm glad we didnt take in anything other than tools and crampons.
Could ski all the way from the carpark in Guthega on Saturday and excellent snow coverage from the 40cm dump last week. Great ski touring.
An avalanche had occured in the Blue Lake cirque (?maybe Thursday) with the crown wall visible about 2m below the regular cornice on the westerly slopes and a lot of debris below.

There are 23 messages in this topic.