Mt Anderson Tour - 17 August 2008
We were getting toey after too many days in the office and too many windy white-out days on the weekends.
Luckily Sunday 18 Aug 08 was one of those rare perfect days of sun with heaps of snow underfoot and barely a breath of wind.
From the Guthega carpark we zipped across the dam wall, traversed the ice sheet above the creek, and followed the old rope-tow line up Tate East Ridge. Making the most of the top snow cover we took a quick run down the east face.
James enjoys the dry cover on Tate East Ridge.
Andrew Gets a Fresh Track - This Photo makes conditions look a little better than they were.
Judging that the surface would degrade rapidly in the warm sun, we left the glades and headed over the top of the ridge and headed for Mt Anderson. This rounded peak just north of Watson's Crags gave us top views of the Crags themselves, coated heavily in snow. The vista also stretched west across the steep forested ridges towards Munyang and Geehi, and north to Jagungal.
Some skis on Mt Anderson
James admires the view from Mt Anderson West.
Andrew taking in the view of the Grey Mare Range from north of Mt Anderson from Mann Bluff.
Andrew on Mt Anderson
mmmmmm tasty lines on The Crags
But looks like some recent avy action here - possibly something to do with fridays rain
Around this time we saw a rescue chopper circling one ridge away to the southeast. It was part of the rescue effort following the Blue Lake avalanche.
Some massive overhanging cornices are also visible on the Crags - looking up to a couple of metres thick in parts. Large cornices and wind lips are everywhere on the Main Range at present, testimony to the regular snowfalls and very strong winds that have hit the peaks almost non-stop for the last 6 weeks.
Looking back from the saddle east of Mt Anderson
On the way back we saw some great ice formations which also provided ample evidence of the prevailing weather recently.
Andrew under the ice
The knolls above the north arm of Pounds Creek provided some fun on the way home.
James burns a few metres of vertical above Pounds Creek.
Finally we cruised back down towards the Snowy River and crossed it via a snow bridge a fair distance below Illawong hut. It's not every year you can do that but the cover this year is excellent. We saved a few hundred metres of traversing by doing this, but noticed the majority of tracks still preferred the metal bridge rather than the snow one!
