Intermediate Mountaineering Practice – Blue Lake

Warning: Expect a healthy dose of suffering (25-30kg packs, temps down to -5 C, high winds, being slightly damp all weekend) and many lessons to be learnt. Please only sign up for this trip if you’re experienced taking care of yourself in cold & wet conditions, and have a genuine interest in getting into mountaineering.

Cam and I will be leading a 3-day trip to Blue Lake to practice mountaineering skills. Our plan will be to drive down to Guthega very early Saturday morning, pick up hire gear from Jindabyne, snowshoe 7 km uphill to Mount Twynam and set up camp that afternoon. Over Sunday and Monday morning we will be practicing as much as we can of:

– Crampon use
– Self arresting a fall
– Snow & ice anchors
– Glacier travel & crevasse rescue
– Avalanche safety
– Steep snow technique
– Snow shelters
– Ice climbing, if the conditions allow at Blue Lake

We will then snowshoe back to the cars and drive back to Sydney Monday night.

The make the best use of the limited time we have down at the snow, you will be expected to study up on some of the skills in your own time in preparation for the weekend.

The following is an incomplete gear list. Bringing inadequate gear is a serious safety concern, and we don’t want to risk turning around the entire trip because you haven’t brought a warm enough setup to sleep in:

– Rigid soled mountaineering boots with heel welts for crampons. The club cannot supply these, so you will need to either purchase some yourselves, or hire from Jindabyne (https://www.wildernesssports.com.au/pages/backcountry-gear-hire). Most of the following gear items can also be hired from Wilderness Sports.
– Snow shoes*
– Crampons*
– 4 season tent (consider sharing for warmth)
– Snow pegs*
– Winter weight sleeping bag (-5 C comfort), or equivalent stacked sleeping bags and liners
– 4 season insulated sleeping mat (can stack an inflatable mat on top of a foam mat)
– Glacier glasses or snow goggles
– Harness
– Helmet
– Sun hat
– Hardshell pants & jacket
– Adequate thermals and insulating layers to layer under shells
– Snow gaiters
– Waterproof gloves & inners
– Compass
– Head torch & spare batteries
– Food & cooking
– 2L water capacity
– Carry out toileting kit (e.g. Wag Bags & poo tube)
– GPS enabled phone & battery with maps downloaded (I recommend https://en.mapy.cz/zakladni?mobilepromo=1 but use whatever you want)
– You will also be expected to help carry group gear (ropes, trad gear, ice screws, snow stakes, ice axes, anchors, shovels, first aid, PLBs)
– Hiking pack large enough to carry personal and group gear (25-30 kg total)

*Will be supplied by the club

For more details on gear, please refer to the gear list for the alpine skills course we did in NZ in 2019.

In the comments please include:
– Evidence that you’ll be able to take care of yourself all weekend (e.g. experience hiking & camping in snow, or cold/wet/windy conditions).
– Why you want to come on this trip.
– If you have a car, and how much capacity.
– Your mountaineering boot size if you’re planning to hire from Wilderness Sports. Usually 0.5-1 size larger than your street shoe size. It’s a lot easier to add thicker socks than to deal with jammed toes in very rigid boots.

Note: Trip capacity is subject to experience

Further reading for those curious about mountaineering in the club, and where you can go with the beanie grant:
https://beanie-grant.unswoc.org/…/nz-mountaineering-2019/