On Thursday 28th July, Barb Williams kindly delivered Trevor, David & Sharon to Guthega Power Station.

Blue skies quickly gave way to overcast, windy weather as we zig-zagged up a steep track, Trevor and Sharon in snowshoes and David skinning in skis, weighed down with hefty backpacks.

The track levelled out after a couple of kilometres, but we spent the rest of the day gaining overall elevation. Trying to find a way into White’s River Hut across a windswept plain, darkness was setting in and the wind velocity ever-increasing, as three weary, ice encrusted travellers struggled to make their way around the icy Munyang River.

Too tired to set up tents, we squeezed into the hut, enjoying an evening of companionship with other skiers, sheltering from the worsening weather.
The original plan had been to head for the Jagungal Wilderness, camping 3 nights and finishing at Trevor’s 4 wheel drive, parked about 10km from Cesjack’s Hut.

Deteriorating weather conditions and low visibility the next day led to a change of plan. We snowshoed & skied 5km to the Schlink Hilton and decided to stay there for the night and re-trace out steps rather than head off road through the wilderness. In the evening, Trevor used his satellite phone to ring Peter Presutti who organised a driver to collect us in Dave’s vehicle from Guthega Power Station on Sunday.

Saturday dawned clear and sunny, snow had frozen into ice, making for challenging skiing for Dave, but an easy crust for Trevor and Sharon on snowshoes. Nearly downhill all the way, we reversed our direction and arrived at Horse Camp Hut just after lunch. Sleeping bags and mats set up in bunks in the hut and congratulating ourselves on making such good time, our pride was short-lived when just on dark, 4 lean looking gentlemen in their 70’s, toting 20kg backpacks, skied in on nightfall, setting up their tents in the snow and making us feel like a bunch of sissies.

Rain overnight softened the snow, making for a slushy snowshoe for Trevor and an easy ski down to Guthega Power station for Sharon & Dave, to be met by Laurie Williams, who collected us in between milkings.
Despite the weather and change of plans, we’d had an enjoyable 4 days in the snow, learnt a great deal about what we should do ‘next time’ and remembered how to play ‘euchre’ with a few interesting new rules invented by Dave!