Take advantage of the good forecast and relaxed start of sem to come snow camping at Blue Lake.
This trip requires physical fitness, carrying heavy packs, and being in the - you guessed it - snow. If you can walk 20km with a multiday bag you'll be alright on snowshoes. If you also have downhill skiing experience you'll be golden on skis. Put in your prior experience in all kinds of skiing and overnight bushwalking.
On Thursday we'll ski/snowshoe (pending someone wanting to lead snowshoers) in ~10kms and make a base camp. Friday/Saturday we'll do daytrip activities close to basecamp like skiing/snowshoing. Saturday myself & Wyatt will be doing some training for the upcoming NZ trip and may set up some topropes for folks with outdoor rock experience interested in swinging an axe. We'll pack up base camp and do a tour home Sunday.
People who are self sufficient snowshoes/skiiers are welcome to come join for just the weekend - if that's your plan please indicate in the box.
Expected conditions as of 24/07/2024:
- Gusts below 10km/hr
- Highs of 2C, lows of -4C
- 2 hours of light rain on Saturday
- Lovely!
Conditions to prepare for/conditions we’d cancel beyond:
- High/day conditions of -14C wind chill (-4C - with 25-40km/hr winds)
- Low/night/shelter conditions of -8C (-20Cish wind chill with 60km/hr winds)
Required Gear:
- 4 season tent (again, note the possibility of unforecasted high winds in the alpine)
- Sleeping pad w/ R>4
- -10 degree sleeping bag
- Stove that will work below 0 - upright canister stoves without a way to warm the canister will not have enough gas pressure at these temperatures to function
- no cotton ofc
- Thermals, rainjacket/shell, insulated jacket (a thin city/athleisure jacket might be fine if windchill is low, but could force a retreat to basecamp)
- snow pants or rain pants with multiple layers of thermals and fleece pants
- Backpack to carry it all in 10km
- PLB per day trip
- Tele skis, or snowshoes, maybe AT skis if you're a charger
Highly recommended:
- Arrange to share a tent with someone for warmth and weight
- Arrange to share cooking in a group of 3 or 4
We'll have a pretrip meeting starting at 6pm on Monday to talk through setting up tents in the snow, gear, and day trips before the gear store opens for hiring at 6:45pm
Participants list will be finalized by Sunday evening