ozsnowbum
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Posts posted by ozsnowbum
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Sounds great, oz. Even hunkering down for two weeks against the wind. Must have been quite the adventure!
It was the most intense thing I've ever experienced.
200kmh winds.
Matt was genuinely concerned and we all slept very little that night.
Numerous people have literally had their tents explode and then they died out there.
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I was fortunate enough to be part of a 6 person team with Matt Spenceley Guiding.
I was the only Splitboarder and had the least climbing experience (none).
Day 1.
We flew from Reykjavik to the tiny airport in Kulusuk.
Good views flying in, lots of broken sea ice.
Stacked our gear onto a snowmobile and walked 30 minutes into the village (population 250) to our house for the night. Houses in this village do not have running water, nor toilets. Its a different way of life for sure. A polar bear was killed this year in the village.
Did a bit of Avy practice and saw the local kids playing in the snow.
Kulusuk is the island at the bottom right, Apusiaajik Island is north east of it. It was mind blowing trying to wrap my head around how vast Greenland actually is.
Day 2.
Woke up at 6am to 120kmh winds. Did some crevasse rescue practice and talked about the trip. Polar bears are a serious issue so we must carry a rifle and shotgun and flares. Trip wires will be setup around the camp every night and we are planning on taking a couple of dogs too. Weather forecast is pretty bad and the weather will turn out to be horrible for most of the trip. A very weird season with warm temps and rain.
Day 3.
Weather calmer. Decided to dog sled 25kms over frozen sea ice to set up base camp.
4 Hunters with their dogs, our gear and us being towed behind.
The 25km journey took 4.5 hours, very tiring. The dogs were amazing, they just kept going, we had to help push/walk up a few steep sections.
At the site, we had to haul our gear off the sea ice and up a slope to build the camp which consisted of 4 hours of cutting blocks and building a wall to protect our tents. We ran out of time and could only get the mess tent up so all 8 of us slept in it that night. Luckily for me, my exped downmat exploded so I wasnt to get a decent nights sleep for the next 2 weeks.
Day 4.
Clear Skies, we decided to do a quick tour and come back in the afternoon to finish setting up camp.
Toured up one of the many unnamed glaciers and looked at a couloir we hope to ski this trip.
The weather turned and visibility went bad so the skiing wasnt great.
Back at camp, we spent another 4 hours building the wall for an expected storm with 200kmh winds.
Day 5.
Scary night in the tent. Super windy. We spent most of the day in the tent until the afternoon where there was a weather window to work on fixing the wall again.
Day 6.
Trying for our first summit. A 700m peak with noname. My day carrying the 5kg rifle, with crampons, ski crampons, ice axe, not fun.
Skinned up a glacier with ropes. Crampons and up to the top.
Back to camp and more wall building.
Day 7.
More bad weather. White and Windy. Lets do more wall building.
Did some skiing, but its not that fun when you cant see.
Day 8.
Weather still bad.
Day 9.
A weather change.
Another summit day. Our longest day. 3.5km approach. 8.5hours. 1000m peak.
Day 10.
Bad Weather again.
But we decided to see if that couloir from earlier in the trip was skiable. We got up to it in ok weather but as soon as Matt climbed it, the weather just came in on us and vis was down to 15 metres. Ended up downclimbing on rocks due to high avalanche danger.
Day 11.
Rain. Above freezing temps. Wet.
A gust of wind set the trip wire off providing some excitement.
Day 12.
Same same. We went out to get some exericise.
Weather isnt going to change, we decide to break camp tomorrow and go back to the village.
Day 13.
Up at 7, we dig everything out in the rain, and leave our gear on the sea ice to be picked up and we traverse the island to be picked up on the other side by snowmobile.
Misery. Its super flat terrain and I'm pulled along the flats.
Day 14.
More rain but at least we're comfortable back in the village.
Overall, I guess we got super unlucky with the weather. Conditions meant we couldnt ski anything very interesting. I'd love to come back, but I doubt it will be anytime soon. Its a wild place.
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Great Oz looks like fun just one question who carried the skis and board when you had the crampons on or did you haul them up a rope?
we carried them on our back or stashed them if we were just going for the summit
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Just spent 2 weeks in greenland.
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tolls ended up being $220. Return Ferry to Rishiri was $300.
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some costs for those interested.
all in AUD
car hire $2910
guiding $1500
petrol $700 (4500kms driven)
tolls $200 guess will see tonight.
lift tickets $780
food $1300
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Thanks mate.
out of the 30 days I rode, 12 were in resort, 18 in the backcountry.
I didnt breakeven on my kwinterpass (I used it 9 times and not full days either), the last season pass I ever buy.
I guess I got my moneys worth by hanging out in the the rusutsu hotel most nights
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going to israel for a few weeks.
chinese (wish they were japanese!)
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i fly out tomorrow but not home.
the adventure continues...
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been off with a bum knee (not that ive missed any epic powder days) but finally able to walk again so i summited iwanai after scouting it last week.
considering most of the known bc spots in the area are tracked out, i was quite surprised how good it was here. lots of lines with great snow around if you want it.
only saw a few locals around.
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got a sprinkle on my car this morning in rusutsu...im gonna say winter is basically over and spring after this weekend.
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feels like winter is coming to an end.
woke up without the need for heating this morning.
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I am back in Japan after a short stopover in Auseko.
I had to attend a friends 30th birthday and I am utterly embarrassed to be born from the same country as my 'friends'
It dawned on me that some of these 'friends' are actually 'those' aussies.
I expected it to be bad and it was worse.
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are they ruining rusutsu now
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The other 'niseko' without the bogans.
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so ive hurt my knee, i have a tomamu voucher from the snowjapan giveaway that i dont think ill be able to use in the next 10 days so if anyone wants it and theyre in rusutsu i can pass it along.
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top 100m was ice. i didnt really know where to go so i just rode a ridge down to where some sledbikes were playing and then i skinned back into kiroro.
i wouldnt do it again, there is much better skiing behind hotel piano but bagging another summit is nice.
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quite windy up there today. more of a challenge than i anticipated.
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between 7 and 11 and i love their fried chicken.
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yeah theyre getting hammered ey?
i think rusutsu will get a lot of snow this week so i think i actually might break even on my winter pass fingers crossed.
the ozsnowbum experience
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
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