NSW Nordic Ski Club
Off the Beaten Track Notes - Tantangara Area
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This area is accessed via the Snowy Mountains Highway, via Adaminaby to the east or Tumut to the west. You can camp on Friday night at the caravan park at Old Adaminaby, turn left a kilometre or so west of Adaminaby and drive another 7 km.
As before, we will look at two trips in the area - a day trip and a weekend (two-day) trip. This is really good touring country when there is sufficient snow. There are great tracts of beautiful country here suitable for novice skiers.
Features visited by these trips:
Long Plain
Tabletop Mountain
Monaro Range (Great Dividing Range)
Blanket Plain
Map Courtesy of "Bushwalking in Kosciusko National Park"- Charles Warner
Skiing Standard
Skiing is generally easy, with only a little tree skiing around Mt Tantangara. The area is quite low, ranging to as low as 1300m, so you need to pick your time. You will need the Mt Selwyn resort ski report to say that there is a complete cover of natural snow, plus a recent (or current) good snowfall to under 1200m.
Day Trip
Long Plain. Map: Rules Point & perhaps Peppercorn (both 1:25,000).
This is a really easy ski, and you can ski for up to 40km or more if you like on almost flat road. Park at Rules Point at the intersection of the Brindabella Road ("no access to the Brindabellas") and the Snowy Mountains Highway (GR 384 457). Walk through the locked gate and the road is yours!
You might consider it for those occasions when the NPWS recommends no backcountry travel because of the weather, because it is protected a little from the west, and at 1300m it does not experience the extremes of the Main Range at 2000m. Navigation is no problem - if you ski into the trees, you are a little too far west and if you fall into the Murrumbidgee, you are a little too far east.
Overnight Trip
Tantangara Mountain is normally done as a day trip, but it can provide a link in a great weekend trip.
Maps: West Denison (also called Denison, 8626-III-S), Ravine, Tantangara and Rules Point (all 1:25,000).
Park at the small lay-by just opposite the start of the four wheel drive track at GR 369 276. Follow the track up the creek, climbing out of the creek when higher ground is clear to avoid trees. After climbing Tantangara, ski down to Wild Horse Plain utilising the obvious clear areas.
Once there, you can go wherever time and inclination takes you. Possibilities include Blanket Plain and Witzes Hut, Monaro Range and Tantangara Plain. A car swap with a car left somewhere near Mt Gooandra (avoiding fording the Eucumbene River or some tight tree skiing) would be ideal. Otherwise return to the starting point by circling the hills to the west of the creek you started on.
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