coat of snow and seemingly hovering
above yellow canola fields, we won-
dered how the hell we were going to
ride up there. Lucky for the skiers, but
unlucky for us, it was the best spring
snow in Kosciuszko’s recent histo-
ry. This prompted the team to make
several frantic phone calls: one to
the National Park office, who told us
there was eight meters of snow on the
mountain. We then called people ask-
ing them to lend us the mountain gear
we lacked, such as ski poles and snow
shoes.
Above Khancoban, on the huge hill
past the Snowy Mountain Hydro Dan
started feeling unwell again and was
vomiting uncontrollably, so medic
Vonna made the wise decision to have
Ed evacuate him to Corryong hospital.
The rest of us went on with an emer-
gency shelter and food. Once we had
summited the pass came the best de-
scent of our lives, a narrow winding
road carving and dropping through
many tunnel-like cuttings.
The team reached Geehi Flats. We
had cited Tom Groggin as the days fi-
TRAVERSE
97
nal destination, knowing that the next
day, up the steepest hill in Australia,
to Dead Horse Gap, would perhaps, be
the toughest of the trip. However, with
the delay caused by of the evacuation
of Dan we would now have to climb
another pass to arrive at Tom Groggin,
and then two more passes to get to
Dead Horse and down to Thredbo. As
it was, Wally and I were fatigued and
we voted to camp at Geehi.
We prepared everything the night
before, lunch, water, checking bikes
and trikes, and departed at 7am the