We started the trip with a whiskey.
That was the plan, anyway. A heli bump to the Whiskey Bar, a drink, then ski touring down to Falcon’s Nest and climb back over the saddle to O’Leary’s Hut. Seven hundred meters of it, as it turned out.
Back to the Cass
Two years ago we spent a few days at Lady Emily Hut, visited the whiskey bar and skied the Scorpion. We never stopped talking about it.
This time we went later in spring and booked O’Leary’s Hut — the highest in the valley, around 1,700 meters. We hoped for a weather window and some proper corn snow.
Same crew. JP, Blair, Anthony, Andrew and me.
Preparation for ski touring
There’d been talk for years about lugging heavy packs up hills in ski boots. Nevertheless, that isn’t the ideal start to a ski touring trip.
So Anthony arranged a heli bump from Waterfall Hut.
We had gear to O’Leary’s first, then we proceeded up to the Whiskey Bar.
Food and Beer
The heli changed what we could carry. Real food. A couple of beers. A lot of whiskey.
“I’m very glad we agreed to carry our food and beer in by helicopter this year. There was some debate about staying under the twenty-two kilogram per person weight limit. So we stripped back the essentials, with a couple of slabs of beer, three bottles of whiskey, plus more real food than previous trips.” — Blair
Six nights. Two dehydrated dinners, four proper ones. Blair organised the cheese and crackers, which is a more important job than it sounds.
Day One
Blue skies. The Whiskey Bar is a tiny hut on the ridge with a pentagon window and a door sign that reads The Bad Decision. We had our whiskey.
Then we dropped in. Some nice turns off the bar towards Falcon’s Nest, and a patch of corn on the northern side of the saddle.
“I hadn’t been on my board for two years, so I was a little apprehensive dropping into the bowl at the back of Whiskey Hut for the first time. No gentle warm-up laps here, and I was relieved it all came back to me quickly.” — Blair
The descent took about three minutes. The climb out of Falcon’s Nest was 700 meters of steep tussock and scree. Even with the heli bump, it was a very long, painful first day.
“It was one of the toughest climbs, and it quickly reset our expectations of going back to Whiskey Hut anytime soon in the next week.” — Blair
O’Leary’s
New hut. Sitting up high. And a hot tub out the back, which I’ve never seen at a mountain hut.
The water was meant to come from the creek, piped across to fill the tub. It wasn’t working. The group before us had filled it by hand, with snow, over three days.
Day Two
No wind. Not a breath. We climbed the rocky ridge above the hut — a couple of steep bits — and ended up looking out towards the Southern Alps.
The western side looked firm. At the top of a good steep chute there was a nice patch of soft snow, and that was where we started. The snow was lovely. Dropping into a big mountain run like that is one of the magic feelings of ski touring. The soft snow didn’t last, but we traversed around and found more, then skinned back to the saddle for more corn.
Blair and JP took a different line off the ridge and hit firm snow. Blair slid a hundred meters down a rocky chute. He was shaken up, and got off with a few scrapes and a ding in his board.
Lucky. And a good reminder.
Day Three, Cloud
Cooler. Cloudy. We went back to the saddle for the northern chute we’d spotted the day before. The snow was firm and hard work. Anthony and I got to the top and did a few turns on the other side. Solid, and not much fun.
So we went back to the hut and played cards, read, and thought about the hot tub.
The water supply was about 400 meters from the hut, across a couple of snow slopes and a tussock hill. We had three containers, around 60 liters between them. It was going to be a lot of trips.
The Hot Tub
Next morning was another clear day. We got to work.
“The pipe that feeds it was frozen solid, so it meant a solid morning of schlepping back and forth to the nearby, in inverted commas, stream… filling multiple twenty-liter buckets to get the seven-hundred-liter hot tub filled up.” — Andrew
Three hours later it was full and the fire was going. Then pulled pork for lunch, in the sun.
We skied that afternoon on the south side of the valley. The sun had softened the snow to perfect corn. A 200-metre fall line, perfectly pitched, with a good skin track back up for easy loops. Laps and laps.
We came back to a hot fire and a pasta dinner and got in.
“It was incredibly nice to rinse off the previous three or four days hard yakka sitting in that hot tub.” — Andrew
Sitting in a hot tub in the mountains, with a beer, after some of the best ski touring runs I’ve had.
“A weather window delivered bluebird days, no wind, and corn snow that promised release, and it didn’t disappoint.” — JP
We skied ourselves silly for the last two days. Spring corn, no wind, blue sky.
Other Skiers
After five days of not seeing a soul, we heard voices in the valley. Andy, Josh and Max walked up to the hut. Gun skiers chasing the Cass terrain. The next day we watched them charging the steepest slopes above the hut.
Dinner
Everyone had a turn at cooking. Four dinners — a macaroni cheese, a vegetarian pasta, a salmon pasta and a traditional tomato and chorizo. All of us felt the pressure.
“I would say we almost ate better than being at home, which is impressive preparing all this from a two-burner kitchen with no running water.” — Blair
The Walk Out
We loaded up. Heavy packs. Ski boots. It’s a tough way to finish a good week.
“A week on, my body still feels the impact of that last day, the walkout. With over 20 kg on my back and four hours later, I found myself jittering like a puppet down the last very steep slope toward Waterfall Hut.” — JP
Blair’s legs gave way in places on the descent. The last hurdle was a very wobbly plank across the stream. The cold stream at Waterfall Hut washed away the hard work.
Reflection
“A highlight for me was spending quality time with some of my best mates in a beautiful environment away from all of the complications of modern life.” — Andrew
Blair wonders if this might be the last year we’re really off the grid, with the satellite technology coming.
Good mates. Good snow. Good life choice.
VIDEO
Trip Stats
- Duration: 6 days
- Route: Waterfall Hut → heli → Whiskey Bar → Falcon’s Nest → saddle → O’Leary’s Hut → walk out to Waterfall Hut
- Highlights: The Whiskey Bar, a steep chute off the ridge above O’Leary’s, spring corn laps on the south side, a hot tub filled by hand