Daytrippin’: Mt Twynam and Beyond

As the leaves turn brown and the snow starts to fall we invariably set ourselves some goals for the winter. Inspired by my first trip to the Main Range last year, one of mine was to hit the MR as much as possible.

Unfortunately, Australia being the marginal snow country it is, I have only managed a handful of days out amongst our biggest lines ( here and here). As the season draws to a close I was eager to get back out there.

I arranged to ski with Rohan and Andy and we set off on the familiar slog out to Illawong and the Snowy River swing bridge. The snow is mostly gone from the lower elevations and we had to boot pack it pretty much all the way to the bridge.

Once over the snowy we made good time to the summit of Twynam, Australia’s third highest peak.

Rohan eyeing off Twynam



The ozbc presents itself




We dropped into The Triple A, an amazing chute of continuous steep fall line. We climbed out via the Watsons Creek conveyer belt. I’m still pretty new to the area but I have never seen so many people out. We came across three campsites and some other daytrippers.

The Watsons Creek exit






We dropped into the Avalanche Face and scored some nice spring turns.






Rohan and his crampons claim the ridge



We skinned back to Mt Twynam and took some bonus turns back to the Snowy River.




I made a vid of our time out at Mt Twynam (there are some issues with overexposure due to the angle of the sun and the slope aspect, sorry!).

Paralyser / Familiar Lines

Well, another week, and another few runs out on the Paralyser enjoying the spring conditions.

We were treated to a small amount of fresh snow. Ryan and I dropped off the back of Mt Perisher scoring some nice fresh down to the creek.



Ryan is making the transition form snowboarding to telemark skiing with hilarious and sometimes dangerous results. He survived the first pitch and we began the hike up to the Paralyser.







After a brief rest I dropped in. The snow was light dry wind blown powder, only around 5cm deep but great.











Skinning back to the resort I tried to nail the elusive snow gum photo. Striking trees with their gnarled branches and multicolour skin, even burnt out they are beautiful. Photos never seem to do them justice.





Out on the Paralyser I eyed off the next mountain. Although there is a trig station at its peak, it doesn’t seem to have a name.



The view out to the main range was spectacular









The snow had softened but I still had a nice run down to Farm Creek.











I have recently jumped onto the Dynafit bandwagon and I have to say they have been a bit of a revelation. It was so nice touring without having to carry my heel piece with me. I love the tech involved as well, its so cool how everything works so perfectly together.

Europe 2011: UK Moments

The impetus for our Europe trip was the wedding of Holly’s brother Jonathon to his wonderful partner Jenna. Travelling so far we had to make the most of it. In addition to the Nordic countries, Devon and Italy (blog post to come!), we did some great day trips from our base in Chichester. Here are just some of the hundreds of photos I took as we absorbed the busyness and civility of the place.

Salisbury Cathedral









Exploring London and Notting Hill, this café serves the best coffee I tried in the UK.


















Where Holly and I met for our first date!



The reason for our trip, the big wedding.









I also managed a bit of trout fishing at Arundel. There are heaps of fish in the stocked ponds.



A big thankyou to Holly’s parents Chris and Louise for having us and making us feel so welcome. Hopefully we can get back over soon :)