Spring skiing

Whoooa dear reader, again sorry about that gap! You see it was not just a baby, renovating, a general malaise and life in general that has kept me away from this blog, but also a Masters degree I was doing over the past few years. Mercifully it is over.

As I write this, summer has gone and we are experiencing our first cooler days. And it got me thinking about my last day on snow last year, an incredible day in late September up in the Australian high country.

Now I never talk about my profession, it is very interesting and rewarding but the last thing I want to do in my non-work time is talk about work. Nonetheless, this tale involves my work in a small, crucial way. You see, I was able to arrange access, access that was not available to the general ski bum, at least for a few hours. With the access granted, Tim and I had a head start on the rest of the frothing backcountry animals. The snow looked epic, boot deep powder.

Main Range looking sweet

We hauled our flabby assess (in my case anyway) to Carruthers just in time to see a lone skier dropping into the bowl making some beautiful turns. How had we been beaten? Having a chat later, old mate tells me he got around the access issues by riding his bike up to the trail head at 4am, commitment!

Best view in Australia

 

 

 

Tim and I nailed some incredible runs, enjoyed the view, ate lots of sugar... you get the picture. An epic day in the BC.

Snow was on point

 

Yes this is really happening

Traditional afternoon Snowy River crossing

With so much snow around, and the official ski season over, we were able to take my son skiing for the first time. A memorable family milestone. Made even better by it being a backcountry day, earn your turns! no lifts!

 

 

 

 

 Proud Dad moment

Spring Skiing, The Sentinel and Mt Carruthers

Our last big group ski for the season is becoming a bit of a tradition. A big day out followed by a night of camping with beers and stories around the fire. This year we continued the tradition. Rohan, Mark and Marcin the mad Polish man arrived at my house in Berridale late Friday. After a few beers and stories of toilet practices gone wrong while snow camping, a recurring theme it seems, we hit the hay.

Angry Wagyu bull I met on the drive to the mountains

Kind of excited too

We were up early and at the turning circle around 8:00 to meet a host of people; Belly, Rimey, Tim, Dave, Richard, Carl, Mrs Skifree and Paul the telemarking sheep farmer. After a mostly uneventful wet crossing of the Snowy River and walk/ski to the saddle above Soil Con Creek we assessed the skiing out to the Sentinel.

Multiple gear explosions as everyone gets ready for the day out

Boot packing up the Main Range Trail

Looking out to The Sentinel, the boys weigh up the options

The Sentinel, a beautiful peak

The group split with the snowboarders electing to head over to Little Austria and Carruthers while the real man decided to take on the Sentinel.

For our first run we dropped off Sentinel Ridge, the snow was pretty firm and not that great. Huge dimples, like giant golf balls, played havoc with our cool carbon layup skis.

Frame grab of me on our first run off Sentinel Ridge, the dimples were not fun

We then bush-bash contoured around to the south east face of The Sentinel. Some of us donned crampons and climbed to the peak while others experienced snowboarder-esque screw issues with their new crampons. Those of us that climbed to the peak dropped in while Rimey and Mark met us at the bottom after skiing another line off the ridge.

Mark with some classic Australian backcountry ski conditions

Stoked to finally be able to ski The Sentinel

Watsons Crags

Sentinel peak and Mt Townsend

Paul drops in

Hats off to Rimey who after surviving a nasty fall last summer, and subsequent recovery, is back to carving up lines way out in the middle of nowhere.

Classic style, Rimey drops off Sentinel Ridge

The climb out was long and hot.

Crampons on and straight up

We made our way back to Carruthers for some afternoon lines into Club Lake. I met up with some old mates, Ryan and the Snowy Mountains' own bush carpenter Dougs (and here).

Hey Dougs, where's that single malt?

The run down to Club Lake was beautiful, just the right amount of softness and steepness to really let the skis run.

Mark drops into The Elevator, a pretty nice Australian chute from Carruthers down into Club Lake

Frame grab of me skiing off Carruthers

While the fitter members of the group booted up for another run I started the climb up to Mt Lee for my preferred last run of the season. Looking back I saw some tele gold by Paul the telemarking sheep farmer.

The awesome terrain off Mt Carruthers into Club Lake

My last run down Mt Lee was fun, beautiful wide open turns all the way to Club Lake Creek then drift hopping all the way back to the Snowy River. We finished the trip with a memorable night around the campfire discussing snow camping toilet etiquette and tales of youth misspent.

Classic night

Roos around the camp site in the morning

We wet a line in the Thredbo River but no luck as usual

A glacial erratic I encountered on the way home?

Lucky to see hundreds of endangered Hoary Sunray

Thank you everyone for the good times out on the hill. Another great season with plenty of good snow and backcountry learning opportunities. Enjoy summer.

An edit by Rohan who really loves 80's rock!

Sentinel and Club Lake SD from Rohan Verco on Vimeo.

Opening the Account – Skiing Australia in May

We experienced some crazy weather late last week. A bitterly cold, windy and snowy system smashed the south east of Australia. Up in the mountains, we received our first major snowfalls of the year.

Snowy Perisher car park

All shut up at the Parks office

My buddy James was fortuitously in town for work and we planned our first turns for the season for Saturday morning.

After spending a long time trying to find my gear, we were off up the hill to Perisher. The roads are very poorly managed outside of the official ski season, sections of bullet proof ice and snow drifts were common. We also came across a number of cars off the road and some that had been abandoned. At one stage we passed the Fire Brigade 4WD coming down a hill towards us, sideways. The fellas in the car reminded me of laughing clowns from a town fair.

Road carnage

Icy roads and abandoned car at Smiggin Holes

Although the road hadn’t been cleared we continued past Perisher village up to Mt Perisher. We went for a quick ski up Towers from the Mt Perisher base station. When the resort is opened, I like to ski Towers as fast as possible. Sadly, despite the 30cm of fresh snow, the lack of base meant that any turn could leave you tangled in up in errant shrubbery preventing speeds greater than granny pace. Indeed, it was a good test for my Dynafit bindings as one such bush stopped my skis dead leading to a double ejection over the handle bars into my first face plant for the season.

Not the best skiing

James on Towers run Mt Perisher

After our run down Towers it was back to the car. The road still hadn’t been cleared and we soon got stuck trying to drive back down to Perisher Village. James had some chains which we fitted and got out of there.

A few dramas after our crappy ski

That night, while enjoying a raging hot vindaloo curry, we planned our activities for Sunday. The weather was forecast to improve, and if the roads had been cleared we decided to hit the Main Range for some proper touring.

A bacon and egg roll and a coffee cleared the lingering cobwebs from the beers consumed the previous night. Driving up the hill, the weather was much improved, clear skies and heaps of snow.

Looking good on the Main Range

Unfortunately, the road still had not been cleared and chains were again needed.

Roads still not cleared

James was getting good at putting the chains on

Eventually we reached a point where we couldn’t get through even with the chains. We parked the car got our gear together and began the long trek out to the Main Range. We first negotiated the only just covered walking track down to the Snowy River.

Survival skiing over the pavers to the Snowy River

The Snowy was frozen and we took great care on the stepping stones not to fall in. James crossed effortlessly while I dropped my skis in the water and crawled on hands on knees on a couple of the more awkward stones.

Snowy River crossing

Skins were put on and the familiar touring gait assumed after months on the back burner as we made our way out to Mt Northcote.

Heading out to Mt Northcote

Me admiring the Carruthers chutes

We climbed up Mt Clark from the Club Lake Creek and we greeted with our first view over the range to the west. We could see the snow on Mt Bogong, around 100km away

Mt Bogong shows itself over the clouds from Mt Clarke

I watched James score some nice turns for the first 50m or so and then heard an all too familiar sound out in the Australian BC, ice. Somehow, despite the stable cold temperatures over the weather event, many aspects had become horribly icy.

James, first real turns for the season

My first turns, good to be back into it

Another quick break and it we were back on the climb heading up to Mt Lee.

The slog up Mt Lee

We had planned a run on Mt Lee but it looked too icy so we continued onto Carruthers hoping to at least enjoy the view from Australia’s third highest peak if the skiing was to be no good.

Heading towards Carruthers Peak

And what a view it is! The clouds rolling in added extra drama to the already dramatic crags of the western faces.

Best view in Australia?

We spent some time taking photos and enjoying the view. It was so nice up on the peak, I felt like having a nap. Usually it would be a great ski with 300m of vertical and then around 3km gentle rolling country back to the Snowy River but it was not to be, the ice awaited. We battled our way back taking the odd turn in the wind blown snow whenever we could.

The climb back up to the car, around 100m or so of vertical, was painful for my shell shocked feet. It wasn’t too long before they were released from their plastic prisons and we were off back down the finally cleared road.