Our little man has hit the one year mark and life is getting to a new sort of normal. He loves the outdoors and we have been taking him on heaps of hikes, the subject of subsequent posts hopefully, this one is about Daddy.
My birthday present this year was simple, a weekend in the backcountry. Having barely skied over the past year it was something I was looking forward to for weeks.
Day 1 - Mt Wheatley
A few laps of Mount Wheatley is my preferred mental reset, gear tester, snow pack reconnaissance or quick escape from civilisation. The trail head is in the middle of Australia's largest ski resort, and across the road from the epic bacon and egg rolls and coffee at Aldo's, but it is rarely skied. I spent my first night on
snow , reminisced about
overseas adventures, did my avalanche training meeting a bunch of legends and spent countless lunch breaks lapping Mount Wheatley while working at the resort. As a warm up back into BC travel, I spent a morning covering familiar ground.
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| Old faithful, low angle traverse to Mount Wheatley |
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| View back to Perisher, so peaceful from this vantage point |
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| Terrain is also pretty fun, lots of room to let the skis run |
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| Plenty of room for a few turns |
After Wheatley I met my buddy Matty in Jindabyne and we stocked up on food and booze for the next two days. I've been moving away from snow camping over the past few years preferring to camp at the snowline and then day trip into the mountains, seems to make the experience far less complex with smaller pack weight and more time for skiing. We found a nice spot and Island Bend set up camp and got the fire going.
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| Great camp site but super windy |
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| Happy days |
It was cold and windy but we had a good night by the fire. The highlight was probably both of us managing to spill our dinner on the inside of our down jackets trying to keep it warm out of the wind.
Day 2 - Guthega Trig and Mount Tate
I didn't get much sleep. It was howling gale force wind all night. I could hear the gusts coming through the valley then my tent would be smacking me in the face. It was also bitterly cold.
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| Don't often go full mummy but had to on this cold and windy night |
Arriving at Guthega we were greeted by cold and windy conditions, very much like the microclimate in my tent the previous night. There were boot deep freshies and a little bit of sun peeping out and we were into it.
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| Looked good from the car park |
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| Over the dam wall |
Matty's splitboarding skills have vastly improved since
our first, and pretty hilarious, adventure. We only made it abut half way up the ridge before we had to take some turns.
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| Was excited to get amongst it |
First run was fun, a bit of crust under the fresh but nice open turns. We hammered up to the ridge and took it all the way to the trig. The weather was gnarly at the top on the exposed ridge, we could barely stand up. I took a moment to take some shots of the snow battered trees and we then dropped west down to Guthega Creek.
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| Little bit of light in the clouds |
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| Gnarled snow gums are my favourite |
There was some crust, but mostly it was just 200 vertical metres of perfectly spaced trees in boot deep pow, so good.
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| Love the run off the back of Guthega Trig |
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| Upper Guthega Creek |
We had a quick lunch and booted up Mt Tate as far as the weather and ice allowed us. Matty was stoked to be able to use his crampons. Our run down Tate was awesome, big open turns. A quick transition and we climbed up again and dropped in south to the little log footbridge over Guthega Creek. I must have been cold, wet, tired, hungry or all of the above for all this cause I didn't get any photos except for our happy faces crossing the creek. Some legend had put the mesh steel back on, no more sketchy slippery log hopping, thanks!
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| Matty crossing Guthega Creek |
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| So stoked someone put the mesh back on! |
Another cold night by the fire with the bitter wind ripping through the valley.
Day 3 - Gills Knob and the Pyramid
At around midnight the wind stopped, blessed calmness, I slept like a baby. Rocking up at Guthega we were greeted by perfect a backcountry day. We didn't have time to hit the main range, Matty had to drive to Sydney to catch a flight to NZ for more riding, so it was a quick few yo-yos on Gills Knob.
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| What a day! |
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| Large guided tour heading out |
We ducked around the back of the main ridge and crossed Guthega Creek. We made good time up to the Tate ridge line. It got pretty hot and we dropped some layers, Matty more than me!
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| Hot work |
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| Getting near the top |
We time our run down the Pyramid perfectly, that moment when ice melts but isn't slush, it was fun.
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| Some of our turns down The Pyramid |
We had a quick feed then hoofed it back up to the ridge line. Tramping through the snow gums we came across a group of BC ladies having lunch, they were pretty impressed with Matty who had once again dropped all his layers.
A quick transition and another great run down to Guthega Creek and that was it, our BC weekend done. We hit the road with some more classic memories in the bank.
