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

Twynam Creek Learning and Development

Not all adventures go as planned. Although I would always hope to score nice weather and knee deep powder, crappy Australian conditions and busy schedules mean sometimes you have to take what you can get. I have been planning an overnight backcountry skiing trip with my mate Matty for the past couple of weeks. The plan for Day 1 was to head out from Guthega early, find a good campsite then spend the day riding powder. Day 2 we planned to ski until lunch, decamp then make it back to Jindabyne in time to have dinner and a beer with smug, freshly goggle tanned, faces.

Gear explosion the night before

Well that was the plan, in reality, our trip was quite different. It was all due to the weather, horrible blizzard conditions were predicted. This had an impact on our gear choices. I had planned to bring two small 1 person tents and then cook and eat outside. There was no way that we could do this looking at the forecast. What to do? How about bringing my heavy car camping tent which has a huge vestibule. It’s a big heavy Vango number, a great tent but not quite designed for light ski touring. We split it and stripped it and still ended up with 3kg of tent each.

Despite the weather and heavy packs we made a good start out of town on the road to Guthega. A fresh dusting held some promise.

Exciting or an ominous sign of poor weather?

Gear at the Guthega Centre, ready for action

We made some turns down to Farm Creek to get the legs going. The snow was pretty good. Matty however, not used to riding with a heavy pack was struggling. He had a couple of falls until he got the hang of the extra load.

After our first turns where Farm Ck enters the Guthega Pondage

We made our way out to the Illawong swing bridge which spans the Snowy River. We took some turns where we could. Matty, being new to split boarding (and riding on two planks) had some interesting moments on the down slopes. Two stacks in particular were hilarious (from my point of view anyway). A slow, back lean snow plough and a face plant on a narrow snow bridge.

Fun times learning to ski on a split board with a heavy pack

Despite these trials and tribulations we made it to Illawong in pretty good time. The weather, although overcast was holding up ok and we were pretty excited to get over the bridge, set up camp and then hit the slopes.

Snowy River

Pumped to get over the bridge and get some turns under the belt

We found a nice spot amongst some snow gums and set up camp. We had a quick lunch then hit the slopes. Using only our small day packs, Matty’s skills were improving fast. We made a good climb up to a ridge off Twynam Creek. Dropping in the light was really flat and we struggled a bit as we made our way down to the Snowy River.

Matty mastering the split board

Some dodgy frame grabs of our turns

 

 

 

At the Snowy the clouds lifted a little to give us the smallest glimpse of a sunset. We refilled our water at Twynam Creek and then skinned back to camp.

Some colours after living in black and white for most of the day

 

Matty was the water man

Getting back to camp

Snow gums are awesome

Our camp, not a bad spot, kind of protected with a nice view of the Snowy River below

We pulled out the down jackets, cracked the Port and settled in for the night. Dinner for me was wild mushroom risotto while Matty went for a venison stir fry, both rehydrated and recommended by John at the Mountain Adventure Centre. The Port, coupled with chocolate did its trick and we were in our sleeping bags by 9. The weather when we retired was overcast and snowy but not too bad.

At around midnight, it all changed. I was woken by sago (frozen rain) being smashed into the side of the tent. The wind had picked up dramatically, it felt as though tent was about to take off. I was sure that a pole would brake or some other catastrophic failure would occur. I spent the rest of the night trying to sleep while the Snowy Mountains battered us.

As soon at it was light, we got up and started packing, the weather was shocking and the warmth of civilisation was calling us. To its credit the Vango tent held up to everything that was flung at it that night and the massive front vestibule proved to be essential.

The tent held up well to some accumulation

Matty stoked to be alive

Battered snow gums

We are outta here

We skied back to the Illawong bridge, crossed over, and continued on our way back to Guthega.

A little dejected heading back over the bridge

Instead of contouring back around to Guthega we skinned up to the ridge (northern end of the Paralyser perhaps?) to salvage some turns for the day. We transitioned and skied about 100m vertical down to the Farm Ck bridge, stoked for at least some turns. From Farm Ck it was a quick walk back through the village. We drove around to Perisher and ate a delicious pizza at Aldo’s with the masses who were opting out of the nasty conditions on the hill, if only they had an inkling of what it was like beyond the boundaries!

Matty was stoked with his Venture split from First Light Snowboards and Wilderness Sports. Hopefully our next outing can coincide with sunny days and knee deep powder.

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.