Almost Skiing Twynam West Spur

I have been itching to get out to the western faces of the Snowy Mountains all winter. Apart from an early season mission in May, to date, work, weather and other commitments have conspired against me. I had a free day yesterday and had planned to get out amongst the big lines on offer.

Unfortunately none of the usual suspects could make it so it was to be a solo day. Waking early, I was pretty excited as the recent snowfalls had given way to a beautiful sunny spring day. I drove up to Guthega and got my shit together in the car park.

Starting at Guthega, Twynam and the peaks beyond are over the furthest visible ridge 8km away

I made good time out to Illawong. I can’t get over how much snow is around at the moment, I have never seen all the creeks covered. I took my skins off as the early ice made for a great fast skate out along the flats.

All filled in at Illawong Lodge

I crossed the Illawong swing bridge and continued out to Mt Twynam. Conditions were not great, it was so icey I was barely leaving a skin track. Despite the blazing sun, I was getting nervous that the western faces would be too dangerous to ski.

Looking good but its all ice

Horrible ice with brown dust

As I got higher, approaching Mt Twynam and still struggling on the ice, the wind increased severely. I skied around to the western face of Twynam and could barley stand up. It was relentless, no gusts, just constant gale force winds. I skied down to the Twynam west spur saddle, enjoying the incredible view of the western faces despite the ice and wind.

Looking north, Anderson Crags in foreground and Jagungal in the distance

I carefully booted up and along the spur concentrating on not dropping any gear or even worse falling over and sliding hundreds of metres. I used my pole to check the snow on the north western face hoping that it would have softened up in the sun. Sadly, it was still ice.

Short boot up to Tenison Woods Knoll

I had promised myself in the morning that if the snow looked dodgy I wouldn’t drop in. Considering the consequences of solo BC skiing I came to the realisation that I wouldn’t be skiing any of the gnarly terrain on offer on this day. Despite the howling wind, once the decision had been made I relaxed and spent some time taking photos of the breathtaking peaks.

Epic terrain

Pity about the ice

Some dark clouds in the valley far below and Mt Bogong 100km away poking its head out made for some extra drama.

Looking down the Avalanche Face

The Sentinel and Mt Bogong in the distance

 Townsend North Spur

Chutes off Carruthers

Pano, endless lines

Strzelecki Creek

As I was getting ready to start heading back to Guthega I ran into a group of 5. They had also checked out the snow and made the call to leave it alone. Knowing they had also judged the conditions to be dangerous made me feel better about my decision. I followed them back towards Twynam for a bit, their group consisted of people on AT gear, tele gear and a split boarder. Great to see so many people out enjoying the BC.

BC people

A bit of Main Range skating

I took my skins off for the long ski back to Illawong. Dropping down the eastern face of Twynam I was pleasantly surprised by the snow. I carved a few big turns, it felt good to get the skis moving again after the disappointment of the western faces.

Finally some turns, dodging ice and brown snow, eastern face of Twynam

Back at Illawong, away from the ice and the wind of the Main Range I sat and enjoyed some lunch in the sun. I had a pretty easy ski back to Guthega. The spring sun was in full affect at the lower elevations and I was burning up by the time I got back to the car.

Sun and ice

Despite not being able to ski any of the awesome terrain out on the western faces, I'm glad I had the opportunity to get out there. Hopefully the snow will hang around, the planets align again and I can get back out there soon.

yew

19km and nearly 1,000m climbed

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.

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!).