August BC adventures

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.

Old faithful, low angle traverse to Mount Wheatley

View back to Perisher, so peaceful from this vantage point

Terrain is also pretty fun, lots of room to let the skis run

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.

Great camp site but super windy

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.

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.

Looked good from the car park

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.

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.

Little bit of light in the clouds

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.

Love the run off the back of Guthega Trig

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!

Matty crossing Guthega Creek

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.

What a day!

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!

Hot work

Getting near the top

We time our run down the Pyramid perfectly, that moment when ice melts but isn't slush, it was fun.

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.

North Face of Watson's Crags

I approach the western faces of the Main Range with wonder and trepidation. It’s a massive effort just to get out there, to ski the western fall and get back to safety in a day is just about the hardest thing I do each year. Nonetheless, every year I get an itch for the steeps of the west. The skiing is epic, just super dangerous and serious hard work. Last weekend the stars lined up and I had an opportunity to hit the Main Range.

I met some buddies at Guthega who were in town for the annual Splitfest. They were hitting Tate but I was keen on getting out amongst the big mountains of the western faces. I have been battling a dodgy back all season and wasn't sure how it was going to hold up so the plan was to poke my way out to Twynam, if it felt good I could drop in otherwise just enjoy the view.

My goal, north face of Watson's Crags (thanks to Tim for the pic)

The ski out to Illawong was uneventful except for the fact I did it in 35min, a new record for me. I Ran into a large group of BC travelers at the bridge and quite a few others camping and touring around. Great to see so many people out and about.

Large group heading out for a few days

Possibly an old mate Doug C heading out to Watsons Crags?

The ice around Twynam was diabolical, I used my crampons and axe in anger for the first time and was thankful I had them. I skied out to Twynam and my back was feeling ok so skied all the way out to the northern face of Watsons Crags. A couple of skiers were eyeing off the crags but it looked very dodgy and icy.

First look at Twynam West Spur

Watson's Crags, hectic! perhaps the same to fellas from the other shot up on the ridge, Doug C maybe?

The Gash, still there and looking nasty

I decided to drop into Siren Song, some buddies had ridden it on Thursday and it looked good.

I was nervous dropping in but had an incredible ski down on great corn, a highlight of the season. I spent the rest of the day yo-yoing my way east towards Watsons Creek.

Yew

Evidence of a massive slide from earlier in the season

Lunch in Watson's Creek

These dudes were booting up the Triple A, an impressive effort!

I made great time on my return skin up Watson's Creek. One foot in front of the other with my weary legs. I stopped to have chat to some fellow BC travelers while enjoying the afternoon light.

Anderson Crags

Mt Townsend North Spur with Mt Bogong way off in the distance

Carruthers

Looking back to where I skied, farmers are burning off way out past the mountains

The ski back from Twynam was shocking. Ice the whole way to Illawong and then to Guthega, a terrible ski for my tired body.

I met up with Belly, SPG and a few other splitters at Island Bend for a great evening by the fire. Many thanks to SPG for hooking me up some thai food, much appreciated! Thanks also to the Splitfest crew for organising Friday night. Good to have a beer, catch up with familiar faces and win some tat.

Great to give my back a work out and get some turns on the western faces in the bag for 2014.

A post script and amazing story. When I got back to the car I was absolutely shattered. This lead to a semi Paleolithic hunt for chocolate and a gatorade that I had in the car with associated gear explosion. After camping out and visiting some friends in the area I was packing my car for the drive home and realised I didn’t have my GPS. I drove the hour back to Guthega, and there it was, exactly where I left it in the car park. Amazing really, 20 hours later and a full car park. So happy it was still there.

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.