Leatherbarrel and Twynam West 8-9 August 2009
I spent lots of friday looking at the snow cams, satellite pics and radar images and it looked like the heavens unloaded during the day so another ski trip was on the cards.
We left Wagga at 5.30am and got to Thredbo by about 9.15am after a quick breaky stop at the Khancoban evrything shop - the bacon and egg toasted sangas are highly recommended.
Obligatory Scammels Spur stop on the way. The drive from Tumbarumba to Thredbo is stunning early in the morning.
Mirandah got herself a day ticket and got me a single ride ticket. I didn't expect conditions to be great at Thredbo because i thought most of fridays snow would have been tracked out during fridays session. I was wrong, the basin looked special. I was tempted to have a run or two up there but the 15 minute queue at basin t-bar and 10 minutes at Karels put an end to that idea.
Thredbo seemed to be full of people hauling gear day packs and overnight packs and i was a little worried Leatherbarrel Creek was going to be tracked out by the time i got there. I don't know where everyone went because i only saw two other people skiing the western side of the valley all day.
I headed straight for the Ramshead, making sure i skinned past the group that pushed in to the basin t-bar via the ski school line. You can't cheat on the skin lift. I pretty much followed the script from 17 July 2009 with a couple of slight variations.
The top of The Ramshead was icier than usual. Not boiler plate, but not far off. The top 150m vertical was shocking. I had trouble getting an edge in and had a few dicey moments. I found a way into the gully between The Spur and Golden Gully and the good stuff began a little way down. The snow quality was as good as i've had (i keep saying this in every report but it seems to be getting better and better). Actually it was a bit to good. The 10-20cm was so light that i was effectively just skiing the frozen gear underneath and making nice tracks. Was still great fun and submarining skis are pretty rare in Australia so i was happy.
Fluffy Snow on the way into The Golden Gully
From there i headed over to the Twin Humps. Again the top 100m vertical was hard ice. I had a look off the top but only an idiot would have skied it on saturday. Instead i took the more mellow line through the humps and got into some good stuff lower down in the trees. I had a couple of short runs down in the trees then headed back towards The Spur, which had been looking good all afternoon.
Tracks between the Twin Humps. The stuff in the chutes was rock hard ice.
Nice snow was hiding in the trees lower down.
Short but quality run through the trees.
Everything up high was ice but it was good down below.
Final run down the western side of the valley.
And again - but closer this time.
Snow on The Spur was a little sun affected. Still good but a bit more spring like than the dry fluff that was there in the morning. I left my gear half way up and had a run down an untracked bottom section of the run.
Sun affected freshies on The Spur.
Looking back down before i departed.
Looking down toward the Golden Gully at the mornings handywork.
Afternoon light on the South Ramshead.
I was stuffed by this stage and wasn't helped by the need to boot pack and carry skis up the last 100m vertical of The Ramshead. Luckily i had phone reception so i called Mirandah and got her to meet me down at Dead Horse Gap. The snow over at South Ramshead was still in tip top condition and i had a great run back to the car through the trees. Certainly beats the crusty concrete i had to negotiate in there last time i headed that way.
We had another awesome camp fire and roast dinner on saturday night in my new favourite camping spot.
Sunday morning was slightly overcast and conditions in the swag were cosy so we ended up sleeping in till 8am. Then it was off to Jindy for breaky.
The on again off again sunshine was causing me grief and i couldn't get keen for skiing. After realising the snow was only just up the road and that it was sunday i headed up to Guthega. I thought i would go and give Anderson Crags a go. Didn't get away from the car until just before 11am. The tracks on Tate East Ridge were appealing but i'm a bit over that for now so continued toward Mt Anderson. Even more interesting was two sets of foot prints across Guthega Dam. The snow/ice looked pretty solid but i couldn't understand why you wouldn't have stayed on skis. As safe as it looked i still think i would have used the dam wall to cross. Each to thier own i guess.
Boot packing across Guthega Dam - not for me thanks.
Got out to Illawong in good time thanks to a well worn skin track. Then i was half way towards Mt Anderson and the sun all but dissapeared. The snow quality higher up was also deteriorating into more of the windblow ice i experienced at The Ramshead on Saturday. I was getting less and less keen to ski and i was thinking of heading further out to check out the western faces for the first time this season.
I got to the top of Twynam just before 2pm then skied over to the top of The Avalanche Face. The snow looked very ordinary just about everywhere i looked. I bumped into two guys that had skied a very icey Watsons Creek. They had to boot pack most of the way up because of the ice. I also saw two guys in the distance dropping into Erics Funnel (on Carruthers north face). They didn't make it very far down before they booted back to the top. I was nervous just taking my skis off on slight gradients - thought they may dissappear into Strzelecki Creek.
Looking down Watsons Creek.
The Sentinel, Townsend North and Mt Bogong.
The western faces.
The cornice on Twynam West Spur.
Another shot of Watsons Creek with the sun out.
Ice and wind formations on Tenison Woods Knoll.
One last look back to Bogong before skiing home.
The comination of high cloud and sunny breaks made for some nice lighting.
The on again off again sun and high cloud made for some nice views. The gloomy spells got the better of me and i started to head back at about 3.30pm. Got back to the car just after 5pm and headed to Jindy for a well earned feed of pizza and soft drink. I ate so much that i think i ended up with an energy gain for the day.