Leatherbarrel - Twynam West - 16-17 July 2010
We made our way down to Tom Groggin late thursday night and set up camp with light rain still falling. An early start had us on the Kosciuszko chair early friday morning. Weather was fine and no wind, some low cloud around the range. We skinned out to the Ramshead. Overall the cover appeared to have improved since a fortnight earlier, but the strong wind that accompanied last weeks snow seemed to have left the western slopes all but bare and had done a good job of loading up the eastern slopes. That said anything up high was wind tortured and far from soft.
I should point out i was without my good camera for this trip. The old girl moved on last weekend and her replacement didn't arrive on time. Had to drag out an old point and shoot from 2002 to get some memories from the weekend. Please excuse the poor quality photos.
Mirandah climbing up from the Eagles Nest.
I got used to this view on Saturday.
Mt Bogong sticking out of the clouds in the distance. About the same height as the twin humps in the lower right corner of this photo.
We picked our way through the rocks up high to find ourselves looking at a short but loaded slope at the northern end of the Leatherbarrel Creek valley. We dropped in. Mirandah had issues in the soft stuff. She was trying her hardest to turn her skis but that's not easy when all your weight is on the back of them. While that was going on i managed a few nice turns in very deep snow.
Deep but crusty snow at the northern end of the Leatherbarrel Creek valley.
The slopes on the eastern side of the valley just didn't quite have a solid enough cover to ski so we headed to the slopes on the western side of the valley. The snow was probably 60-100cm deep on this face, but had fallen on bare bushes so was deep and a bit random western side. I managed a nice run but thought it would be better for Mirandah to sit it out. She filmed me ski this one:
After that we decided to head over to Kosi south ridge to get onto some firmer snow for Mirandah's sake. We trekked across the plains around Cootapatamba Hut for what seemed like an eternity before we got to the base of the south ridge.
Climbing out of Leatherbarrel.
Skiers in front of the Ramshead. Looks ok in the photo but the cover wasn't quite complete.
Wet boots after the river crossing. Most of the creeks were open after 90mm of rain in 12 hours earlier in the week.
Me showing off my new ski boots - i like to party.
Swampy Plains River and Cootapatamba Hut.
Turns out it was all wind chopped crud. Mirandah had strained a groin muscle (not mine unfortunately) so we decided to call it a day. Climbed back up the North Ramshead and skied back to Thredbo.
On saturday i deceided to head up to Twynam with Brian Wilson. Brian was keen to try out his new skis and boots - coming from a trekker setup to dedicated AT he was always going to be a happy camper.
We left Guthega around 9am and headed out toward Illawong. The new bridge at Farm Creek made things a little easier than normal, but the up and down rutted out skin track did another fine job on my big toes. I was in pain early. Gritted the teeth and we made it up to Twynam by around midday. The view from Twynam suggested that the Watsons Creek bowl (off Twynam West Spur) was holding the goods.
Looking down the Triple A - All rocks and grass below.
Twynam West Spur and the Crags from Twynam.
View to Carruthers Peak and beyond.
The Sentinel and Townsend.
We skied over to Tenison Woods Knoll for a closer look. The cornice wasn't it's scary self so Brian decided to drop in just west of the Knoll and got a tasty run down a nicely loaded gully. Brian sent me across the top of the cornice to the western side of the bowl. This slope was a bit friendlier and was holding some nice soft stuff down low. We met up in the bottom of the bowl and then traversed to the north to some skiable slopes lower down. We came across a couple of subtle gullies that appeared to be holding nice light snow so we skied down and were suitably rewarded.
Wilso dropped in just below here.
A short video of Wilson's run:
You'll have to turn your head sideways for this one - don't know how to rotate the movie.
The lower part of our run - good snow down here.
We donned the skins and headed about 400m back up the same slope, then moved one gully over and got into some really A quality snow. Relatively short section but the snow was the kind that doesn't form chunks, and we both had small powder sluffs follow us down the slope. Big smiles after that one.
Wilson and our tracks.
Close up of our tracks.
The clock and fitness were catching up so we climbed our way back up to Twynam via Watsons Creek.
Wilso climbing out of Watsons Creek.
Some of my tracks still in the sunshine - not the wind features in the foreground.
Wilso's tracks.
Looking back to Kosciuszko from Twynam plateau.
From there we had a fun run back down to Illawong, finding the odd bit of soft snow on the way down. Another tough slog from Illawong to Guthega, the toes aching all the way. Just when we thought we were back we had to content with a partially covered crusty slope down to the bridge. Even the wombat manouver didn't work in this snow. Got back to the car stuffed and with two black toe nails - the illawong slog strikes again.
On Sunday we drove home via Selwyn, Cabramurra and Tumbarumba. Decided to grab a couple of logs on the way past the state forest. Got the logs then got in a bog. We broke through shallow crust of the soil into runny cucka, and sunk straight down to the axles. Time to use the winch in anger for the first time. Out within 30 minutes - Winch just paid for itself.