Main Range - 23-24 July 2008 by James Morrow
Fine weather has been rare ever since it started snowing in early July. Mark and i spied a fine weather window on Wednesday and Thursday and around lunch time tuesday we decided to head down for a quick trip to the main range. After getting the nod from the boss we were off. We didn't arrive at Jindy till 2am. It almost wasn't worth rolling the swag out but we did manage a couple of hours sleep before the alarm went off at 5am.
After a quick feed at the 24 hr garage we were on our way to Guthega. A few fuck ups on my part, which included getting bogged in the overnight car park at Guthega chasing a close spot, saw our departure delayed till 7am.
Snow cover around Guthega was as good as i've seen it. We were able to cross the creek via a snow bridge downstream of the flying fox and then we were able to cross the snowy about 600m further on. We were on top of Twynam by around 11am.
We observed a rather nasty looking slide on the east face of Twynam on the way. Some of the chunks in the debris were around 2m thick and easily the size of mini buses. Once we got up Twynam we noted another large slide on the same aspect of Twynam West Spur. Definitely something we kept in mind for the rest of the trip.
Mark checks out the debris from a decent sized slide on the east face of Twynam.
Mark Climbing Twynam with Mt Blue Cow and Back Perisher Mountain in the background.
We skied down into the top of Strzelecki Creek and roughly set up a camp site. Unlike most of our trips to the main range we only had two days so we decided to go a little lighter than usual. This meant leaving the 4 person tent behind. Mark bought a light weight summer tent and i had a bivvy bag. I accidently left my day pack behind so i ended up spending the rest of the trip skiing with my 85L pack on. Sensational.
Whilst the cover was deep in most areas the quality was pretty ordinary. The wind had scoured out the south facing slopes and had put a firm surface on other aspects. We decided to make the most of the solid July cover by skiing the north face of the sentinel.
The ski out was pretty nerve racking along a 5m wide icy stretch of snow with a large cornice to the left and a steep drop to the right, but was great fun none the less.
James sporting a nervous smile on a rare flat spot on the way ou to the Sentinel.
Mark making his way along the Sentinel Ridge.
Mark stops to take in the view.
Then continues on his way.
Mark boots up the last stretch.
Mark doing it the hard way.
And eventually makes it to the top of The Sentinel.
James on The Sentinel
The Crags and The Awesome Spur looking fantastic.
There was enough cover to enable the large rocky outcrops in the saddle to be negotiated with ease and we were up on top in no time. After scoping out the south west chute and taking a few photos we hit the north face. The upper hundred metres of so was quite nicely corned and made for some good turns. Unfortunately lower down the sun had turned the cover into boot deep heavy snot that was just about impossible to turn in. Not far into the slop Mark triggered a small (5m wide) wet snow slide that trundled it's way down into Strzelecki Creek. It had us a little nervous for the remainder of the run. We got some more turns in but it was really a matter of survival only. The vegetation thickened quite quickly and given the state of the snow pack we decided to exit quite high to ensure we got out OK.
James battling through heavy crud on the north face of The Sentinel.
Mark battling through the crud on the north face of The Sentinel.
Mark ended up losing a ski whilst trying to negotiate his way through a pungy stick field of burnt snow gums. The snow was so rotted out that the ski brake did nothing. Luckily the ski lodged in some shrubs about 20m down the slope. It was still a 15 minute mission for him to get down there and back in slush that was waist deep!
After mark had retrived his ski we skinned over the top of Strzelecki Creek on rotted out snow that kept trying to slide down the hill with every step. Every step had to be double kicked to prevent us from sliding into the semi-open creek / waterfall below. We eventually made it around to the base of The Avalanche Face where we encountered much icier conditions. We bailed on to the Ant Ridge and made out way up to Tenison Woods Knoll along there. In the 2 hours of struggle out on the valley the breathless blue sky day had transformed into a party cloudy day with strongish easterly wind. It was sun down by the time we reached the top of the Avalanche Face and the temperature was dropping quickly.
Based on our experince of the north face of the sentinel i now proposed to name the run "Shitters Ditch", because that's where you end up if you ski down there!
View of "Shitters Ditch" from The Ant Ridge
The sunset viewed from Tenison Woods Knoll
We arrived back at the camp site just after sunset. The wind was ripping through our site which was not good for our tired dehydrated bodies. I was starting to feel a little bit queasy from the cold. Realising the wind wasn't going to ease and that we had no real shelter from it i got started on a small snow cave to cook inside while mark built a nice wall around his 'airy' summer tent. We finished off a nice cosy two person kitchen cave in around an hour due to some favourable conditions in the snow pack. We spent the rest of the night in there eating and rehydrating before retiring around 9pm. A midnight pee wearing only thermals was fun in strongish breeze and around -9 degrees.
Morrow's Kitchen - Unfortunated the rehydrated lamb curry and cous cous tasted like lard.
The wind dropped during the night and we woke to another magic cloudless day. After taking it easy for a couple of hours we packed up then headed to Watson's Crags to scope the north facing chute into Siren Song. The upper slopes looked great but the chute itself still had an open creekline. We decided to give it a miss and ski the more reliable north facing slope at the east eand of the crags. We had a great run in snow with a spring like top and drier bottom.
Mark checks out the slide down the north face of Twynam West Spur.
The VIC Alps looking good.
James skis the north face of the Crags.
James skis the north face of the Crags.
James skis the north face of the Crags.
And Mark takes the fall line.
Looking back up at the damage.
We climbed back out and then it was time to head off. We met three nice blokes on the way back up the Twynam West Spur. Turns out they had been watching us had trouble on the Sentinel the day before. We swapped stories for a while then it was off to the camp site to pack up for the return trip.
The ski back to the Snowy from Twynam was as fun as ever with snow conditions ranging from compacted wind blown, to sastrugi, to soft pow all occurring at random. Mark had his obligatory 'loaded pack stack' about half way down. I made it all the way to Farm Creek before i had mine. A small trip resulted in a face plant into a very marginal snow bridge. Luckily it held together until i could get up. Once standing i did manage to lose my leg down into the creek though. Back at the car by 6pm. I was in bed in Dubbo by 2am and Mark in Newcastle by 3am. I very full two days but very rewarding.