The Softcountry - Charlotte Pass / Curruthers Peak
It all started about a week earlier. A few us us decided to spend two nights in a cosy hut rather cart the tent a few km's out onto the range. SO began my love affair with the SOFTCOUNTRY. With more Softcountry in mind i came up with a brilliant strategy to enjoy my weekend, whilst not spoiling the enjoyment of Mirandah - at least not too much. We would ski charlotte pass on friday, camp somewhere nearby then head out to the main range if conditions were good on saturday and sunday.
We left Dubbo around 7pm. After driving through heavy snow from Michelago we found a nice place to sleep just outside jindabyne. The snow on the ground was primo and we were excited. We woke early and after a bacon and egg roll we were on the oversnow to Charlotte Pass.
When we arrived the weather consisted of strong winds and snow. We skied off the lifts for a few hours in the morning. The Pulpit T-Bar was the only lift offering anything decent and a short traverse resulted in a short but good burst of good powder turns on the guthries side. It seems that CP people just don't want to stray to far from the tow which is good if you're prepared to push off your stocks about 5 times.
After lunch we set up the tent in the trees on the western side of the pass then it was back to skiing. Later in the afternoon i strapped on the skins and headed up to the top of the triple chair. The snow was bloody deep and my lack of match fitness showed. A few face plants later and i decided to head back to the T-Bar.
Once the lifts shut Mirandah and I headed to the softcountry bar at the Chalet for beers and coffee. Then it was time to load up on carbs at the $50/head softcountry buffet. We ate shitloads. We were done by around 8pm, donned skis then skinned back up the hill to the tent. The weather had mostly cleared by the time we had eaten and we were able to ski by moonlight, with light snowfalls continuing. We saw a fox and some little mouse like critters running around on the snow on the way.
Early (around 3am) on Saturday morning we were woken by a groomer, who informed us we had actually set up our tent on a groomed run. We had set up in poor visability. Sheltered locations on the western facing slopes were hard to come by. Whilst we were relatively close to the lifts the dense gums and 2m high wind drifts offered no eveidence to suggest that we were anywhere near a groomed run. Luckily we'd left skis set up on top of the drift otherwise we'd probably be part of the base for season 2008! Anyway after some 'negotiations' with the groomer driver we arranged to depart the area early saturday morning.
We got up in time to see the sun rise over the main range. By morning there was no wind and not a cloud in the sky. A speccy site.
Sunrise near the CP Lookout.
Sunrise over Mt Clarke, Mt Northcote and Mt Townsend.
The snow on the eastern slopes of the main range appeared very wind affected and only the lee slopes offered any chance of soft snow.
The range was covered in large wind features.
After that we had brekky then headed off toward Carruthers Peak. I was going to ski a run whilst mirandah watched on. Around the time we crossed the snow a large gust of wind came in from the north west. Within a couple of minutes it was blowing pretty hard and high clouds began to build. We decided to keep going and we were at the top of Carruthers in about 2 hours (yes we are very unfit). By this stage the day had turned miserable and the Norwester was in full swing. Carruthers definitely wasn't a place to hang out for to long. I took a couple of pictures then we were off. We skied a 'mirandah friendly' tame route down to Club Lake Creek off the eastern spur of Carruthers.
The western faces had good cover but only a few aspects with smooth looking snow. The rime monsters on the north face of Carruthers would have made for interesting skiing. We got out of here quickly because mirandah decided to start having a whing about the cold wind.
The snow was wind packed on every aspect we tried.
Mirandah skiing on water for world youth day/week - crossing the Snowy River
Once we got back to the Snowy the clouds had cleared a little but the wind was getting stronger and we couldn't see snow conditions getting any better. We decided to call off our planned second night near Charlottes and headed back on the oversnow to some more softcountry - a nice fire and beers at Island Bend. Besides neary taking my finger off with a pruning saw we had a pretty good night.