The Sentinel and It's Ridge
The Sentinel (or Mount Sentinel) is a fantastic peak standing in the middle of Australia’s best skiing terrain. With a height of 1900m its relatively small compared to the surrounding mountains, but the peak and the ridge heading out to it present some of the most mountain-like terrain in Australia and the view from the peak is sensational.
The spectacular ridge out to the Sentinel.
Skiers most commonly ski the southern faces of the Sentinel and its ridge. These slopes are usually loaded with snow which lasts well into late spring and provide excellent continuous fall line steeps. From the peak itself the options on the south side are limited. If you want continuous fall line your best bet is straight down the south east facing slope into James Macarthur Creek.
The south face of the Sentinel and it's ridgeline. The southeast facing slope is one of the most commonly skied lines from the summit.
Morning light on the south faces of the Sentinel and it's ridgeline.
There are a couple of other options on the south side that I’ve scoped out from a distance but have never skied. Judging by what I’ve seen they require a fair amount of snow to be feasible. The first would involve negotiating some rocky outcrops on the south west facing slope before cutting back onto the southern face and skiing to James Macarthur Creek. This face is the one in sunlight below the peak in the picture presented above. The second follows a narrow chute down to the creek most of the way from the summit. These lines are shown in the pictures below. As I stated above I have never skied these lines and I have not heard of anyone skiing them. Its such a mission getting out to the Sentinel that you really don’t want to waste your time experimenting. And the south east face is pretty hard to go past when you're on the summit.
The south west facing chute is visible left of centre in this photograph.
Skiing along the ridge to get out to the Sentinel is as rewarding as skiing the runs below.
Mark boot packs up to the top of the Sentinel.
Whilst the peak is speccy the slopes further east of it offer just as much or more vertical skiing on slopes of similar grade and are probably a better option for the time conscious. As the picture below shows there are several gullies that can be skied on the south side of the ridge between the Sentinel and the Main Range. All have sustained pitches of over 30 degrees.
Skiing the south side of the Sentinel ridgeline.
Looking north east from Carruthers West Spur to the three main gullies on the south side of the Sentinel Ridge. Although there is a real lack of snow in this photo (it was taken in 2006) it illustrates the awesome skiing available without having to make the journey out to the Sentinel itself.
Looking west across the south faces of the Sentinel and it's ridgeline.
Looking back at the south faces of the Sentinel and its ridgeline from James Macarthur Creek.
Boot packing out after skiing the south face of the Sentinel. Poor cover in August 2006.
The north face of the Sentinel is seriously steep and ends up at the bottom of some pretty rugged terrain along Strzelecki Creek. If you chose to ski it make sure you’re on your game and check the snow consistency first. The slope cops the sun for most of the day, which results in variable snow conditions and means the base doesn’t last very long. It's typically only truly skiable in the heart of the season. A gully forms the most obvious line down the north side. A short traverse east from the peak opens up a more open and friendly looking bowl/gully.
Mark and i skied the gully in 2008. We didn't make it out there until around 1pm and didn't attempt to ski anything before 2pm. Whilst it was a relatively cold day the temperatures in the gully were very warm and the snow cover had transformed into very deep mash. A few good turns up high quickly turned into survival skiing lower down. About half way down the face Mark triggered a small (5m x 5m) wet snow slide that made its way down to Strzelecki Creek. Further down it was impossible to turn and we decided to pull up well short of Strzelecki Creek. Whilst trying to boot pack through some trees on the way out Mark dropped a ski. The snow was so rotten that the ski brake had no effect. Only a couple of snow gums about 20m down the slope stopped the ski from reaching the creek. Mark had to bootpack down to get his ski and was sinking up to his waste in slopy mash. I nearly snapped my knee when i sank into a gap between two rocks and then lost my balance.
Luckily noone got hurt and skis were recovered. We had a very nervous skin out along Strzelecki Creek as the wet surface snow kept trying to slide away beneath our skis. We ended up double kicking all the way to the base of the avalanche face then exited via Ant Ridge.
The north faces of the Sentinel and its ridgeline.
There are two obvious gullies that hold skiable snow below the Sentinel summit on the north face of the Sentinel.
Mark attempts to ski heavy porridge on the north face of the Sentinel.
The slopes off the north side of the ridge (ie. about 1km east of the Sentinel) are insanely steep, covered in large jagged rocky outcrops and only appear skiable with significant cover. Probably best left for a day when you have a medivac crew on standby.
The insanely steep and rugged faces on the north side of the Sentinel ridgeline.
Looking west from the top of Strzelecki Creek across the north faces of the Sentinel and its ridgeline.
The Sentinel pokes it's head out of the clouds.