Main Range - 28-30 September 2009

I had a great drive across the Snowy Mts Highway on Sunday night. It was dumping, there was 10-15cm on the road, heaps of snow off the side of the road. I had the road to myself and belted along at 80km/hr.

Damian, Mark and myself got up to Guthega about 8am. Dumpage. The best it had looked all season. We headed via Illawong out on a very solid cover. I fell in the drink trying to cross Farm Creek which made for wet boots for the trip and some interesting foot issues.

Mark skis down the road to Guthega Dam

Mark and Damian crossing Farm Creek - i was already wet from knees down - top start.

Sun threatened to come out until we got to Illawong. Then it started snowing and pretty much kept up for the rest of the day. Not super heavy but pretty decent falls at times. We got stuck in white out conditions on top of Twynam and found our way to Sentinel Creek brail style. (took us about an hour).

The snow on top of the range was in tip top shape. I can't remember ever skiing in pow across the top of Twynam. This had us excited.

We thought it would clear in the afternoon but the white out and more snowfalls continued. We ended up spending the afternoon setting up the tent and a nice cave to sit in. The fresh snow layer in the drift we set up in was about 2m thick. All very nice and loose, which made for easy digging. We encountered the brown smear about 2m down. Interesting layer that. Full of dirt, bugs and dead set dark brown.

The sky cleared briefly after sunset, but snow returned later in the evening.

Clear skies on Tuesday morning and a sea of low cloud to the west.

The Sentinel with clouds behind.

The sun hits the top of the Sentinel.

The Taj Mahal and our drying room.

Our drying room and cave-kitchen (the roof would collapse later in the day).

Blue bird morning on Tuesday. We had breaky and then headed for Carruthers to ski the north face. By the time we got up there cloud was starting to build and before we were back in the cloud before we chad our run. Snow looked great from afar but turned out to be deep goop. Very hard to ski. The snow was forming giant balls of goop and rolling down the slope. The chutes were full of massive (50cm diameter snow balls and the skiing was anything but enjoyable. It seemed there temps had remained a little high overnight.

The low cloud ended up engulfing the range by mid morning.

Another Sentinel shot on the way to Carruthers.

Damian on his way to Carruthers.

Sentinel Going..Going..

Just about gone.

Damian drops in to one of the chutes on the Carruthers north face.

Mark skiing one of the chutes on the Carruthers north face. Note - the large gooly balls present further down. Yuck.

We retreated back to camp for a bit. Marks feet were stuffed so he sat (softed out) the afternoon. Rather than listen to the whingometer go of the charts Damian and i went for a tour along the range out to Mt Northcote. Excellent sight seeing with cloud rolling in and out and changing levels all afternoon. Saw the last of the afternoon on Carruthers before heading back to camp.

Carruther West Spur (Little Austria).

Damian climbs a pretty decent drift up Mt Northcote.

Cloud streaming in over the Main Range late on Tuesday afternoon.

Damian taking in the view to the west from Carruthers Peak.

View to the north from Carruthers Peak.

And then it was clear.

Damian taking in the afternoon vista on Carruthers Peak.

It was so warm during the day that the roof of our snow cave collapsed. Mark refurbished it while we were out sight seeing and had a cold can of VB waiting for us on out return - what a legend!

We finally got a freeze on Tuesday night. Woke up to a cooler morning and crusty snow. We packed up and headed toward twynam. Dumped packs and then headed up Tenison Woods Knoll. By this time the sun had softened the Watsons Creek side so we had a ncie run down there.

Mark drops into Watson's Creek from Tenison Woods Knoll

Damian lower down in Watsons Creek.

Mark and i got really used to this view. A fit Damian making us look like soft fat bastards.

Skinned out and then had another nice run down the avalanche face. It was spring skiing and the goop balls were going off. Bush patrol set one off that ended up being about 1m diameter.

Mark and my tracks lower down the Avalanche Face. Note the gooly balls everywhere.

Mark skins up Ant Ridge.

Mark skinning up Ant Ridge.

Skinned out then headed back to illawong. Snow low down was more like water skiing. The melt rate was amazing. There was a rock sticking about 50cm out of the snow that had been fully covered just two days earlier. The cover from Illawong to Guthega was just hanging on. It was rotten and there was plenty of breaking through into the bushes and plenty of scrub bashing. One of the hardest slogs out we have ever had.

Barring any miracle snow events or sudden return of interest i'd say that's it for me in 2009. A funny season. It started almost six months ago with an overnight trip to Alice Rawson on the first weekend in May. Still plenty more photos and videos to come from Mark and Damian.