What I did on my holidays: Part the Last
Part 1, Part 2
Thursday was another early morning, though clear this time: with promise of a perfect, bluebird day for our last on the slopes. There had been a heavy frost, and the snow which fell on Wednesday was still lying around the edges of the lake and in the shadowed parts of the surrounding hills.
Due to my being typically unwilling to get out of bed on a dark and cold morning, we were a bit later than we intended and didn't make an early-enough skitube to be the first onto the Guthega access trail from Blue Cow. We were pretty close though, and there was still untracked left for us when we got there.
For those that know PB, the open runs were the middle traverse from BC to Guthega, and the high traverse back from Guthega to Blue Cow. In a normal year, the middle traverse is pretty flat but still skiable. Unfortunately due to not enough snow (there is no snowmaking on that side of the mountain) they did something odd with the trail, adding in an uphill section to bring it out on the skidoo trail at the T-bar flat, rather than part way down the Guthega J-bar (which wasn't running). This all had to be sidestepped (or walked with the skis carried) so was a bit more of a slog than alpine skiing ordinarily is.
Both Guthega T-bars (Blue calf from the Burning Log restaurant to the flat, and Blue Cow from the flat to the summit) were running, but the only open runs were the ones that run alongside the T-bar tracks. The low traverse from the flat to the Burning Log was technically open, but only because there were four lifties stationed halfway down to shovel snow from the nearby drift onto the trail! They were making a good effort, but the sound my ski-bases made over the rocks they were trying to keep covered was not pleasant, and we only did that run once. The chairlift was running for access to the Guthega carpark, but none of its runs were skiable.
This all meant that the only feasible runs at Guthega were those alongside the Blue Cow T-bar, so lines there were pretty long. Luckily the nasty traverse in kept things manageable, and the crowd actually lessened by late morning as everyone had their gander at Guthega and went back to Blue Cow. We hung around for several runs, and my sister-in-law did her first ever blue run with no problems at all after believing my brother and myself when we told her it was a green one ;)
My brother, of course, was a complete show off :)
He tried to take some photos of me showing off down this run in retaliation, but managed to cut my head off in all of them, so I haven't got any to post. I took lots of scenery photos, though: I could stare at this country for hours and never grow tired of it!
The western face of Guthega peak was hit quite hard in the 2003 bushfires, and the snowgum forests are only just beginning to regenerate. Unlike the ones on the lower slopes (which are coming back quite well) these have only been able to sprout new growth from the roots, not from the branches, which looks quite odd.
It will sadly be about fifty years before the mountains look like they did when I got to know them - and some of the high alpine bogs may apparently never come back at all (I saw photos taken last January of the western faces around Watson's crags and the Sentinel, and the ground up there is still scorched black).
Once we got bored with Guthega, we came back to Blue Cow resort via the high traverse from the top of the Blue Cow T-bar, which had plenty of snow, but was so narrow that they were recommending that beginners take their skis off and walk! It was clear that Guthega was only just ready to open, but am really glad that it got there while we could still play. I understand that more of it has opened up this week.
We met up with the rest of the family over lunch, and the same table we'd managed to snag for all four days. I think that my nephew had gotten well used to it by this time!
With only an afternoon to go, our family was still missing an essential snow-related activity. We fixed this by heading back down to Smiggins after lunch, and turning part of the (still closed) toboggan run into something of a construction zone:
With so many old hands on the job, it only took us about 45 minutes to introduce my nephew to our last family tradition:
That snowman is taller than I am, btw, and we spotted another family using it for photos after we were done.
We spent the afternoon stuffing around on the green runs at Smiggins, where the snow quality was surprisingly good: no moguls or ice patches down there! This is where all three of us learned to ski, being steered down the slope by Mum or Dad till we learned to go around things rather than running into them. This is a technique my borther and sister-in-law practiced, much to the amusement of many others on the hill:
In an effort to prolong the holiday, everyone bar Mum, Dad and the baby hung around after the lifts closed at Smiggings and went night skiing at Perisher for a few more hours. This is normally only on Saturdays and Tuesdays but they were running special extended hours just for the school holidays,, so we got to have a go after piking on Tuesday after all.
The only lifts running were the 8-chair and the T-bar next to it , which can be lit by the floodlights on the chairlift towers. It was quite busy, but there were no absolute beginners, so the queues moved really well, and I think the longest lift line I was in was 5 minutes. Night skiing brings out some interesting ways for people to keep track of their kids, though: one had a band of flashing red and blue lights around his helmet which made him look exactly like Artoo Deetoo from any distance :D.
Our evening ended when the just-past-full moon rose over the Ramsheads to the east, and we headed back to the lodge to collapse in exhaustion.
Friday was just packup day, then the drive back to Sydney: via Questacon in Canberra on my sister's whim. I hadn't been there since my year 6 trip in 1988, and it's really pretty cool. Unfortunately there were rather too many actual children there to be able to get to play with any of the really good activities, but it's still an interesting diversion. Whatever ink they use for the entry stamps is good stuff, because you can still see mine four days later!
I arrived at home late on Friday, and have since done an awful lot of washing - some of which is still on the line being rained on, now that I think about it. I'd much rather not be at work yet, but don't think that 'mountain deprivation' is going to be a functional excuse. Oh well - I have a weekend in September planned, and will just have to console myself with plotting for New Zealand next winter...anyone interested?
The End.
Thursday was another early morning, though clear this time: with promise of a perfect, bluebird day for our last on the slopes. There had been a heavy frost, and the snow which fell on Wednesday was still lying around the edges of the lake and in the shadowed parts of the surrounding hills.
Due to my being typically unwilling to get out of bed on a dark and cold morning, we were a bit later than we intended and didn't make an early-enough skitube to be the first onto the Guthega access trail from Blue Cow. We were pretty close though, and there was still untracked left for us when we got there.
For those that know PB, the open runs were the middle traverse from BC to Guthega, and the high traverse back from Guthega to Blue Cow. In a normal year, the middle traverse is pretty flat but still skiable. Unfortunately due to not enough snow (there is no snowmaking on that side of the mountain) they did something odd with the trail, adding in an uphill section to bring it out on the skidoo trail at the T-bar flat, rather than part way down the Guthega J-bar (which wasn't running). This all had to be sidestepped (or walked with the skis carried) so was a bit more of a slog than alpine skiing ordinarily is.
Both Guthega T-bars (Blue calf from the Burning Log restaurant to the flat, and Blue Cow from the flat to the summit) were running, but the only open runs were the ones that run alongside the T-bar tracks. The low traverse from the flat to the Burning Log was technically open, but only because there were four lifties stationed halfway down to shovel snow from the nearby drift onto the trail! They were making a good effort, but the sound my ski-bases made over the rocks they were trying to keep covered was not pleasant, and we only did that run once. The chairlift was running for access to the Guthega carpark, but none of its runs were skiable.
This all meant that the only feasible runs at Guthega were those alongside the Blue Cow T-bar, so lines there were pretty long. Luckily the nasty traverse in kept things manageable, and the crowd actually lessened by late morning as everyone had their gander at Guthega and went back to Blue Cow. We hung around for several runs, and my sister-in-law did her first ever blue run with no problems at all after believing my brother and myself when we told her it was a green one ;)
My brother, of course, was a complete show off :)
He tried to take some photos of me showing off down this run in retaliation, but managed to cut my head off in all of them, so I haven't got any to post. I took lots of scenery photos, though: I could stare at this country for hours and never grow tired of it!
The western face of Guthega peak was hit quite hard in the 2003 bushfires, and the snowgum forests are only just beginning to regenerate. Unlike the ones on the lower slopes (which are coming back quite well) these have only been able to sprout new growth from the roots, not from the branches, which looks quite odd.
It will sadly be about fifty years before the mountains look like they did when I got to know them - and some of the high alpine bogs may apparently never come back at all (I saw photos taken last January of the western faces around Watson's crags and the Sentinel, and the ground up there is still scorched black).
Once we got bored with Guthega, we came back to Blue Cow resort via the high traverse from the top of the Blue Cow T-bar, which had plenty of snow, but was so narrow that they were recommending that beginners take their skis off and walk! It was clear that Guthega was only just ready to open, but am really glad that it got there while we could still play. I understand that more of it has opened up this week.
We met up with the rest of the family over lunch, and the same table we'd managed to snag for all four days. I think that my nephew had gotten well used to it by this time!
With only an afternoon to go, our family was still missing an essential snow-related activity. We fixed this by heading back down to Smiggins after lunch, and turning part of the (still closed) toboggan run into something of a construction zone:
With so many old hands on the job, it only took us about 45 minutes to introduce my nephew to our last family tradition:
That snowman is taller than I am, btw, and we spotted another family using it for photos after we were done.
We spent the afternoon stuffing around on the green runs at Smiggins, where the snow quality was surprisingly good: no moguls or ice patches down there! This is where all three of us learned to ski, being steered down the slope by Mum or Dad till we learned to go around things rather than running into them. This is a technique my borther and sister-in-law practiced, much to the amusement of many others on the hill:
In an effort to prolong the holiday, everyone bar Mum, Dad and the baby hung around after the lifts closed at Smiggings and went night skiing at Perisher for a few more hours. This is normally only on Saturdays and Tuesdays but they were running special extended hours just for the school holidays,, so we got to have a go after piking on Tuesday after all.
The only lifts running were the 8-chair and the T-bar next to it , which can be lit by the floodlights on the chairlift towers. It was quite busy, but there were no absolute beginners, so the queues moved really well, and I think the longest lift line I was in was 5 minutes. Night skiing brings out some interesting ways for people to keep track of their kids, though: one had a band of flashing red and blue lights around his helmet which made him look exactly like Artoo Deetoo from any distance :D.
Our evening ended when the just-past-full moon rose over the Ramsheads to the east, and we headed back to the lodge to collapse in exhaustion.
Friday was just packup day, then the drive back to Sydney: via Questacon in Canberra on my sister's whim. I hadn't been there since my year 6 trip in 1988, and it's really pretty cool. Unfortunately there were rather too many actual children there to be able to get to play with any of the really good activities, but it's still an interesting diversion. Whatever ink they use for the entry stamps is good stuff, because you can still see mine four days later!
I arrived at home late on Friday, and have since done an awful lot of washing - some of which is still on the line being rained on, now that I think about it. I'd much rather not be at work yet, but don't think that 'mountain deprivation' is going to be a functional excuse. Oh well - I have a weekend in September planned, and will just have to console myself with plotting for New Zealand next winter...anyone interested?
The End.