Back to Sydney we go.
12 months went by very quickly in Jindabyne. Deb has been itching to get back to work for a while before the new baby comes along in August, so we packed ourselves up and moved back to Sydney about 2 weeks ago now. We are temporarily housed at Debs Mum and Dad’s place, then we’ll be moving up the coast to their beach house for a while. The plan is to buy a place in Sydney around The Shire somewhere.
Looking back over the blog posts I miss Jindabyne and the wide open spaces already. There probably wont be any more posts done on the blog, but I’ll leave it here for anyone who is thinking about a ’snow-change’ as a temporary or permanent lifestyle choice. I highly recommend it.
I am a Superstar…. Mt K
This is a shot of my friend Andrea (with a bit of in-phone filtering) from the top of Mount Kosciusko. It was a good two and a bit hours to walk to here from the top of the chairlift – but well worth it. A must do for those of you visiting the Snowies in the spring or summer!
Spring snow falling in Jindabyne
I couldn’t believe it when I opened the curtains at about 8am this morning. Jindabyne has been transformed into a winter wonderland. It is the biggest single snowfall since July 2005 – according to the Wang. Spewing we can’t go snowboarding at Thredbo even though the Koscziusko Express is still running (no ski-patrol).
I managed to grab a bit of video:
Plus a bunch of photos:
Ethan went for a wander on the verandah:
It’s all melting away now, but was very pretty while it lasted.
The last run of the season (maybe)
The forecast this morning was for clear sunny skies on the mountain. No new snow overnight, but we figured it couldn’t have melted that much since the big dump over the weekend.
We headed up to Perisher around 11:30am and were reminded why we moved here in the first place. It is a beautiful drive up – and here are the pics!
Dainers Gap – still plenty of snow around.
From the carpark, looking towards Front Valley.
“Officially”, there were only 6 lifts operating today, which meant only the Village 8, Happy Valley T-bar, the Perisher Triple, and the Eyre T-bar (plus two ski-carpets). Deb had not been up Eyre before, but the only way to get there today was via the shuttle bus, so that was our first stop.
The view from the bottom of the Eyre t-bar:
The view mid-way up the Eyre t-bar. The snow was starting to get soft by now, but still good fun to snowboard or ski on.
Deb managed to snap this shot while we were riding the t-bar as well:
Looking back down Eyre:
Going up the Perisher Triple Chair:
And one last photo looking over from the Perisher Triple chair to Sun Valley. There is a bit of dirty snow in the foreground but there was mostly good clean snow cover everywhere we went today:
All resorts will be closing at the end of this week, so it’s your last chance to go for one more slide, if you are keen. If we don’t go back up the mountain during the ski season again, then this will probably be the last post for a while. We might have a go at mountain biking, canoeing, trout fishing, hiking, later on and will do some more posts then.
Heaps of spring snow, and it’s still falling.
A quick check of the snow report this morning showed that Perisher had received around 30cm of new snow in the last 48 hours, so Deb and I ventured up the mountain with the young man in the back seat. We forgot to charge the camera battery, but got a couple of photos before it died, so it’s mainly iPhone shots in this post.
It is amazing at how much the snow has covered over the previously dry landscape, down to about 1000m or so. The barbecue area in the national park was pretty well covered.
The outside temperature dropped very quickly down to -3, from the relatively mild 7 or 8 degrees it is in Jindabyne right now.
If you are venturing up in the next day or so, you’ll definitely need chains or an all wheel drive vehicle. We were told at the snow chains station that there is black ice on the road, so keep our distance from the car in front. Not long after we queued up behind the snowplough, so got a bit more time to admire the snow-covered landscape.
Once we got to the Perisher carpark it was became very obvious how much snow had fallen, and was still falling. I can’t remember ever crunching over fresh snow in the carpark before. Of course parking was a breeze, with not many tourists left at this time of the year.
So, how were things on the mountain?
It was grins from ear to ear after doing a quick run down Front Valley. We both agreed we hadn’t seen so much fresh powder before, but it was almost a whiteout which made it quite difficult to see where we were going.
We took a run over to Pretty Valley, then up the Leichardt t-bar, then down and the Lawson t-bar. With this much powder around both Deb and I got stuck, and couldn’t get back upright again without unstrapping and walking to some harder snow. In places the snow is at least 40cm deep. Snowboarding in powder is definitely a difference experience for us.
We stayed for a couple of hours, but decided to call it a day at lunchtime as the visibility was very poor. Ethan had a little play in the snow in the carpark for a few minutes – his first snow walk!.
The forecast is for more snow tonight and Monday, with clear weather returning returning on Tuesday, so we might head back up tomorrow, but definitely Tuesday. Come and enjoy it while it lasts!
Snow season is almost over, but there is still some knee slapping to be done
Well, snow season is almost over. At this stage there is a *chance* that 5cm or so of snow might fall Saturday week as a fast moving cold front blows through. If so, it will be our last hurrah I think.
Unbeknownst to me or Deb, Ethan had picked up how to do a bit of a knee slap whilst dancing to one of those fridge toys that plays music. It was much more hilarious live, but if you turn your monitor on it’s side, you can get a taste of it on this video: (ED: now fixed thanks to virtualdub, along with these instructions)
Spring in Jindabyne
Trees are blossoming everywhere in Jindabyne right now. I captured this on my old 3G iPhone.
Spring Riding in the Snowy Mountains.
The spring sun was turned on yesterday, with blue skies and soft forgiving snow (known locally as Deb snow). With the in house babysitters (grandparents), we shot up the mountain early (Perisher) to get first tracks and the snow before it turned to slush puppy. Our first run was down Pretty Valley which is always good for a warm up. There was no fresh snow but don’t underestimate how nice it is to carve some fresh tracks on the groomed courdroy.
After that, we headed over to Mt P via Happy Valley. Looking in front and behind there was barely a soul in sight, which is another one of the things I love about spring riding, as you get to enjoy the snow and the mountain in relative serenity. We got some beautiful wide turns down through Sun Valley before heading to mid station at about 10:30 for our Cadbury Combo (Hot Chocolate and a choccie bar). We did a few more runs and then headed home.
Although a bit knackered, the weather was just so nice that I had to take full advantage of it, so I took the mother-in-law up to Thredbo Valley for a horse ride. She hasn’t ridden for about 10 years but from what we hear she used to be a pro at the barrel racing. No suprise I got given the tallest horse considering I am 6ft – a Clydesdale call Bella. Bella likes to ride up front, so I got to hang out with the owner Nev and his dogs. I don’t think the nice casual pace that we took through the property was fast enough for her as she kept nipping Nev’s horse in the butt to say go faster.
The property is some 2900 hectares of beautiful lush green forest, but being on the short ride we only got to see a small glimpse of it. Lots of fun ducking through the branches for me who hasn’t done much riding before. I wouldn’t mind going back to do a longer ride and really get to see some more of the property which Nev tells me is amazing. With the sun, the bush, and the friendly company we both had a great afternoon. I would highly recommend checking it out if you come here any time of the year.
My Horse Bella
Nev the Owner that took us on the trail
Just in case you want to check it out for yourself it is called Thredbo Valley Horseriding and it is just off the Alpine Way, 1st right after Pendelea Chalets. Ph 02 6456 2142 or 0421 332 126.
A Day for Powder Hounds
The Frog predicted 20-30cm of snow would fall on Wednesday night, and he was right on the money. Powder was the talk of the town so we headed up the mountain early, this time to Perisher. We were hoping to be there for first tracks, but there were so many people heading to the snow that the usual 30 minute trip stretched out to 1:15.
With so much snow it was a winter wonderland and we oohed and aahed at the snow-laden trees and beautiful white landscape as we drove up the mountain:
We were hoping to go for a snowboarding lesson at 9:30am, but arrived a little late so took the Village 8 chairlift up the mountain for a few warmup runs. The sounds of snowboards and skis running over pillow soft powdery snow was music to our ears.
We booked a lesson at Blue Cow after lunch, so jumped on the ski tube around 11am. Our instructor and guide for the afternoon, James, decided that Guthega was the place to go. Deb and I were both a bit excited about this as we hadn’t been to Guthega before. It’s not an easy task traversing to Guthega on a snowboard, and the main slope is serviced by a Poma and ski-tow, but definitely worth the trip to get away from the crowds.
Probably the best part of the afternoon was whooping it up down “The Screw”. A bit advanced for us intermediates, but with so much powder it was wicked fun. Here is a pic of Deb and I standing at the top showing the fantastic visibility we enjoyed today.
So will mother nature keep dishing up more snow?
For those heading down to the mountains this weekend there are fine and sunny days predicted for both Friday and Saturday, with around 3-8cm of snow expected in the afternoon and evening of Sunday. If you are driving down take it easy on the roads. It’s not worth taking a risk just to save a few minutes.
Thredbo turns it up again
It only took one glance at the morning snow report yesterday (13cm of fresh snow) to decide we needed to take an urgent trip up the mountain, so we headed off to Thredbo again.
The sunny skies quickly faded but visibility remained fair all the way to the mountain with little dry flakes of snow falling down for the last 10 minutes of the drive. Upon arriving we jumped on the courtesy bus to the Thredbo village centre and then on to the Kosciuszko Express chairlift.
The cover looked very good on the way up as you can see, and the comment from a fellow chairlift rider was that it looked the best they had seen it in many years.
You can’t see it in these photos but snow was falling down all the way up.
We arrived just after 10am, and although there were plenty of tracks already, there were still heaps of little pillows of snow, and plenty more falling down. Powder Galore!
If you’ve been putting off your holiday waiting for the season to peak, I don’t think there is any need to wait any longer.
Deb took a couple of surprisingly good shots on her iPhone 3G, considering visibility was only fair. Here’s one looking down the Supertrail with yours truly in the foreground:
Here’s another one of some young tackers getting around:
We had a fantastic couple of hours at Thredbo, with relatively few crowds and almost perfect snow conditions. Alas work needed to be done so back home we went. Here’s a shot of the little man waiting for us for the rellies who haven’t seen him in a while.
