Heat Brings Out The Snakes

It reached 22.6C at the top of Crackenback today. Luckily a stiff breeze kept the wind-chill down and the flies at bay. Yesterday the Kosciuszko Express chairlift reopened following its annual maintenance.

The Thredbo Historical Society Xmas lunch kept me too occupied for a chair ride so today I decided that morning coffee would be nice at Eagle’s Nest. I hadn’t been out for a while as the air has been so full of smoke and dust that I decided it wasn’t healthy to work out the lungs in such an environment.

This morning the mountain air was clear and so I took a quick walk out to Kosi Lookout to see what was left of the white stuff after so many hot days. Not much, is the answer. Surprising that two years ago we were still skiing out back in early December and only 2 months ago you could ski from Signature Hill back to the bridge behind Eagles Nest.

On my return I was asked by two tourists (Canadian of American by the accents) how my knowledge of Australian snakes was. It’s not good but I have come across the occasional wriggler over the years. The ladies pointed to an area only a metre from the walking track and about 500m west of the bridge. I couldn’t see the front half of the snake, which they described as being over a metre long. My guess was a copperhead and following some googling tonight I’m pretty sure it was an alpine copperhead –described as having a venom toxicity equal to a cobra – not that potent compared to real nasties in Australia – but still nasty.

There are two new species of wild flower out now and the scent blown on the wind was very sweet – may be not if you suffer hay fever. I didn’t hear any frogs but the presence of the snake would indicate they’re around.

From haze to clear

Remains of the Summer Drift

Field of fresh sweet smelling flowers

Signature Hill still has one small patch of snow

Mt Kosciuszko - Club Lake chutes in the background

Kosi Lookout

Return to Eagles Nest

Still the occasional wet spot can be found

Alpine Copperhead disappearing into the undergrowth

New automated snowmaking being installed

Amongst other things occurring around the village is the installation of more automated snow making.

I think I can safely say that the thoughts of everyone in Thredbo are with those in Victoria facing the bush fires.

Don’t forget to do your bit to return Kosciuszko Park entry fees back to something reasonable? Click here. Annual passes are now $190 - well and truly more than double last year's fee of $88.