A Little Respite

After hearing about so much horror around the world over the past few days it was good to get away from it all yesterday. I went back out onto the main range like I did last Saturday but this time in somewhat warmer conditions and with no mountain mist isolating the peaks - resulting in more photos for this report.

I waited until the initial Kosi chair rush was over and headed straight out, using Basin & Karels T-bars. Being a sunny weekend it was not surprising to see others out on the main range - mostly heading for Mt Kosciuszko and including what looked liked some sort of rescue mission on the top of Australia's highest peak.

Mostly the route I chose was devoid of other humanoids and apart from the occasional animal track I came across nothing else except snow, ice, sastrugi, rock and blue sky.

All photos are from yesterday - Saturday:-

Sponars T-bar getting a final groom before opening for the first time in 2016

The North Face had tracks from Friday but extreme skier's left had been left for me to complete

With heart rate up a tad, I climbed the Back-Door to take in the view - looking out towards Etheridge

It was a weekend and there were other life forms taking advantage of the 'serenity?'
Conga line up Kosi and a tent city

There was even some sort of rescue mission happening on Mt Kosciuszko
Top of Mt Kosciuzko, half way up from Rawsons Pass and 4 snow mobiles travelling in pairs

But that was all I saw of the human race as I looked out to
Etheridge in the foreground and Club Lake chutes in the background amongst acres of frozen bubble-wrap

Looking south west to the Victorian Alps and looking east towards Thredbo from North Ramshead

From the top of Pyramid looking at Mt Kosciuszko (far centre), the cornice to the left and the South Ridge

All west facing slopes were covered in frozen bubble wrap and
consequently I did not descend far into Cootapatamba Valley

But instead I concentrated on the untracked slopes of soft snow :-)

I didn't go out this morning. The forecast was for "windy" but as I type this report there is no sign of that. My body is protesting about the distance covered on foot yesterday and I have other things to be done rather than compete with the weekend crowds. And of course one of those "things" was writing this report - more interesting than some of the other tasks I must now tackle ;-)

The forecasts are not looking all that friendly but with Uni Week happening in Thredbo, there isn't much reason to be up during the daylight hours.

Happy Birthday yesterday for Davo (head of ski patrol).

Happy Birthday today for Marion (hot chocolate aficionada).