Worth the Pain and Shoes

After the rain, wind and snow of the Snowy Ride the weather finally broke and yesterday two of us grabbed the window of opportunity to get out to Kosciuszko for a ski. There was a beautiful blue sky and a cool breeze keeping the wind chill below the day's maximum temperature of 10C.

From the start, 'exercise' was the theme. With the Kosi chair closed for maintenance the first steps were from the top of Snow Gums chair (adding an extra 10min climb to the day’s vertical). KT have thoughtfully put in a new path and staircase to Eagles Nest which means you no longer have to climb the slippery gravel Eagle Way roadway nor dodge wayward mountain bikes.

I went out along the metal track in walking boots until the biggest snowdrift near Cootapatamba lookout and then switched to my ski boots. If anyone has seen my walking boots (battered khaki/brown leather) I’d like them back please. The walk back from Kosi was not so easy in ski boots.

Acacia and I climbed to the peak of Mt Kosciuszko (because it was there) where we met Darren. How fit is this guy? He walked up from Thredbo before the lift opened and had already had 2 runs before we reached the summit. Leaving Darren to do his own thing from the summit we skied down along the south ridge to a break in the cornice. The snow was not fast (especially the fresh white variety) but was firm under the top couple of centimetres of soft and very enjoyable. The steepest faces were out target. We deliberately did not go off any of the chunks of cornice, as they looked ready to break away but sought the gaps between the cornice overhangs.

The boot packing back up the steep slopes was almost as exhilarating as the ski down. Today I am feeling muscles I didn’t know I had from kicking steps into the steep slopes and climbing virtual ladders back to the top after each run. Between Darren (who was doing 2 runs to each of ours), Acacia and myself we fairly well trashed the entire south ridge in less than 6 hours.

Mt Kosciuszko (far right) and the south ridge

From the top of the cornice - near and far

What? Down there?

Try this side first

Acacia gets those teles carving

It's a long climb back up from the lake

Darren descending

Darren's quickly back up while we lunched (he's the speck at the top)

South Ridge Bowl - stay on the brown snow

Our tracks down the steeper faces

There is snow forecast again for next Friday and into the weekend. That will make 4 weekends (I think) in a row that we have had fresh snowfalls. Must be all that global warming and cloud seeding.