New Terrain is Open

Went up for a ski this morning, sadly without my camera. All of front valley is skiable,.... just, there is still some grass sticking out of the snow here and there, but it has made a lot more room on the slopes for the first two hours of the day.

The snow making was still going when we left at 10:30. Hopefully with a nice cold night they will be able to get all of Front Valley groomed for tomorrow morning. If we are lucky the quad could be open at mid station on Sunday.

Hydrophylica and I had a ball since we could finally let the skis run with a bit of room on the hill.

New terrain open!!!!!

Wow, due to amazing conditions, PB have been able to open two lifts over at Blue Cow (early starter and pony ride- that's right, ride that pony)

Well at least it means that there's a little more variety.....

I'm ready for the season!

Well I've just finished my final piece of assesment for the semester, now I can enjoy the snow! If we only get some snow.

Opening Weekend Report

This years opening weekend was pretty quiet, only Sid and Hermi came down. But Graham (Nick to be decided) also participated in Opening Apeasement. Sid and Hermi got turns on Sat and Sun, Hydrophylica and I joined them on Sunday morning.

Front Valey only had the Magic Carpet and Mitchel T open to tower 3. So not much snow but for first turns of the season a deceptively large amount of fun.

The big news of the weekend though is the bargains at the ski swap. Hermi got a beanie and some shell pants, I bought a pair of Armada Pipe cleaners for DM (right), but Marvin and I got the cool scores. Marvin got a pair of 203cm Fischer RC4 DH womens downhill skis for $25 (centre) and I got a pair of 207 Elan SGX Super Giant Slalom Skis for $25 too! Both Marivn and I are very afraid of our new skis, but it will be fun!

Another New Snowcam

PB Have Just put up a Guthega Snowcam. Hopefully it will have good views of Twynam to give us an idea of main range conditions. We'll have to wait untill the weather fines up first.

Club Hocking Calendar updated for this winter's bookings.

DMs post below combined with the trail of man made on the Perisher Snowcam got my arse into gear and Club Hocking Calendar has been updated with the dates for this winter's bookings.

If everyone can use it to communicate with each other to organise visits so we don't have to organise everyone that would be really helpful. So please have another look at the Club Hocking Guidelines and help us out.

Looking forward to seeing you all this winter!

Plans for the opening weekend?

Are there any?

Rick and Veka, will you be in residence?

Who else is thinking of heading down?

New Snowcams

With the snow falling this morning I had a look and discovered a couple of new snowcams. One at the bottom of the ridge at PB.


The Basin cam at Thredbo has been moved to the bottom of the T-Bar.


I've added the Ridge Cam to the side bar, if there are any other cams people woould like to see on the sidebar yell out.

Hopefully I'll be able to get my first turns tomorrow morning!

Charlottes Pass Panorama

Went for a drive up the hill this morning to have a llok at the snow that feel earlier in the week. Here is a panorama from the top of the Snow Gum walk at CP.

World Record Cliff Jump an Accident!

Here are the words of Fred Syversen from this thread at the TGR forums.

Hehe,

Somebody told me about this discussion (could'nt read it trough, too much), and I like to add a few facts, the rest I will leave for the film and the pics. I can’t give you any proof, that’s not for me to decide.

My ski philosophy is that you should always stick your landings, that’s gonna progress our sport! Going this BIG we’ll leave to the BASE jumpers.

This was the warm up run at the beginning of the day during heli filming, and it turned out that I missed the end of my line with not to many meters (difficult routefinding cause of similar terrain features ). I let my skis go pretty much into the falline and picks up speed instantly, and just thereafter realises my fault and that I will go out something, probably huge.

The mind works amangsingly fast under stressed situations; breaking or trying to stop was no longer an option, it simply went to fast. If I had tried that I would’nt write this. So that left one choice; go for it, and do it right!

For a fraction of a second I thought this is it, but manages to get in a slight right turn to avoid the cliffs on my skiers left in the landing area. Then comes the take off at an amazing speed ( it felt like that ), I see snow underneath, and I decied that it’s not over yet.

In flight I tried to keep a position as long as I could, but airpressure finally pushes the skitips up and you end up in the backseat. That’s what I wanted as well, because landing it anything else than horisontally was out of the question!

I had an ABS avalanche back pack, and for those who know, it has a little metal/alumunium bottle ? near the lower back, not good if you land on your back. So I tilted my body slightly to the left before impact and that probably saved my spine.

I did’nt want this to come out, but with mobile pones around……

Nuit de la Glisse Films / Perfect Moment Clothing company, producer Thierry Donard
Photographer : Felix St. Clair Rénard
Measure of the jump 330 feet.

For the skiing watch Free Radicals : Rising and Snowblind and Nuit de la Glisse: Perfect Moment ”The Contact”.

And as far as I know; I am not 42 yet, but hope I will be.


Fred Syversen

And here are some images of the Jump.

From Above


Another Angle


For scale here is a photo of the bomb hole in the photo above.


I can't believe that he did that accidently.

Starting to organise a climbing get-together

Crystal Meet

more vids

Headed out backcountry with a guide for a day after we got some new snow. Was great... Went ice-climbing too, pics are on facebook.



Descending from Col De La Leisse


Continued descent from Col De La Leisse

I wish that I was as smooth turning as Yannick, our guide... I did some good turns, but a number of head plants. I looked like a frosted topping thing by the bottom...

Yay! I'm skiing again...

The same Genepy run as in a previous video, but just off-piste and after new snow.


The run down into the stadium.

how's the technique looking?

Been skiing a mix of on- and off- piste. Lots of snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow, so hopefully it won't be cut up crud off-piste.

Looking at doing some tours next week.

Genepy run.

Double M run.

Grattalu run.

Let's see what's on offer in France

OK, so the days have been ticking down, and tomorrow it's time to hop on a long plane ride to some mountains that actually have snow. The Blueys have been raining solidly for the past month, and to be honest I'm looking forward to some decent skiing.

http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Tignes/3day/mid
http://www.tignes.net/GB_webcams.html
http://www.tignes.net/GB_plan-pistes.html

Hopefully web access and updates to follow...

All quiet on the western front

Jeez,
you'd think that nothing was happening down in the Snowies over summer! So what is news from down there? Are the kodama's taller than Veka yet? Have they learnt to put their weight on the back foot? Has Richie been appointed lecturer at the ANU yet?

For the answer to these and other exciting questions, tune in to next weeks episode of....

.... Danger Mouse, the world's greatest super-hero!!!

Long Weekend and 10th of October Reports

On the long weekend WildandFree, Sid, Skifree and I went out to Camp on Mt Twynam from Guthega. There had been about 10 -15cm of snow down to about 1200m the night before, nice but not enough to ski to the suspension bridge on. After being nearly blown away we found a nice site and made camp, Sid and I spent the afternoon getting some fantastically dry tracks.

Then we spent the next two days in the tent while it rained and came home.

Today I had my first solo backcounty effort, an early morning dash for Blue Lake, got to Charlottes Pass at 7:00am and got back at 1:00pm with six runs under my belt from around the area.

Plenty of Snow

Tracks from my second run, heading towards Elephant Butress Couloir

My Biggest ever Bacjcountry Barney. Don't know how I fell, I think it might have been an icey patch, or I'm just a goose, but I almost slid head first into the side of the Couloir, bruised my arm on a binding got some great gravel rash on my back, lost a ski, snaped the leash toggle, and snaped a stock.

The equipment damage

I went back up to fetch the other half of my pole after I rescued the errant ski, which had slid 20m over the ice of Blue lake.

The second run was more sucessfull but kicking steps got a bit dicey on the firm stuff in the shade.

Then I started heading back. Tracks of my second last run into Soil Conservation Creek

A fantastic and exciting day!

More Pictures Here

September Report

The last month has been fantastic. I had my birthday bash and Priscilla even made an appearance.




Last weekend Sid and I went out to Leather Barrel and had an amasing day of BC skiing.



Now I'm looking forward to three days on the main range over the long weekend.

first report from wyoming

Well, the journey was manageable, and customs lenient with me. No strip searches this trip. I found myself in denver, getting picked up by a friend driving past from vermont going to play at being a cowgirl in northern wyoming before patrolling at grand targee (t7 - you were right about the hill!).

We spent four days climbing 14,000 and 13,000ft peaks in central colorado. What to say, it was hot, very little snow left, and at last I'm getting used to the altitude. The first 14er hurt, but since then I've been feeling a lot better.

We then drove north to wyoming, and this is the only part of the states I've been to that reminds me of home. It's a lot like central western NSW, but with the benefit of having some real mountains in the west side. Tobacca chewing, horse riding, hard drinking country folk...

Now I'm waiting to start with nols tomorrow, and will be out in the wind river range for 16 days. I think I might have a bit of having to deal with some cooler-than-thou outdoors types in the states, as well as some nicer ones; I'll try to be my usual mellow self and be quiet.

Still undecided at present, but thinking of hiring a car and driving back to LA after finishing up in wyoming. Canyonlands of utah are on the cards.

love,
owain.

Why you should scope your line first!

Check out this scary vid I found on TGR