Bought the ticket, take the ride. Have a 2 day pass, might as well use it! Conditions: heavy wet snow, poor visibility. See you out there
We went to Falls today and the rain,wind and poor visibilty near the Ruined castle made us give up on our plan to snow camp at Pretty valley hut.There is a lot of wet snow up there but the rain is relentless,horrid and cold.
Very little freeze last night, winds have abated slightly which may have dried out the snow but it will still be quite heavy, slow and soft. The BOM rain gauge wasn't working so no idea what damage has been done. The Big Dig is on today - so get out early and leave the slopes to me when The Sharks kick off this afternoon.
@mister tee : That must have been your group I saw walking past the top of Scotts Chair. Was wondering where you were going. Weather cleared about 10am today, plenty of people out enjoying the giant slushy.
Not early August 2016. Glad I had the harder wax on because it was cold, hard and icy on most of the mountain. (Apart from the ski in out tracks). Tough to walk about at times.
I think the reduced lift pass rates ($22!!) and free entry paid off today, great to see so many people on the hill and not just staff and locals like the past end of season weekends. I was talking to a group from Melbourne who drove up for the day and had a great time, also good to see lots of families enjoying snow play. Be interesting to see how financially viable it was.....maybe scrap resort entry for the whole last week next year! Snow wise it was deep, sticky and heavy off the groomers but still nice if you were cautious and mindful of the conditions. Summit would have been real nice as cover looked good over that side....in fact cover was good everywhere, so nice to see a full white blanket over the last few weeks patchwork brown. I felt a tad emotional at the end .... after 4 seasons this will be my last at Falls for a while as we are due to move from the area in a couple of month. Over 100 days I have spent on those slopes I have had and loved every second.
It was a wet whiteout near Scotty's chair lift on Sat. We took a wrong turn coming up the Pretty Valley road, which I have walked in summer. . We were drenched by the rain on Sat. In the poor visibility we were going by SW direction on the compass which the ski patroller said was correct . One of our party was not happy and was wet to the skin . It was safer to pull the pin on the Pretty Valley snow camping plan than be sorry and hypothermic while traversing the summit area above the trees. We actually changed the plan from hiking up in the rain from trekking up from Bogong village to Bogong jack saddle and Bogong Jack hut. I don't think that would have been any more pleasant , just wet but less windy because it is in the trees.The hut there has no wood heater or fireplace as far as I know , so drying gear out in a warm shelter , out of the wind and rain was a priority. We didn't know if any fire wood was left in the hut at PV hut. We ended up at the Frying Pan bar near the summit chair and watched the football. I am not a footy fan but it was out of the foul weather!There is always next time.
An excellent outcome. Good call on being safe, there is always a next time, at least you were out for a while and then you had the beer and footy. Perfect day I reckon....sure beats one in the office!
Yes,It is disappointing not getting one's overnight snow shoe / spring trekking/snow camping /wild nature fix but better safe than sorry. A ski instructor also said ' good decision' when he spotted us heading for the Frying Pan bar in snow shoes with full overnight packs on our backs. We looked out of place not wielding skis and asked us if we were OK. I must get some better/more expensive gloves that are more waterproof than a can of silicone is. Other snow boarders who were using the supposedly heated shelter near Scotty's chair were squeezing their gloves out too. They looked wetter than we were and we looked liked we had been hosed down by the fire department.
We were joking about using dishwashing gloves over our under gloves. We carry and use them for erecting or packing up our snow tents.
They are excellent where you have wet snow or rain and you can keep them in a pocket or backpack and have them out in a second. Keeping hands warm and dry are key as you know.They do the job. Make sure they are large so your hands/gloves can still breathe. I used them a lot in Alaska.
https://www.fallscreek.com.au/uploa.../ba162b016b0e1c4ae2196c9177601d47827c38ef.pdf Looking at this map, shows I was not that far off course after a bit of a detour, following the SW direction on the compass, it was leading me in the right direction. The shelter near Scotty's chair was as far as we got. The Ruined Castle on the summit area was not that far away as the next reference point but a white out can bamboozle even the best of us in totally fertilizer like conditions.
I think nearly everyone out there was soaked. The only person with dry hands was a snowboard instructor who had lined rubber dishwashing type gloves. Mind you, that was the only part of him that was dry...
had the same experience a few years ago on the way to PV. not so much rain but horrendous wind so we turned back and camped on Heathy spur. it's pretty exposed between Ruined and PV so you definitely made the right decision esp if you were wet. I am not finding the new gen of gloves that waterproof, used to be better off with Dachsteins and over mits if it got really bad! Qin
would that be Lorna Dunkley Shelter? Had lunch there a few times, great shelter but does not seem to get much use.
That is the Lorna Dunkley UNHEATED shelter. It is handy having such a place for cold and wet bipeds to eat lunch /shelter in . I have been led to believe that going cross country via Sun Valley using a compass direction or a GPS can get you to PV without having to do battle with the elements along the Summit ridge near the Ruined castle. I'd be keen to try that in summer in order to scout it out , because in a whiteout you need to know what you are doing in terms of navigation. However in summer there is a lot of heath and flora to contend with .
In good conditions there is a groomed xc trail from sun valley, up to the old cattle grid where the pv rd leaves the loop rd. And then more grooming down the pv rd (and around the loop)
Sorry kids, I hadn't posted Sunday - came a gutza, thanks to a few hardy souls on St Elmos who called Loz etc from Ski Patrol and got me to the Clinic (Mark Etc...), the ambos and Mt Beauty hospital. Back in Sunny Sydney, doctors will piece me back together (I hope).
The were landslips everywhere up that way this weekend that just passed. Some big rocks came down on to the walking track at Eurobin Falls walking track at Mt. Buffalo N.P. as my Myrtleford based friend and her mother were wandering along it and the rocks snapped a tree above the path. "If it keeps on raining the levee's going to break "......
the last update I saw (12:35) said Vicroads were still clearing it but hoped to reopen by 3pm. there was a convoy at 1pm. 2wd had to have chains fitted, which is a bit ???? when the slip is 8km from mt beauty
@Majikthise - I failed to execute a turn, snagged the leading edge and snapped the right leg at boot level, tib/fib. PS: it was last day of the Victorian season.
Going to be closed until at least 8am tomorrow according to latest comms. They are running a convoy off leaving at 5pm but nothing uphill. Main slip at Lyrebird Creek this morning (just Mt Beauty side of Bogong) but a number of other minor slips during the day. It has been pissing down here at home all day with no sign of letting up.
Ah so it was you, my wife was working at the Mt Beauty hospital on Sunday and said that she had a broken leg in from St Elmos. Mend well.....
Good luck with the recovery. Did you realise the extent of the damage at the time or was it only once X-rays confirmed it?
Bugger! Speedy recovery there. At least you did it skiing (that or swinging from the chandelier in the latex Batman outfit are the only acceptable ways to break a leg)
Oh Man , get well soon. One of the reasons I have stuck with snow shoes is that breaking your leg is less likely. I did give classic XC skiing a go this season at Falls Ck. as a rank newbie and will probably have another swing at it next season too but down hill skiing is perilous.
commiserations also. could have been worse, at least it did not happen on the first day of the season! Was there a problem with the bindings or just the wrong angle perhaps?
Thanks all - weeeeeeee! Had the operation late last night, now it hurts 'different'. More pain where the pin has been knocked inside the bone Expecting to see the doctor in the morning. I will need to reconsider what I ski and possibly take up CC. @Slalom - I realised as soon as it happened, so I dropped when I felt it, popped out of the binding and supported the leg with snow not trying to displace it.
weather can get atrocious crossing over Ruined Castle from Basalt Columns Corner till u make cattle grid(there after it is well sheltered) have come over there with two balaclavas on my head a couple of times and u can only hold out for like half an hour as u get hypothermic quickly in the wind chill...also its more than complex in white out even when u know snow pole line well and may be 30meters from it(lost in a total void) that's why Team Bears always piles in the wood to Pretty Valley Hut...once I was so stuffed on getting in there after coming in from Howmans up Block 24 Rd that I could barely strike matches with my hands as I shivered inside the hut.. skis are faster so u get out of wind chill quicker and down from Cattle grid faster.... this crossing from "White Out Corner" alias Basalt Columns Cnr...can be a bitch that's why I bought a second balaclava just for it... pulling pin in bad weather is a worthy decision sometimes...just shows respect for weather conditions....well done...
hope u recover quickly and suffer no movement problems as u get over this...a real piss off in the last days of a season...
