Trip Report Mt.Baw Baw XC ski trip. Nov.9th 2019.Amazing snow!

Hi. Your correspondent in the field went on a hunch that the true last hurrah for decent XC skiing for 2019 was to be found at Mt. Baw Baw as part of a huge wintery cold front that had gripped my interest for at least a week prior to its arrival.

These hunches about skiing out of season have paid off three times during 2019 so going for the quadrella was too tempting to resist.
I woke up at 0450. I was on the road by 0530 am. I had packed the car the night before. There was hardly any traffic as I drove from NE Melb. through the SE suburbs and out to Moe along the Princes' highway.
I stopped at Erica as is my habit and put on my ski gear ( boots and over pants) and used the public loo there.
As I made my way up the South Face road I saw snow on the road side and snow down quite low in the tree tops in the greater forest area. Oh , this was looking good. Much better than I imagined. In fact once I reached the start of the Baw Baw access road there was snow by the roadside. There was a sign saying
"All cars must fit chains here".

I saw a man driving a snow plough mobile. He was clearing the road. As I climbed up the road in my jalopy and ascended the hill in LOW GEAR , I was going back in time to early August 2019 . The vegetation was caked with fresh dry powdery deep snow. .The road was covered in snow, not ice.

Oh, this looked really good.

I decided against fitting chains to my AWD car which is fitted with All Terrain tyres, based on my experience of driving in snow at least 20 times each year.
I parked at car park No. 1 and went off to wee in a bush. The snow under foot felt like fresh powder. No rock hopper skis for me today Sir!. I will pull out the good BC XC skis.
So having got ready , I was ready to ski. I called @beefa skiing and let him know I had arrived but he and his ski buddy had arrived even earlier and had the first tracks on the XC ski trails.
Incidentally @beefa skiing and I have now had 4 out of resort operations ski days in 2019 . Two at Lake Mt. and two at Baw Baw. The snow cover each time has been rather good.
I was able to ski from the car park all the way around the XC trails. It was magnificent. I am a 'happy camper' when I am skiing. I XC ski therefore I am.
I skied all the XC trails but as the morning passed snow ball throwers in boots started appearing on the ski trails and buggering up the untracked snow and ski trails with deeply offensive boots. Not snow shoes, not skis , Boot prints.

There is a place that all of these people will find themselves in the next life and it will be a place of endless torment where the central heating is set to very high for eternity and where the chap with the red suit and the pitch fork conducts his business.

I was a bit disappointed that my camera stopped working near Tanjil plain so I could not fully record in detail using photographs my first experience of skiing fresh tracks in November.
Skiing on the Wider ,heavier Madshus Epoch BC XC skis on fresh snow was slower but it was easier to do turns and steer esp. coming down from the summit cairn on the summit XC ski trail. The coverage was complete so one did not have to click out and walk or side step any of it. In Fact @chriscross would have loved it . The snow cover was better than when we bumped into him at Baw Baw on 9/10/19.

To conclude my skiing I went and herringboned the entire way up Tank Hill and tried to Stem Christie turn down it but the snow was fresh , slow, sticky and unconsolidated and I was fatigued from skiing all morning . I am confident enough skiing down descending sharp bends on the Intermediate XC ski trails at Baw Baw and having a second chance to ski the same terrain as October 9th I knew what to do and where not to flinch and just ski with technique. I still had a few crashes but if you are not crashing then you are not trying.
The fresh snow made for a pleasant crash pad and being dry snow it did not lead to wet gloves.
After returning to my car I saw many people had arrived , most of them were snow ball throwers but there were a couple of skiers and snow boarders.
I met a young chap at the bottom of Tank Hill who was skiing on Madshus Eon BC XC skis .He had skied from Mt. St. Gwinear car park in 3 hours ( 9kms) eaten lunch at Baw Baw Village and was skiing back . He had all afternoon to do it , November daylight savings time. He said the route between MSG and BB and its snow cover was a bit sketchy but I was still impressed and off he went.
I bumped into @Snowy Joey in the car park which was nice. Forum members are part of a real life ski community .
I ate lunch back inside my car , sent a message to @beefa skiing to say "sorry I missed you".
It was still snowing as I departed at about 1330 but the snow was turning to sleet and had become wet and the wind was increasing. During the morning it was snowing but not windy.
The drive down the hill was slow and the trees were still festooned with snow at every vista. It rained a lot on the way home. The drive home seemed to go on longer than I liked and the roads became congested as I neared the evil empire.
I have yet to camp near Walhalla the night before a ski day to get a super early start the next day on the Baw Baw Plateau , but I have an affinity for the Baw Baws and will enact such a scheme next season , InshAllah.
Photos are following.....

 

Baw Baw Car park on arrival around 9 am . Very snowy and monochromatic.

 

Heading off to Nordic ski …...The best scenery was missed by this photographer because the camera misbehaved. The summit area in particular was very interesting with snow and ice caking everything .
Overall it was a true bonus to ski in such conditions in November.

 

As you can see in the first couple of photos it was snowing H A R D and nobody else was around. I followed @beefa skiing's tracks. Having skied with him before and skied on his BC XC skis too , I could tell which were his tracks by how he snow ploughs a bit around descending bends.
It was silly of me to leave the SWIX glide wax in the ski bag in the car. The fresh snow balled up on the tips and tails of my skis which was a nuisance.

 

Sat. morning Nov. 9th 2019.
Snowing hard at The Skiosk.

 

Walkers do this at other places such as Mt.Buffalo , Mt. St. Gwinear, Mt. Stirling etc. etc. in season, out of season , at all times. It would be quicker to train an ape than to get some basic consideration for others who like to XC ski!!

 

Good news , I took some mob. ph. photos of the scenery once my digital SLR camera failed due a full memory card. I had a spare memory card in the camera case but in the cold 1 C. weather it was not co operating. Please excuse the low resolution and poor composition but I had to record something of the scenery near the Summit of Mt. Baw Baw on that very snow day which was the 9th of November 2019 .
Usually I never use my ph. for photos unless there is no other option.

As you can make out the cyclone wire fence around the communications tower was caked in a criss cross pattern of ice that matched the arrangement of the fence wire itself. It was much more striking than the Oct. 9th 2019 Baw Baw ski trip. There was still some greenery visible in the trees on that trip. Not so on this excursion.

 

http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/mountbawbaw.shtml
Mt. Baw Baw could become white again by Mid morning on Wed. this week. Jeepers, I have to work this week but XC skiing off season at Mt. Baw Baw is my kind of thing really.10 cms would be enough to ski on.I may be able to juggle things just in case some more skiing is possible on Wed.
http://www.janebunn.net/mt-baw-baw
The modelling looks a tad too warm.​

 

https://www.ski.com.au/snowcams/australia/vic/bawbaw/bawbaw-thebowl.html
BB looks fully skiable again( albeit rock hopper style ) this morning. I have FOMO because I did not expect it to be all that good.

 

Yes, you have a point there. On Saturday Nov. 9th 2019 it was not a problem to fall over. The snow was 30 cm deep and very soft, uncompacted and dry.