Day Trip to the Townsend

27 October 2002

Description

It was probably going to be the last ski trip of the year, so we decided to go for a big one.

The weather was beautiful, and the snow was a great consistany, although it was very dirty from the recent dust storms. There was still a little bit of the nice white snow that had fallen in the previous couple of days, easing the site of the reddy brown snow.

We started from Charlottes Pass around 10am (daylight savings time) and quickly headed up the Snowy River. Surprisingly, we were able to put the skis on just a few hundred metres up from the river crossing. Heading up behind Northcote, we found a great slope to play on for a while. It had some nice fresh white patches to carve up.

We continued up towards Mullers Pass and up Mullers Peak. There was a little bit of walking involved, although we did found out that we could have almost done a continuous ski if we'd headed lower.

Once we got over the back of Mullers Peak, we found a great rock and grassy spot for lunch in the shadow of Mt Townsend. The snow cover around Townsend was great, with hardly a rock coming through up high.

With the much needed lunch in our bellies, we were ready to hit Townsend and trash those slopes. We tried almost every slope of Townsend (apart from the west facing slope) and had a great time.

From Townsend it was on to Alice Rawson. Here the snow cover was even better. There was a beautiful cornice all along the top ridge and at one point, we could see about 3-4 metres down a large crack in the snow.

The run from the top of Alice Rawson into Lady Northcote canyon would have to rate as one of my favourite runs. There are many different routes to take and you get a really long run for your effort.

Of course, loosing all the height means that you have to gain it again, and by the time we'd climbed up from Lake Albina to Mt Lee, we were getting pretty tired.

Mt Lee had a nice steep lip running right around the top. A couple in our party decided to go off the steepest section and treated us to a great display of the bum luge.

The snow back to the river was a little patchy with a fair bit of grass skiing involved.

By the time we'd trudged up the path to Charlottes Pass and back to the cars, we were all feeling pretty buggered after covering quite a few kms and around 1650 vertical metres.

Slideshow

There is a slideshow of all the images. Please note that the slideshow contains additional images that don't appear in this article.

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Snow wall on the Snowy River
The wall along the river always gives a good idea of the snow depth. In some years this wall can be huge.
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Mullers Peak
Coming to the top of Mullers Peak.
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Mt Townsend
The nice sharp edge coming up to the top of Townsend.
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Tracks off Townsend.
We made sure we got the most from the great runs of Townsend.
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Jeffro
Jeffro manages some style.
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Alice Rawson
The top of Alice Rawson showing the wonderful lip along the top of the ridge.
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Alice Rawson Cornice
Top of the cornice waiting to head down.
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Alice Rawson Cornice
And here's how to ski down the cornice. Definitely not to be attempted in icy conditions.
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Skiing into Northcote Canyon
Near the end of a long run from the top of ALice Rawson into Lady Northcote Canyon (just below Lake Albina).
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Mt Lee and Caruthers
View of the snowy side of Mt Lee and Caruthers.
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Mt Lee
Taking a break in the late afternoon sun at the top of Mt Lee before the trip back to the Snowy River.

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