Carruthers 30 Oct 2011

[Swede]

Had a great but pretty long and taxing day skiing the chutes of Carruthers south face on Sunday. Due to the weather I didn't get a great deal of pics or vids but have put together a short video of what I've got.

http://vimeo.com/31373627

Got up early and had some brekky, packed the gear, sorted out some lunch and headed up to Charlotte Pass. The weather wasn't the best and most of the range was covered in low clouds and fog. Anyhow I left Charlotte at 7.30am and went down to the Snowy River and got ready for the crossing. Shoes off, roll up pants and off we go, not too bad, about knee deep at times but bloody cold!!
Started the trek up and by the time I got to about the Headly tarn lookout the visibility wasn't great. Pushed on putting a few waypoints in to the gps for the walk back later and got to the top of Carruthers at 9.20, not bad going in the low vis.
At this stage the visibility at the top was real bad so I just got my ski boots on, sorted out the skis and shoved my hiking boots between a couple of rocks and had a bit to eat and drink.
I've been up around Carruthers and Club Lake plenty times in spring, summer and autumn, but never skied it before. So I wasn't too keen to just point the skis down and hit it straight in to the whiteout. I just parked myself at the top and waited for a bit of a lift in the clouds. I only had to wait about 10 minutes or so and I could see all the way down to the lake, so off we go.
Not quite sure where to go I missed the top entry in to the main chute and came in to it half way down on the first run. Got a good view of the whole south face from down the lake and was sorted for the rest of the day, visibility or not.
Did the boot up and skied the main chute a couple of more times and then got company by a couple of telemarkers who had a run or two as well.
By about 12.30pm I'd had 5 or 6 runs and decided to have some lunch and maybe another run or two after. But as I started eating my lunch the weather came in again and it started to snow. I decided to call it a day and start the hike back. The visibility was now even worse than on the way up and the navigation down got quite interesting with my new gps not behaving at times Got back to a snow covered car just before 3.00pm and started the 5 hours or so drive back home.
All in all, another great day in the Oz hills

Have a good one,

Swede

[John Deere]

Very nice work Swede!!

[Bear]

Woohoo looks like a blast. Thanks for sharing.

[Pini Pow Pow]

Nice work and edit Swede, thanks . What camera are you using?

[BlueHue]

I like, going to have to get out onto the main range and give it a go myself one day!

[Swede]

What camera are you using?

Hey Pini, use a Contour GPS for headcam and a Sony handycam for general shots.