friendsfriendsfriendsfriendsfriendsfriends

Snowys Trips 2003

One of the best things about Canberra is its proximity to the Snowy Mountains...which is especially handy in winter.

ski trip (brisso crowd)

Tony, Bin and Ant at The Pinnacles in Ben Boyd National Park on the way to the snow.

How cute!

At Merritts for lunch at Thredbo

On top of Mt Ainslie in Canberra

Arash, Mahani, Kailas, Me, Dave and Seewan at the top of Thredbo on the hospital RMO ski trip

Kosi Day Trip

With Mia and Matt on the way up Mt Kosciousko

Heading up to the summit

Matt heading down off the cornice

Mt Kosi gets a big cornice when the wind blows

Kiteboarder dropping off

Kosi Camping Trip

We got up to Seamans Hut near Mt Kosiouszko in beautiful weather, leaving time at the end of the day for Matt and Mia to set a jump up and practice some airs

Meanwhile we set the tents up, some being a little better equipped for snow camping than others- {exhibit A: silver tent at rear!!}

Seaman's hut, showing the effects of a few days of sustained blizzard prior to our arrival. It  provided a perfect place to sit and cook dinner and meet other campers.

The crew at sunset;  just starting to get a little chilly. For the interested , Mahani has on every piece of clothing she brought except her down jacket...that came out in about 5 minutes!

The combination of lots of snow and lots of wind had sculpted the alpine landscape into something more akin to an ocean than a mountain. We were hopeful of another beautiful day to explore and went to bed with that special combination of full tummy, warm toes and great location. But...

We awoke in the morning to find ourselves in the midst of a proper mountain storm.  Howling wind and sleet, coupled with zero visibility left us with a dilemna...stay and wait for it to clear or head off.  Eventually all of us at the camp decided to leave along a post line together.  With difficulty we took down our tents (some already partly down courtesy of the wind). This photo was taken about 10 minutes after leaving!  Having dropped out of the clouds, visibility was good, and the wind was behind us as we walke d back to Thredbo.  Our suspicion that the wind was strong was confirmed at Eagles nest where the little meterological station showed an average wind speed of 110kmh and a peak gust of 170kmh!!! No wonder we got back fast!!! All in all a lot of fun but a another good lesson to respect the mountains. 

At the bottom of Mt Perisher on a pristine day..cold dry snow and sunshine ...mmmm. For the observant, my beanie's a little lopsided as a direct result of, quote - 'the best stack Ive ever seen mate' -unquote. Four full somersaults at full pelt and only a skew iff beanie - Phew! Ithink Mike took the photo in an effort to have something to show my family if I repeated myself.

Having just shown a photo of possibly the best day skiing in Australia I've had, here's one of the worst.  80kmh winds, rain/sleet and one metre of wet , fresh snow . We were a day late for the epic powder and got epic sludge..we mucked around in the half pipe for a bit and went home..oh well

More friends photos

Sonny, Paul, Marcus, Heather, Hani and Pete at our inaugural fondue night.

Marcus, Mia and Hani at Matt and Mias circus party

Sculpture in the National Sculpture Garden

Rocks at Tomakin

off to Manly

snaffling a beery

at west end in october