Any tips on camping at the snow?

TR TR TR TR TR TR TR (Trip Report)

Here is a little TR of our trip down to Thredbo last weekend. My bro took all the photos and I’ll try to get more off him, but the best two are below anyway.

My brother, Lui, and my housemate, Ryan, had planned this trip for awhile now. It was going to be my first time down to the snow this season and it was to be their first time on a snowboard (minus a couple days 10 years ago, which hardly counts). Sat was also Lui’s birthday.

The three of us had been getting more and more excited as the trip approached. We were super keen to go shred! I had slowly gathered all necessary items such as tents, mattresses, -10 sleeping bags, extra blankets, chairs, torches, and even lots of munchies haha.

So we took off on Thursday afternoon later than expected as Ryan’s car broke down and we had to leave it at work. Not the best start but we packed up my Forester to the max and headed down to Canberra to stay at Josh’s (Parkway Josh) for the night.

We took off from Canberra at 5am. Picked up gear for the boys at Rhythm and had the obligatory Maccas breakfast. We arrived in Thredbo and they made their first timer lessons by about 2 mins, so a great start. I smashed some Cruiser and High Noon laps while they had their lessons. The conditions were average, raining on and off over the whole mountain and super slushy. But the coverage was surprisingly good this time of year.

I caught up with the boys after their lesson. They both had fallen in love with their chick instructor hahaha. We soon made our way up to Merritts and I spent most of the arvo with them. We worked on falling leaf etc and when we moved up to linking turns they were all over it. They had progressed really fast which was awesome to see. The slushy condition were perfect for learning on.

At the end of the day we arrived at Thredbo Diggings with just enough light to set the two 3 man tents up. We then just made it to the aquatic centre in time for a shower. By the time we had a beer and meal at the bistro we were feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves. Everything had worked out perfectly to plan and the boys had picked up snowboarding really fast. After a few more drinks at The Schuss Bar we decided to head back to camp…

That’s when our luck ran out…

The really strong wind had broken the rods of one of the tents, and with the rain, Ryan’s stuff was pretty wet. The other tent soon followed suit and one of the two rods broke, leaving it about a quarter of the size.

We all headed to the car to sleep. A pretty disappointing moment to be honest. But Lui was in good spirits as he swigged Jager Meister (and managed to score the front passenger seat). Ryan was in the back seat with a mountain of crap next to him nearly to the roof of the car. After we celebrated Lui’s birthday with a few more swigs of Jager he then commenced to fall asleep and snore haha. After little sleep I couldn’t stay in the car any longer, my back was aching, and I decided to give this tent another go. Somehow I crawled in there and with my jacket and -10 sleeping bag was actually pretty comfy and warm. The wind and rain had stopped, thankfully. Lui took the below snap of me in my dodgy little cocoon the next morning hahaha.

After a slow start we pulled the broken tents apart (which we threw out later) and repacked the car. It was nearly 12 by the time we got on the mountain. The conditions were terrible, especially for beginners. There was a little bit of fresh snow near the sides of the runs but all that slush had frozen into solid ice, and it was cold and windy. Josh and Al came up for the day and it was fun riding with them.

We eagerly took up Josh’s offer to stay with him and Al that night in Canberra. Big Thanks to them for having us two of the three nights. The warm house, pizza, beers, and Blade 2, was heaven after the previous nights effort.

So that’s about it. On Sun we drove back to the Blue Mountains. I was devoed when I checked my facebook and saw that Sunday was supposedly the day of the season, with some good snowfall and the wild conditions easing off. Oh well, there’s always next time.

There were still lots of fun moments on the trip but somehow I don’t think I will be camping at the snow again in a hurry I will attempt it again one time though…

Me in my cocoon. If it had rained again I was screwed!

The next morning…

I put off having dinner to get this TR up guys. Hope you like it hahaha

Wow!! what an experience. Thats the sort of trip you remember for a long time. Always wanted to camp in the snow ... better luck next time tho.

That is what I like to call Character building

Maybe you should come down here for a weekend, I’ll take you camping in the snow.

That camp spot looks like the paddock at Chill Hill !!! Wheres the snow??

Make sure you enter your TR into the TR comp !!!!!!