TR- Perisher slush/Charlottes POW 13th-15th July

This is a trip report not a twitter feed, it aint sposed to be short…..I know it’s hard to concentrate (for more than 5 lines of my terrible grammar and spelling) for some of you, so i added plenty of videos and photos . Also for the twitter generation I put it all down for you in less than 164 words at the end….read that and look at the pictures and try not to strain yourself…. (this is obviously a bad attempt to ward off criticism of my tend to waffle).

Trip Report 13th to the 15th of July.

I was really looking forward to this season. I haven’t been able to ride that much the last two years and now I was relatively free until the 23rd of July and had a season pass to boot. My stoke was back. Things were looking good. Even photos of Boardworld members in next to nothing couldn’t keep me down*. However, my season until this point had consisted of one days riding, injured back and broken ribs had conspired to keep me from the slopes. I’d planned on having 10+ days down at this stage of the season. Needless to say I have been going stir crazy not being able to play Soccer, surf or snowboard for the last 12 weeks. Finally I got the all clear. So after testing my knee on the slopes for one day on the 7th of July (I just did a bit of follow came which you can see the results of here, https://vimeo.com/45450361 ), I felt like my ribs were good to go.

Things were looking up and it seemed that I would be able to do the three day trip to Perisher that had been on the cards for months (it was my only weekend completely free of soccer this season). The trip planned sounded perfect, I’d be riding with my wife and three other snowboarders, none of whom are particularly keen on the park, which was fine by me because I didn’t need that temptation. I’d take it easy and get back into it. My secret idea was to cruise around and ride as many different lifts as possible and maybe even try and tick them ALL off on my dashboard. Add to the mix a new board (Thanks Chucky), new pants and a brand spanking OLD state rail jacket I found in lost property at work and you can see that my expectations were high. Hopefully that gives you some background on how darn happy I was to be heading on this trip.

Here is my journey to regain the stoke, rip the gnarwhal and shralp every lift that was open

Day 1

I was planning on leaving Wollongong on Thursday night after my Foolsball training; however it was my first training back after breaking my ribs four weeks ago and I was stuffed, so deferred it for a 3am start. Woke at 3am, checked the reports and it was raining so hit the snooze (must be getting old cause I don’t usually do that). Left the gong at 430am, not before blaming Sara (my wife) for hitting the snooze haha.

Got zee tube up…I’m glad we got the tube add on the freedom pass. Our mates were organising a snowboard lesson for the skier in our group so we headed straight to Bluecow.  After walking out the doors onto the snow, I was ready to call it quits straight away, windy, and raining on an off. I could barely stand up it was so windy. I was mad as a cut snake. Sara made the call and we continued into the storm. The rest of the day ended up being pretty darn fun, we ran around riding as many lifts as possible, before we met up with Verity, Claire and Desiree at Smiggs. It was Desiree’s first day on a board and she was doing quite well, linking toe and heel side turns and going quite fast. I forgot how much fun it was riding with beginners when they are so stoked. The rest of the day we hung out there and practised ground moves. In the end I was glad we rode as it turned out to be really fun, even though the weather was crap and the snow really slow.

Claire and Verity

Desiree, C and V

The weather on day 1, this was the best it got.

We left the slopes with plans to check into the station….and then go out for drinks.
Gave Chucky a Text…turns out he was staying about 100m away at the Station, but was sick as a Dog! (Sorry I didn’t make it round Chucky san but I wasn’t that keen on catching the Flu). Got some tips off Chucky about conditions and where to avoid and worked on a plan for the next day. The front coming in looked like it had some more snow in it if the temp dropped. The only problem was the wind was howling like crazy. Just before I fell asleep it started pouring but the temp was low, so I thought that it should snow up top. The next day would be good IF the wind wasn’t too strong AND it didn’t rain AND it snowed. It was a shoe in!

Day 2

Woke everyone up by jumping on their beds and running around the room in my Ninja suit. wakey wakey

Basically I knew it would have snowed but that it would have been really windy all night and have blown all the snow off the slopes that had iced up after it rained all day yesterday (followed by a temp drop). I knew that the excelerator at Bluecow was going to be out of the wind and hopefully all the snow had blown in there. Sara and I raced off to the tube while the others drove up. We got off the tube at Bluecow in time for first lifts. It was HELL, it was incredibly windy and the runs were ice sheets in parts, and drifts of new snow in others. The summit chair was downright scary, the wind was so strong that the chairs were on an angle and I was clutching at Sara like an old crone.

We made it up and raced across in the whiteout/fog to the the top of excelerator, after the first 50m of the run it cleared and showed us 10cm of new snow over groomed slopes, pretty much ideal to go really fast and throw lots of snow. I counted three tracks ahead of us. we got four really fun runs in before enough people turned up to track it out and make it bumpy.

Hard to get photos in such conditions but perhaps this gives an idea of the snow conditions for those four runs

We decided to head back through hell to the north perisher T bar and meet up with everyone else. On the way we had to go up some chairs in that crazy wind again. We were close to the top of the pleasant valley quad when a massive gust of wind picked up safety fencing around the chair lift terminal and blew it away and blew people over getting off the lift. I could see that the whole area where you get off the lift was sheet ice and could tell I was in trouble. Just as we got off the lift a huge blast of wind picked me up and sent me skittering across the ice, I had to use all my ninja skills to avoid smashing my head on the chair lifts heading back down hill , before I was blown under the lifts and out the other side onto the slope. jeepers. A close call but I’d escaped without a scratch. Sara exited the lift elegantly and stood laughing with the lifties. The bastards. I think they were just jealous of my Airblaster 100% merino ninja suit (that incidentally if I ever did a product review, I would give 9/10 fish fingers for).

We finally made it over to north perisher t, where we got some fun drops out wide (the first clip in the little vid that follows)

mini vid of the first two days

I then spent the rest of the day trying to tick off more lifts on my pass (This often involved sneaking off to ride lifts with out the others, so that when we got back home I could gloat about how much more lifts I had ridden ).....by the end of the day I had 22 lifts knocked off the list (and 84% of the mountain unlocked) and another 6 lifts hadn’t registered! The only place I haven’t got to yet is Guthega. Plus they wouldn’t let me on those little kids whirly gigger lifts that just spin in a circle. Apparently I am too large. BAH!

This next photo is me knocking Harry’s & Herms Conveyor at Smiggin Holes off the list. To date this is my greatest achievement lift wise. Unfortunately Zoe’s Skier Conveyor had no pass reader. It was fun though. The only thing stuck in my craw is that ‘carpet 3’ remains ‘undiscovered’ on my pass. What is this mythical beast and how does one conquer it?

I apologise for my red beard dear reader. If I knew how to touch up photos I would have made it black so you wouldn’t have had to see it. I don’t know why I have a red beard….but I digress. Back to the story.

I forgot to mention that we forgot our food and were forced by hunger pangs to crowd like sardines into one of the dinning areas in front valley and pay crazy prices for a pile of grease. I ate 6 grease wedges and left the rest for the boss. She polished them all off and promptly complained about feeling terrible. Generally once a season I fall for this trap. once again I chided myself for not remembering. There are some good places for food on the hill, but I am not going to tell you them for fear of having to crowd into them like sardines next time I am there .

Finally at 4pm we dropped into the ticket office at Bluecow to book into first tracks for Sunday morning (for those that don’t know, first tracks means you can ride from 730am to 9am at Bluecow, before anyone else). The weather reports were showing snow and a drop in the wind, plus it was free first tracks with a freedom pass. The only downfall is you have to be on the 7am tube. The nice lady in the office told us she couldn’t help us and that we could do it online, she forgot to mention that you had to be booked in by 5pm Sat. I spent the the next few hours trying to find out how to book it on my phone (I somehow eventually managed to make it happen at 10pm).

We headed back to the station, being party animals we made dinner and watched Le Tour. Before going to sleep I checked the net and saw this, ‘dumping snow at Perisher’ and this photo. Needless to say I went to sleep excited.

Day 3

The Alarm went off at 550am, I hit snooze for 10mins and then managed to get up. I blamed Sara for sleeping in and started to get ready. Getting ready always takes way longer then you expect, especially as we had to check out before leaving. Verity decided not to get a ride with us and to stay behind and go up the hill with the others, so as not to leave them behind (no friends on powder days V, Sayonara sucker). We eventually left the station at 635am. We needed to be at the tube by 7am so we were in trouble from the outset. Miss that tube and you can’t do first tracks. The straights were so dire that I was singing my angry song.
The weather was much better then the last few days, with blue sky over Jindi, about halfway to the tube it was half sunny on one side of the road, clouds the other and a rainbow stretching between the two.

We raced to the tube in an attempt to make it on time, but alas we missed it by 3 bloody minutes, and as no one ever says, ‘close doesn’t skin a badger’. I was kicking myself! We had blown it big time. There was already talk that there was at least 15cm new snow at Perisher. I was jumping out of my skin. We got on the next tube and headed up to Perisher. We were looking out over the slopes and there was fresh snow everywhere and it was sunny! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I tried to console myself and say that it was ok because we would be on first lifts anyway and would score out at Eyre T bar, but it was 730am and there was already heaps of people around, so I knew the race would be on. I said to Sara ‘Sara, the race is on’, she looked at me blankly, so I shouted it as loud as I could again. She told me I was an idiot. She probably had a point, although I kept my guard up in case it was some secret Swedish tactic to lull me into a false sense of security before sneakily winning the race.

While waiting around, I was telling the boss about the time I worked at Charlottes pass and there was snow like this and not many people riding. I am a little slow so it took me at least 17 seconds before I cried out in a voice like Thor ’ why don’t we ask at the Charlottes desk if there are any seats and how much it would be to get up there’, 10 minutes later we had paid our $95 dollars (lunch, cat ride and day pass included), but not before Sara informed them she was allowed to ride at Charlottes because she had a season pass and didn’t need a ticket (A perisher season pass haha ). Gray the driver had convinced us that there was at least 30cm at Charlottes and if we were lucky we would see pygmy possums that could shoot laser beams out their arse**. Well that was enough for me. I was in, hook, line and sinker. ETA at Charlottes was 815, with lifts opening at 830! perfect!

We jumped on the cat. The cat ride is always fun and it was cool to be showing Sara something new, plus we were on track to score first lifts with no one around. Driving past Eyre T bar, we could see there was a lot of snow (I let Claire and Verity know that Eyre T would be good) Somehow I had managed to lose my gloves in all the hoo har. Luckily our driver Gray said that I could borrow his for the day if the shop at Charlottes had none that would fit me (which was very nice I must say). As soon as we got to Charlottes I jumped out, looked at all the untracked snow and ran inside to get gloves. 20 dollars later I was out of there and ready to go.

Surprisingly Sara had waited for me. We raced down to the T bar and got in line. There was about 8 people in front of us, which vexed me greatly. I made out the the far bowl was definitely the place to be, in the hope they would go there, as it definitely wasn’t the place to be (note: if riding with me on powder days take every thing I say with a grain of salt), there by letting me get to the near bowl before them. It was partly successful . The T bar opened at 830, The first few runs were pretty darn fun! I was shrieking like a banshee! The cover varied from 10cm to 25cm in different bowls, but they were all fun. We did about 8 runs before racing over to the poma when it opened (opens just after 9). Again the snow was awesome. We did about 8 runs there as well before heading over to the chair lift which had been open since 9. There was hardly anyone around and the ones that were riding were tending to stick to the main tracks/runs and they mostly avoided the drops/rocks that were perfect to hit. It was so good in fact that I was singing my good snow song in my head all morning (if you must know: ride of the valkyries). I forgot to mention that I took Sara out on the first run of the day. Sorry Sara (no wives on powder days?). No harm done though (see vid part 2 for that).

View from the top of the T bar (I forgot to take a photo on the first run but there is footage in video part two)

First ride up the poma

First ride up the Chairlift.

After riding around for 2.5 hours I discovered that my Gopro had fogged up, the inserts I had in must have been old and I’d forgotten spares (stuppppppiiiid). Most of my footage from the first session was was ruined, although I salvaged some. The staff in the cafe were nice enough to let me use their oven to dry my inserts out, so after a 10 minute pit stop we were off again and my Gopro was fog free. We continued riding around hitting drops and getting fresh snow in lots of spots. The sun was ducking in and out of the clouds and it was really nice up there. It was one of the better days I have had in Oz thats for sure.

Can’t wait to read this.

After a while we decided to hike the ‘chutes’, which I lived to regret. The snow up there was awesome but when we reached the top the clouds came in. After waiting a while Sara and I had both chosen our lines and I took off when the merest sign of sun appeared. Unfortunately the light went flat half way down the chute and I didn’t see a hole and flew off a drop out of control….bounced off the next flat section and over another ledge. I am pretty pissed off at myself that I didn’t keep it under control, but there’s not much I can do about it now I suppose. Luckily for me I didn’t hit too many of the rocks. Unluckily I hurt my leg and back (but didn’t re-break my ribs I’d hurt a few weeks before). The pain in my knee was so incredibly intense for 5 minutes and then nothing. So much so that for a while there I thought I’d imagined it. I rode back down and Sara helped me to the main chalet where Rolf got hold of two doctors who checked me out and then retired me to the cafe. I got settled in with some ice and Sara headed back out to make the most of it, while I had lunch with my new mate Rolf (operations and enviro officer up there). My Day had come to a premature end! It was fun while it lasted though and on the plus side, I got a new cyborg leg.

VID Part 1- watch it in HD if possible (if your only going to watch one thing in this TR watch this one)

VID Part 2- First run of the day in this edit, but also quite a bit of foggy footage.

VID 3- The Crash (:ollie:),This video is a tad long (sorry bout that), its just one run, the one I wish I didn’t make. I fast forwarded a couple of boring bits, but a left in a few bits of rough footage,  I was tempted to edit a lot especially the groans I made when I hurt myself and after thinking a bit about it I decided it was weaker of me to edit them out than show it. I am slightly surprised I managed to make a few nice turns on the run home even though I had a busted knee, to be honest I don’t remember the run back to the lift even though it was half decent powder.

Like I mentioned, I couldn’t use a lot of my footage and some of the stuff I did use is a bit foggy or taken on an iphone.

* ok maybe some could keep me down.
** I may have made the possum bit up.

In all seriousness though, I’d like to say thanks to Sara especially, for helping me get back to the chalet and looking after me and also to the mountain Staff (Rolf and the Docs in particular), they were very nice and helped me out a lot. I even got an invite to come back and ride with them when I get better.

TWITTER VERSION: I came, I thought I would conquer, Instead I was conquered and now my season is over !

Yeah you can edit it = I think you need to edit the first post!

.

A few more shots

Regret



Cyborg Crackers

I am loving this trip report so much already

Crackers, click EDIT in first post and you change whatever you want then

Hey Crackers I think the mystical #3 is in the kids area next to Mitchell. You may struggle to ride. Sneak in at the end of the day. Occasionly they let the adults ride with their kids (you’ll have to latch onto one so you don’t look like a bit of a creep!

The other one that is a hard to find is the one out the back of Blue Cow terminal

ozgirl - 26 July 2012 10:49 AM

The other one that is a hard to find is the one out the back of Blue Cow terminal

sneaky! how did you know I haven’t got that one yet either?

I still haven’t fixed the poll….I think you guys are pulling my leg!

Editing a vid from the last day. makes me sooooo keen to ride again. Nearly as much as that first vid I put up makes me want to retire to the pub!

Ninja suit FTW! 

Great stuff so far, CRACKERS. Looking forward to the rest of it. Don’t forget to post the link to this thread into the trip report contest. http://www.boardworld.com.au/trip-report (it doesn’t matter if your TR isn’t complete yet). If you post the link before the end of this month, you can have a second entry for later in the season.

Nice TR for a long weekend…