Friday 15/09/2017 Charlotte Pass – Trapyard Creek
Kosciuszko National Park, NSW
Ngarigo country
Participants: Damien Aggio, Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Davies, Kathy Husselbee
Another exploratory day trip skiing, in low visibility, windy conditions, looking for sheltered slopes to leave some turns on. A short return trip from Charlotte Pass.
Max elevation: 1868 m
Total climbing: 699 m
Total descent: -701 m
Average speed: 5.51 km/h
Total time: 02:52:33
Yet again the weather was less than ideal. A reported once in decade snow dump of 1.2m according to some reports. Spencers Creek snow depth was at 2.5m. Accompanying such an event, lots and lots of cloud and wind. So another local low level trip to avoid the whiteouts any higher on the Main Range.
We enjoyed a blowy run beside the trees running parallel and down along Spencers Creek, past Wrights Creek and turning up Trapyard Creek as we reached Jonnies Plain. Along this short valley on the true left hand side is a good cover of snowgums along a ridge with many nooks and crannies. No big long open runs to be seen. On the true right hand side it is gentler and more open.
At the head of the valley a steeper treeless run falls away towards Thredbo River. Damien and I couldn’t resist. In the meantime Sue and Kathy backtracked a little where they found a slope for a few turns.
Damien and I descended this open slope and since the cover was so good continued further down through the trees. A great run but with a bit of a steep haul back up to the saddle, straight into a strong headwind blowing up lots of snow.
Damien climbing back to the saddle above Trapyard Creek in the neighbouring unnamed south flowing creek
I traversed around a little to the true right hand side of the valley. From here I telemarked a short, gentle slope into Trapyard Creek before finding and rejoining the other three.
Not being particularly pleasant out we returned to the Southern Alps Lodge the way we came, a strong headwind back up Spencers Creek ensuring we paid a price for our excursion. Trapyard Creek had proven to offer some good protection from the westerly winds.
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