Leatherbarrel Creek

20-22/7/07

Graeme Nelson ( AT - trip report, behind the camera )

Emma Nelson ( tele gear - pic )

Mike Reed ( board/snowshoes - pic )

We had a great 3 days out from Thredbo, scoring by chance the perfect weather window after a blizzard earlier in the week and snow showers the previous 3 days. Blue skies with minimal cloud and no more than light winds.

Friday

After meeting up, final sort of gear and packing etc., we finally got away late morning, up Crackenback Chair to make life easier. We hiked to a few hundred metres from Ramshead and made the decision to drop packs in a likely camp spot with some shelter form prevailing winds, and go skiing/riding. Initial idea was to camp lower, perhaps in Leatherbarrel Creek itself, but the good weather and the chance to slide now without packs (plus avoid the pack haul out later) decided us.

We bagged Ramshead and took our first look into Leatherbarrel Creek and over to Twin Humps before slipping off the east side of the peak and down into Mike's warmup run. This is also known as The Couloir in Alan Andrews Book “Skiing the Western Faces of Kosciusko” and I will use his naming from now on. This was the first run into LBC for all of us, but for Mike it was his first run for over 2 years, having emigrated from Canada before the next season over there got going. This day was unusually perfect for skiing in Australia – no wind, sunny blue skies, but still low enough temps that the snow was really good on all aspects. The pic shows the top 40% or so of the run – dry wind packed snow that skied really nicely up top, progressively softening and deepening as we descended. From there a slight dogleg to a wider slope with some easing of gradient, perfect for some long fast turns. You can’t see much of Mike’s snowboard as he looks up to Emma. The last part of the run was gentler gradient again, but in was through the lovely light fluff between the trees down to the creek. Overall, a great run in perfect conditions with no-one else around.

There was no easy access to water in the creek, so melting snow was in order back at camp. We headed back up to set up camp, except for taking a few nice turns in The Corrie on the way out. It was a day when that one run was enough to satisfy, though.

Saturday

After a cold clear night, Saturday was another perfect day, as in the next pic - Emma and Mike ready to leave camp. We decided to look for a tree run in the first place, as we remembered how good the snow had been in the trees the day before, even though most of the trees in the valley had been burnt in 2003. Cleft Rock Run was our choice, leading down a spur from a knoll between Ramshead and South Ramshead to Leatherbarrel Gates where the creek turns tightly through Cleft Rock. I was keen to go right down to Cleft Rock but was outvoted when it came to going that far from an exit. Snow was good up top again, with nicely spaced trees. Emma skiing the trees midway down - as we got lower and veered more to skiers right, our aspect was more northerly the sun-exposed snow got quite heavy, and the trees got tight near the next creek. No matter – crossed the creek and plugged up the other side in deep soft snow, to come across the first tracks made by anyone other than ourselves. I snatched another few turns in really good snow on the southerly aspect, before the big climb out.

There was some more nice turns to be had that afternoon on the other side into Bogong Creek valley. It was another really nice day if a bit of an anticlimax from Friday.

That evening I stuffed my down booties into Mike’s snowshoes and wandered around the corner to check the sunset. There was a nice sunset glow on North Ramshead, and a lovely sunset to follow as a few clouds had come up. Another camp was set up at the back of our knoll, protected by another rocky outcrop.

Sunday

The clouds had disappeared and it was another blue sky day. Mike had to pack up and leave in the morning, but Emma and I stayed out the day, heading to the other side of LBC to look for more south facing slopes. It was easier than we anticipated getting up to Twin Humps, where there was great view across the valley dominated by Ramshead and Golden Gully. Looking over the right shoulder was a surprise package of short but extra steep chutes for the adventurous to consider.

I skied the gully from between the Twin Humps, which was fairly challenging up top with a couple of short steep pitches and variable snow. The snow improved with descent though, and it was tempting to keep going down the gully, however Emma had taken a different route and I pulled out half way for a short hike to our agreed meeting point. We looked for and found one of the tasty looking slopes we had seen from the other side, further up the valley. No tracks were to be found in this area, though a reasonable number of groups were about on the weekend. The pleasant surprise was that the gully we chose had the deepest snow of the trip, and was only mildly affected by the last 3 days of sun. That’s my excuse though for a full face plant 2/3 of the way down, with a nice soft landing. Emma didn’t have any such trouble. It was a great last run for the trip, as it was time to head back and finish pulling camp before the slide back to Thredbo.

The last freshies of the trip though came from the snowmaking guns pumping out their stuff down the Supertrail – still fun with packs adding to the burning thighs, but not up to the quality of The Leatherbarrel!