Howmans Gap 08 Report by Graeme

We had the maximum of 10 members signed up for the week at Howmans Gap this year. The weather in Melbourne on the Sunday was windy with patchy rain showers, but as we approached Mt Beauty, the weather had cleared to a beautiful sunny day. All except for Peter M were set up in our 2 rooms well before evening meal time. Peter arrived just after midnight.

Day 1 started off with clear weather and 7 of us decided to tackle Heathy Spur and Ropers Lookout. Loch and Jan had a quieter day skiing to Watchbed Creek. The snow conditions were good, and we were able to ski up to the top of the ridge on the Hoppet track. We then headed off along the ridge top through the burnt out patches of snow gums, finally arriving at the Lookout where we were able to get good views of Falls Creek and Rocky Valley Dam. We next headed down into a large valley leading to an open valley in the middle of Heathy Spur. Woops ! One valley too early, so a short climb and a traverse had us quickly back on track. Lunch was eaten looking out across the valley in lovely sunshine. However, some cloud was approaching the nearby ridges, which made the air temperature drop as the sun was blocked out from time to time.

The afternoon was spent skiing along the top of Heathy Spur to the southern end. Peter M decided to drop down to the Watchbed Creek track and come back along the High Plains Road. Graeme & Charles extended the trip by skiing over to Hollands Knob and back. The trip back along Heathy Spur was very pleasant with a few good long runs back down to the dam wall. All arrived back at Windy Corner for a tasty coffee or hot chocolate, complete with marshmallows by 4.00 PM.

The forecast for Tuesday was the best for the week, so we headed up the Mt McKay Road past the ski tows and out along the ridge top. Snow was a bit crusty, but it was good skiing. Four of us thought that we might tackle Mt McKay, but after a short ski up, it was clear that the snow conditions were quite icy, and as the clouds had closed in around the summit, that was aborted and we joined the rest of the party heading down to Pretty Valley. We then skied down to the Pretty Valley dam wall, to find that the valves were open and thus there was only the creek running from the Causeway to the dam wall. The rest of the dam was empty. By this stage, the wind had increased and had a nasty bite to it, so we took a short cut to the Causeway and then around to the other side of the ridge to find some shelter for lunch. After lunch we continued up the valley of the Pretty Valley pondage to the bridge on the pole line heading across to Mt Bundarra. From there the route was back to the ridge top of the Rocky Knobs and down a broad valley to the end of Sun Valley. At this stage, the cloud came in and visibility was reduced to a few metres at times, making navigation and skiing very difficult. It was hard to pick any change in slope or snow condition, so there were a few nose and bum plants as we slowly made our way down to the groomed track around Sun Valley. Apart from the wind, the ski back to Windy Corner and a hot coffee or chocolate went uneventfully.

Wednesday seemed to start OK, but by the time we had reached Windy Corner, the cloud was down and the wind was up. We battled our way out towards the dam wall, but visibility was virtually non existent. Graeme suggested that skiing any further "did not seem smart or enjoyable", and this was met with an overwhelming "AGREED", and we turned around and headed back to Windy Corner and Howmans Gap.

Thursday was going to be the worst day weather wise, but when we headed out, the weather was fine but windy. Once again, the water levels in the Rocky Valley dam were low, the same as Pretty Valley, and this allowed us to take a short cut across the Watchbed Creek arm of the dam as we headed to Wallace's Hut. The wind was very strong as we headed up to a hut near the quarry on Basalt Hill, and we snuck in behind the doorway for a morning tea stop.

The route to Wallace's Hut was around Basalt Hill on the contour, which proved to be "exciting" as we edged around some steep slopes that had been chewed up by "the boys" having fun tearing up and down the slopes on snowmobiles the day before! A quick dash across the open saddle on the other side of Basalt Hill had us at Wallace's Hut for an early lunch. The afternoon saw us skiing down the wide slopes to the aqueduct where, once again, we had to contend with badly chewed up soft snow due to a number of snowmobiles travelling along that route. The snow was quite deep and the icicles hanging down at various places were spectacular. Another quick dash into the strong wind across the open area at Langford's Gap had us skiing on sheltered snow in the lee of a ridge leading back to Rocky Valley dam. We retraced our steps of the morning back to the High Plains Road and down to Windy Corner. Despite the forecast, we skied for the afternoon on a pool of sunshine, but it was clear that the weather was closing in as the cloud banks built up all around us ! The first snow flakes began to fall as we got back to Windy Corner. Very timely !

The bad weather that had affected southern Victoria all day Thursday eventually reached us, and there was about 14 cm of fresh snow overnight. The overnight temperature at Falls Creek was - 6 C and the wind chill had that down to - 13 C. On Friday, the southerly wind was very strong as could be seen by the clouds racing by, and the clouds down on the nearby hills. Being true wimps, we decided to pack up and make an early return to Melbourne.

Another great week with good company, excellent food and a liberal quantity of selected reds to wash the food down !

Loch, Jan G, Peter G, Peter M, Sheila, Masako, Jan W, Charles, Graeme & Maureen