Rsser's accident.

[rsser]

Well there's been heaps of snow up here. 15cm yesterday and as it got down to -7 o/night it was powder. Snowing down to 900m during the day today.

I followed a pole line out and back at -3 degrees in driving wind and snow with visibility down to 60m or less. The flat light meant you couldn't see what was coming up and the first you'd know when you skied off a mound was a stomach in mouth feeling followed by a bum plant.

The conditions will be great for Australia's part of the World Loppet XC race series, the 42km Hoppet on Sat. The winner will do it in about 1.75 hours, on skating skis.

Hooroo from the mountains.

[NeilS]

Well there's been heaps of snow up here. 15cm yesterday and as it got down to -7 o/night it was powder. Snowing down to 900m during the day today.

Going by what is happening here there is more of that on its way to you, so should be good.

Enjoy!

.....

[rsser]

Well Falls Ck got 54cm of snow yesterday! More today.

The media wise-heads are saying the cover is better than it has been for 20 years but I was up there on my first ski tour 18 years ago and the snow poles running over to Tawonga Huts were almost buried then. This season isn't in that class.

Anyway, the Hoppet racers will be spared the 3 or 4 circuits around the top near Mt Mckay which has come close to being the normal dismal route and should have firm dry snow if the groomers can do the 42km before Sat morning.

[rsser]

Well after the fantastic late snow falls I'm back at Howmans Gap Camp near Falls Ck for a few days.

Today it's been very warm, very wet and very windy.

Had planned to join friends for the first leg of their overnight tour but would've needed a wetsuit and goggles ;-}

Have been watching the rain pour down and trash the snow.

The road off the mountain, like a number of others in NE Vic, has been closed. Landslips, fallen trees, or water breaking the banks on the river flats.

The Camp is filling up with asylum seekers and the YMCA staff, who run the place, have shown a kindness and care that puts successive Federal govt's to shame. The kitchen is in overdrive, linen is being hunted out, and advice on the future dispensed.

[NeilS]

The road off the mountain, like a number of others in NE Vic, has been closed. Landslips, fallen trees, or water breaking the banks on the river flats.

The Camp is filling up with asylum seekers and the YMCA staff, who run the place, have shown a kindness and care that puts successive Federal govt's to shame. The kitchen is in overdrive, linen is being hunted out, and advice on the future dispensed.

Yeah, you are still in the right place, Ern..... 9 killed in a plane crash near the Fox Glacier and a state of emergency has been declared and residents are being evacuated from Christchurch after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake....

.....

[rsser]

Oh heavens, not another tragedy out in their glacier country.

The score is mounting.

Without the NZ no-fault accident compensation scheme (which includes tourists) folk would have to walk in or pay a squillion.

And Christchurch, yes, caught that on the radio. Sounds awful.

[rsser]

Well we've had a little dose of excitement too.

Bucketed down yesterday. Hotham got 130mm and Mt Buffalo 150mm in the 24 hours to 9am today.

The road up the mountain was closed yesterday due to fallen trees and landslips.

The wind up the gully below Howmans Gap camp was strong enough to drop a Mountain Ash every couple of hours or so. These are trees killed in the 03 fires.

Finally the call came this afternoon that a convoy of vehicles would be escorted off the mountain at 4pm, another escorted up and the road closed again.

It's been two days of alternating boredom waiting and excitement watching the wild weather.

The Howmans Gap resident lyrebird came out this morning and picked over the grass exposed by the rain having washed the snow cover off.

Most of the roads back to the Hume Fway are closed; I can only make out one tortuous route but luckily I had a motel room booked and will sit down with a beer and see what the morning brings.

[kiwigeo]

Most of the roads back to the Hume Fway are closed; I can only make out one tortuous route but luckily I had a motel room booked and will sit down with a beer and see what the morning brings.

Dont get your hopes up mate...it's been bucketting down all day here in the Adelaide Hills so I'd say you're in for the same.....better make sure you've got plenty of beer!

[rsser]

So the morning might bring a hangover? ;-}

Sure has been weird weather patterns up in the Alps this winter. Little snow, then bucketloads, and then this tropical change.

[artme]

Have we not meandered miles off topic???

So how's the paw Ern???

[rsser]

Which was, err, how many woodworkers does it take to change a lightglobe?

Paw's pretty good thanks Arthur. The hard splint helps keep thumb pain minimal and I can grip a ski pole for several hours at a time.

And a useful side-effect of the fracture is that having had to use the left hand much more, nearly all of the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome in it have disappeared.

[NeilS]

Dont get your hopes up mate...it's been bucketting down all day here in the Adelaide Hills so I'd say you're in for the same.....better make sure you've got plenty of beer!

Yeah, we have almost reached our average for September in just five days and if any of what we got here yesterday drops as snow over the Alps you'll be in for a blizzard Ern, but unlikely, as I understand that a lot of this moisture is coming down from the north with some residual warmth in it.

Hope you can make the best of it..... how well does burnt Mt Ash turn?

.....

[rsser]

Well I made it back to Melb via the one available meandering route open.

Most of the big rivers in the NE have broken their banks.

Mountain Ash is OK to turn Neil; a bit coarse and plain grained.

[rsser]

Well as Artme implied the thread has also meandered and gone well off topic.

Can I thank again all of you who have provided advice and encouragement, in the thread and in PMs. In particular Sturdee who was kind enough to start it and NeilS who has been a faithful respondent.

It's been my annus horribilis in a variety of ways (well, if Betty Windsor can have one why not me?!) and the support of forum members has helped greatly in my getting through it so far.

Time to drop the curtain Mods.