Best Traverse in the Universe

sportnewk , Saturday 18th January, 2025 8:15PM

Did a one way traverse in the POW range over Mount Roberts and Big Tree Peak. Parked at ~750m elevation on a Big Tree Main branch road, and ~810m in the Dalrymple Creek drainage. Observations from the day: 5cm of fresh snow was found above 1000m in the area. This was redistributed by significant winds over the past few days, stripping the N and W slopes to treeline down to a nasty ice crust. Sheltered terrain such as glades and logging roads were fun to ski, while the alpine was primarily survival skiing. Skinning with crampons was often required and skiing with a mountaineering axe in hand was handy. High level clouds kept solar effects to a minimum. There were signs of significant tree bombing on S facing slopes up to the alpine from the last warming cycle.