The Daily Good News
Sounds blissful Laurie!
Good news, we recieved a great early season dump last week and turned the Main Range into a winter wonderland. Me and two mates, the highest people in the country on Friday and Saturday evenings, finding good snow in the mountain lees..
Sweet Craig. Love the fact you're earning those turns as they say and also not forking out the daylight robbery that is a daily lift ticket in Australia.
Have you still got the Hello Kitty thermals?
Yes I do Zen, haha but don't use them.
Here's a few shots from the weekend, the sunset colours and scenes Saturday night were other worldly. Like walking on the moon!
Defies logic that you can sleep on the snow in a tent and still be warm.
What's the process and gear needed in getting a good nights sleep?
Yeah it blows me away still UL to know you can be comfortable in such extreme conditions where otherwise you wouldn't last half an hour.
Not too much to stay warm it's all about insulation from the snow surface.
If you had an alpine sleeping bag (mine is rated comfort to -9) on pure snow you'd freeze, but you add in a $10 yoga mat and blow up insulated mat and you're fairly comfy. Just wear thermals and maybe a puffy if getting cold.
So just a 3-4 seasons tent for protection from the wind (not cold) then the rubber mat, insulated blow up mat and sleeping bag...
Rubber mat like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roll-Up-Eva-Foam-Yoga-Mat-Camping-Hiking-Fishing-Sleeping-Tent-Mattress-180x50cm-/302634616433
Alpine sleeping bag: https://www.wildfiresports.com.au/sea-to-summit-alpine-ii-sleeping-bag-long-left-zip?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_f200s3M4gIVVA4rCh10eQnsEAQYASABEgLYXPD_BwE
One of these might come in handy too to stay warm.
Just sayin'.
https://thumb1.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/2978116/351308960…
In the background of the last photo yes, we rode Tennison bowl and went to Carruthers late but it was a little low tide and the icey climb out looked sketch with the fading light. Needed boot crampons which I left back at the car.
Craig, about to buy a sleeping mat for below the snow line 3-4 season hiking and have been looking at Thermarest from Paddy Pallin or Bogong Equipment in Melbourne. I know nothing about the one you have linked, what's your experience with them? highly recommended?
Yeah the Klimat ones are cheaper and I've had no issues at all with mine. Looks like the Klimat has a higher R-value and actually packs down a little smaller length(height) wise. Only being 50g heavier as well. I recommend the Klimat.
Reading this durability might be a bit of an issue.. https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/sleeping-pad/klymit-insulated-static-v-lite
I've only used in snow but for 3 years and had no punctures etc..
Craig thanks for sharing those photos......maybe swellnet needs to bring out a coffee table book...?
Interesting how the layers work in keeping the frozen ground away from a warmish sleep, cheers
Yeah it's all about insulation from the cold.
Tyson Millar took these amazing shots from the weekend, first out camp and the second me skinning up on sunset Friday evening..
Great shots.
The snow camping looks pretty rugged. You keep a bottle handy or duck outside when nature calls?
Little Austria there in the background? That skinning pic brings back memories - en route to Carruthers? Magic pics. Looking forward to a great BC season.
No, fark, I had to piss 2x on Friday night as I got really low on water and sugar and skulled half a litre before bed. Had to get up twice in the night, bare feet on snow in the freezing cold!
McBain, Carruthers in the background (my fav runs!). We camped near the Tennison saddle, lens compression throws off the terrain a bit.
Cool (literally).
Maybe you could pack a pair of Crocs, super light and may help if you have to duck outside.
Final questions- you come across any other groups up there and what's your contingency if a blizzard comes through?
btw, looks like an amazing experience, you really must know you're alive when surrounded by all that.
why are the politico forums not appearing on front page? The surfing community has ALWAYS prided itself in being at the forefront of social and political issues.
SD, I posted an explanation a week ago on this page: https://www.swellnet.com/forums/politico/459916?page=5
Thanks Ben... Appreciated.. I'm very busy work wise, and not on as much as I used to be. Plus u have pay walled your forecast notes, where I used to put my 2 bobs worth in from 40 years of ocean watching in Qld. So I dont check the page that much.
Its your choice, your baby. Your income. I get that. I disagree with your stance. As I said, the surfing community (Australian surfing community in particular), has ALWAYS been a hotbed for political expression. And for the years I have been here, your own editors have been at the forefront of promoting political debate, which imo is a great thing.
Were u one of the "silent tories"? Is this your way of stifling debate? Putting it on "page 32"? ;) :p
You see that the ABC is being raided as we speak, as was NewL reporter Annika Smethhurst.
Anyhow, good luck with your decisions, Ben. Thanks again . Bye
Zen, funny you say that, one of the other guys we were with had Crocs!
And me and my mates forecast the weather, so the likelihood of being caught in a blizzard should be low. We're very familiar with the terrain and locations even with them being so expansive and also use Gaia GPS tracking which would help getting out in a white-out. We've got a sat phone for emergencies as well.
Other groups, there are a core crew who hit it like us and I think there were 5 other people out there getting the terrain we were. We were the only guys camping though, four highest people in all of Australia :D
Sheepy.
Just go on the threads you want anyway. They’re still there. Dribble still occurs.
At first i didn't like the idea of political threads not showing up on front page, but now I'm looking at it as a positive.
I tend to post on what every threads hit the front page and finding myself not commenting on the political stuff as much anymore, which is good in a way as, it's same shit different day and much of gets negative.
Had to laugh though on the post "thermalben" made on the subject in there, thinking the political topics would calm down after the election, that was pretty hopeful thinking especially after Scomo was re-elected.
“This is what they have under construction right now in India for solar; 225 gigawatts. They are not going to continue with coal. You want to sell coal to India? Good luck with that … May I just say, this is nuts. But I doubt [Adani] is ever going to happen anyway.” Al Gore
If he is right that is good news.
Al Gore hasn't been right about many of his predictions yet.
Even if India doesn't build any new coal fired power plants they still have many recently built and many that wont close down for decades, Adani and others want our coal because there is a demand, they're a business they're not stupid.
BTW. You might find that proposal is possibly an Adani project, they are the biggest private Indian power suppler and already have one of the largest solar farms in India (i think one of the largest in the world) plus one of the largest in Australia with more planned.
Hey Stu and Ben, you know what'd be good news?
If we had some sort of political chat back on the front page of this website.
Why are we not talking about how the LNP have turned a distinctly fascist corner with their targeted raids on media?
Why are we not talking about how an outlet such as the New York Times has an article called "Australia May Well Be the World’s Most Secretive Democracy"?
Andy......Stu and Ben are part of the grand conspiracy to crush free speech.....hang on there is a knock at the front door :-)
I'm outraged, outraged I tell you! Ben and Stu are clearly puppets of neoliberalism and the MSM.
Seriously though, surely what I'm talking about is Quite A Big Deal?
..... and the good news is that the political forums are still there.
Yeah sorta, but it's question of where they are and how they're accessed.
Anyway, I'll leave it at that.
Got it, Andy. We're gonna try and reach some sort of compromise. Stay tuned...
glad to hear that stu - the political threads are a boring pain in the arse that i usually ignore and occasionally dip into, but in the current climate (and even not in the current climate) the idea of 'kind-of disappearing' them is interesting. i understand the rationale, but still ...
the 'good news' bit of this post:
the betoota advocate has been doing an excellent run of stories on the recent afp raids over the past few days. hard to pick a highlight but the following are up there
AFP Headquarters Erupts Into Laughter After Someone Suggests Raiding A Current Affair
Sky News Announces Dedicated Newspeak Channel Exclusively For Doubleplusgood Australians
Prospective Whistleblower Picks Up A Will Kit Before Sending Leaked Documents
Prime Minister Assures Journalists If They Have A Go, They’ll Get A Go, In Prison Lol
On the home page, why couldn't you re -format the 'In the Forums' notifications like the 'Latest Comments' section? i.e you only see who comments, not the first three lines of their comment.
And I guess if you want to maintain diversity you could limit the Politico threads to a few of the five available slots you have now?
Oh and I guess in order to eliminate the scroll fest comments would need to be linked from home page.....actually it would be great if the Latest Comments section had this functionality...but I'm pretty sure you know this already.
Anyway the good news is you're obviously working on it, and I understand the reasoning behind the decision to 'hide' them.
Dedicated to good news ....