We're battening down the hatches for a major winter event this weekend. Looks like more than a metre of snow on the hills. Should be good for skiing once it clears up, and maybe a bit of storm induced firewood scrounge. I went up for an XC ski on Wednesday morning. Perfect conditions, sunny and snow firm enough to go off track into the high plains. It was about -4*C when I went out. I'm a bit of a fair weather skier these days, I've become spoilt by being able to ski any time I feel like it, more or less. Skiied about 20km and I was buggered. Bit pathetic really.
The dead trees are snowgums, killed off by the 2003 bushfires that went through more than a million hectares. But they're growing back as they always do, suckering up from the roots. They're ok firewood, medium density and not very ashy but they're relatively small, you'd be lucky to find one more than 14 inches. The nearby ski resort periodically clears some for various reasons and I've had the opportunity to pick up some from there in the past. Before the 2003 fires, there were still dead snowgums in many parts from the 1939 fires. They made great campfire wood until 2003 cleaned them up. Now of course, we have plenty more.
That's the main range in the far distance (NNE) with snow on it.
@Jeffkrib was up there somewhere.
This is from about the same spot, looking NNW. In the distance sloping down is Mt Bogong which is the highest peak in our state, which we can see from our house (when it's not thumping down rain and snow).
Whenever I've been to the USA, locals have always been surprised to hear we get snow in Aus. We do get it but it only hangs around in the mountains and you have to drive narrow, windy roads to get to it. Once you're there though, the views make up for all the pain-in-the-arsery.
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