Helen and Geoff's Amazing Adventures

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Getting ready for a powder day at Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks trip 2018 – Week 2

by | Feb 2, 2018 | Downhill skiing, Resort Telemark, Sun Peaks, Telemark

Top of Sunburst Lift

Wednesday 24 Jan 2018. Skied 6 runs, 2:30 hours, 2,800 descent, max speed 42.2kph, recovery 30 hours. Very cloudy on Tod Mountain so not too many skiers went on Sunburst lift. We were at the lift line in time to see first people on the lift at 8:30. About 5 cm of fresh powder snow on top of grooming. Delightful. I’m getting my ski legs back. First, we skied twice down Sundowner with fresh tracks. Then, once down Homesteader which is a delightful cruise. Our confidence was so high, we tackled Sundance next but I did not do so well in its chopped up conditions – a fall in the moguls on the first fall line, which I have seldom liked. Back to Homesteader for a couple of cruising runs to recover our wah. Back home for an outside hot tub.

 

 

 

Top of Elevation chair
from top of Sunburst

Thursday 25 Jan 2018. Skied 7 runs, 2:45 hours, 3,475 descent, about 18km distance, 44.1kph, recovery 19 hours. Sunny day. We began with twice Granny Greenes which had 5cm of new snow on the grooming. Then Homesteader, Sundowner (which was getting a bit choppy but was still a good run), another Homesteader (which is excellent cruising), then twice down 5 mile which is delightful cruising with untouched grooming most of the way down on skiers left.

Friday 26 Jan 2018. Our longest day yet – 8 runs. Two down Granny Greenes (where we had first tracks through 3cm on new snow on top of beautiful grooming), one Homesteader, five times down Cahilty/5 Mile. A great day. We got up a bit early and were the 4th chair to load. 3:07 hours, 22.5km, 4,310m descent, max speed 46.2 kph, recovery 34 hours.1,187 kcals. The first 3 runs down the 5 mile, my heart rate did not get above the normal rate for just ‘standing up’. Able to point the skis much further downhill and not working so hard in the turns. First runs down Granny Greenes were the pick of the day, though the first three down Cahilty/5 mile were pretty awesome.

 

Cahilty Hotel
from top of ski stairs
Our room circled

Saturday 27 Jan 2018. A day off. It snowed all morning, sometimes quite heavily. Visibility about 200m. It snowed steadily all day. By 3.30pm we had 28cm. We can sit and look out at skiers at the bottom of the runs and along the lower arm of Gentle Giant. A good day for us to take off. It is very tiring to ski in such soft, deep snow.

Sunday 28 Jan 2018. Another day off for me. When we got up at 7am, it was snowing again. My right knee will not stand up to new snow. Helen went out for four runs – two Granny Greenes and two 5 Miles.

 

 

Winch groomer on Exhibition

Monday 29 Jan 2018. Cloudy day and the ‘f-word’ on the mountain. The f-word is of course ‘fog’. We joined the lift early and were on the 5th chair. Very keen to be first of the new grooming. Granny Greenes here we come. But . . ., 3cm on new wet snow had fallen on the grooming and the visibility was just a few metres. Not a good run. Ok, let us try Homesteader. The grooming was excellent, but the visibility getting worse on each run. I gave it away after a second run down Homesteader. Helen did another before also abandoning. The mountain was socked in all day. The first time that we have seen that happen.

 

 

Sun Peaks Elementary School
Top of Platter

Tuesday 30 Jan 2018. Cloudy at the top of Sunburst – so we did not go there. Seven runs down Homesteader. Very enjoyable. 2:30 hours, 39.72km (including 14km of lift rides), 3,270m descent, 44.8kph, recovery will be 28 hours. Top to top was taking us just 21 minutes including the 7min lift ride. A few years ago, I would have been very scornful of just skiing down Homesteader, now, I enjoy it. The last couple of runs, my heart rate stayed at the standing/gentle walking level. Just letting the skis do the work and cruising down. Wonderful.

Shield Shrimp

When it rains across Australia’s vast inland region, temporary pools crop up all over the arid ground, giving life to a strange desert crustacean known as the shield shrimp (Triops australiensis).

Named after the formidable carapace that shields its head and upper body, T. australiensis can grow up to 7.6 cm long, and it uses its long, segmented tail and mass of 60 or so legs to propel itself through shallow water.

It also breathes through these legs – its sub-class Branchiopoda means ‘gill-legged’ – and in the females these legs bear ovisacs for carrying their tiny eggs.

Several pix in the Photo Gallery and a movie.

Acacia peuce

A rare and endangered plant. The tree grows up to 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 ft) high, with short horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets covered in needle-like phyllodes adapted for the arid dry climate. It has a distinctive habit more similar to a sheoak or a conifer.

Although speculated to have been widespread across central Australia during wetter climates 400,000 years ago, the population is now mostly restricted to three sites, separated by the encroaching Simpson Desert. In the Northern Territory, the species is restricted to the Mac Clark (Acacia peuce) Conservation Reserve which is surrounded by a pastoral lease, Andado Station. The other two sites are near Boulia and Birdsville in Queensland. The tree is found in open arid plains that usually receive less than 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rain per annum. They grow on shallow sand aprons overlaying gibber or clay slopes and plains and between longitudinal dunes or on alluvial flats between ephemeral watercourses.

 

Owen Springs Reserve on Hugh River

Owen Springs was a station on the Hugh River. The Hugh River flows into the Finke (when it actually flows). Both cut through the Western MacDonnell Ranges. The image above shows Owen Springs Reserve as a dot at lower right. The river it is next to is the Hugh. Hermannsburg, our next town, is near middle left edge. Hermannsburg is almost on the Finke River. You can see both Hugh and Finke Rivers cutting through sections of MacDonnell Ranges.

Palm Valley

Palm Valley is within the Finke Gorge National Park southwest of Alice Springs. Palm Valley has a smallish population of Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae). The nearest related species is 850 kilometres away in Katherine NT. The average rainfall for Palm Valley is just 200 mm per year. Small pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools allow the unique flora and fauna (desert fish, shield shrimps tadpoles and frogs) to survive.

It had been assumed that the cabbage palms were remnants of a prehistoric time when the climate supported tropical rainforest in what is now the arid inland of Australia. Genetic analysis published in 2012 determined that Livistona mariae at Palm Valley is actually the same species as Livistona rigida from samples collected near Katherine and Mount Isa, both around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. It is now thought that aboriginal people brought the palms to here from Mataranka.

Mound Springs

Mound Springs occur around the Western edge of the Great Artesian Basin and represent a natural discharge of Artesian water that was captured many hundreds of kilometers away from rain falling along the Great Dividing Range and New Guinea. This article provides details. Dalhousie is an excellent example of a mound spring.

Great Artesian Basin map Great Artesian Basin diagram