Snow Trip - Mt Skene - Report and Pics - P.11

[jonfromhamilton]

also

for those of us who are staying in Jamieson caravan park.

what times are you expecting you will arrive there on the Thursday afternoon/night ?

[Brad.Jones]

About midnight.

[mika]

Steve, what time you wanna meet in Jamieson on Friday morning? I'll be driving up in the morning like last year.

I'll be bringing some firewood from home.

[jonfromhamilton]

I reckon I will be there about 2-4pm with a sack of bunnings firewood and maybe my coffee table, reincarnated in another form. NOOTT!

[jono165]

Im looking at heading up on thursday probably just after lunch time or so i guess ill get to Jamieson sometime after 4ish. I have a few things to pick up in the morning from work.

[gwagensteve]

I think 9.30 sounds like a sensible time to leave town Friday am.

Steve.

[porter.8.luke]

I'll be driving up early Friday morning, should get there about 0830-0900.
Are we planing to meet at the caravan park?

[porter.8.luke]

Also i have plenty of wood at hand and space to carry it.
The more the merrier?

[sierrajim]

Saturday trip - leaving from the general store in Jameson at 9:30 Saturday.

Jonno, my number is 0419 107 899 should you need it. We're staying at the caravan park on Friday night. The other two cars are a white GQ patrol and a Silver Jackaroo.

[gwagensteve]

Friday Climbers - please read the following:

Whilst the weather looks very promising for plenty of fresh snow on Friday morning, we are going to have some very strong winds on Thursday.

Does anyone have access (and room!) for a chainsaw? I don't expect the road will have had any traffic this week and fallen timber that's too big to drive over would make a big dent on our day. I don't have a saw.

Jon - don't rule out bringing some fast-burning firewood. We have had problems in the past due to a lack of smaller/fast burning firewood - if everyone brings redgum we're in trouble.

Luke - the more firewood the merrier. A small fire is depressing in the snow

We will be leaving from the main street at 9.30. I know that there isn't really a big time constraint on us on Friday- we're not trying to beat anyone onto the mountain, but it's too easy for time to get away from us and the next thing you know it's 10.45 and everyone is ordering another coffee.

It's nice to be able to set up camp before Lunch and then go for a play before happy hour with empty cars. (and potentially do an extra firewood run)

Please bring a shovel, any tarps you have and plenty of rope. We may want to assemble a decent wind break.

I'm going to pop some snow driving tips in here. It's a conversation we often forget to have before we're all stuck and I might as well put it up here rather than stand around in Jamieson talking about it.

Driving in snow is sort of like driving in mud... but sort of like sand at the same time. It's also amazingly variable - sometimes within metres.

Basically, it's all about smooth control. I've kind of described it like driving on eggshells - if you're aggressive, you'll normally get stuck. if you spin the wheels once the car has stopped - you will get stuck instantly. It's very hard to reverse out of a "stuck" if the wheels are spun once the car has stopped.

The key is really to build up some momentum but then be very careful with the throttle. It's possible to carry quite a lot of speed and drive about pretty easily, but you'd be very surprised how quickly a bounce into an old snowed over icy rut will kill the momentum and you'll be stuck almost instantly. Likewise, if the snow softens and you pile on the throttle you'll go down like a sack of poo. In that way, it's sort of like deep mud.

Another trick is to roll back and forth and build up a "runway" this packs the snow down and gives you a firm base to work on. The trick is to stop when you feel the front end come up against the fresh snow, roll back and repeat. Dipping the clutch once you get moving and you'll feel the car roll back once its come up against the fresh snow.

Depending on the snow conditions, sometimes wheelspin won't work at all, even if you're already carrying momentum.

A couple of truths -

Rubber doesn't grip snow. Only snow grips snow, which is why road tyres (with sipes in the tread) work very well in snow. I like to use agressive tyres in snow, but they don't always work better, however, bigger tyres always help due to floatation.

You will get stuck. 100% guaranteed. Probably lots and lots of times. Don't get too far ahead of the car behind you - backing up (or turning around) can be VERY difficult.

Let your tyres down. I have plenty of air, as do some other cars on the trip. Lower tyre pressure makes a massive difference.

Hope this helps.

My number is 0407 049 763

Steve.