Road closures due to snow

Head on up to Mt Selwyn. It will be a great day for it.

It really doesn’t take much longer (2.5-3 hours), and you are guaranteed of quality snow because it’s been dumping up there. Really, you’ll spend a whole arvo looking for something up Brindys but it will be all mud and slush.

You have plenty to play in right there next to the Selwyn carpark – it slopes down away from the carpark, making a toboggan the go, and you can use it away from the ski run without resort staff getting cranky at you. At various times up there I’ve had a roo bounce through the snow next to us, and 4 lyrebirds in 200m one drive.

There’s a gorgeous backroad through Namadgi via Tharwa, and along the headwaters of the Murrumbidgee River to Adaminaby, but it will take a lot longer than just driving down and turning right a little after Bredbo.

You can hire proper snow clothes (especially boots) either there at the ski fields or one of the little towns along the way. I like the little old blue shop next to the highway in Bredbo – cheap and great service. Or you can get snow boots for about $60 a pair at Rays Outdoor at DFO I noticed. (Or if you were really quick you got them for $20 from Aldi a few weeks ago.)

Really boots and gloves are critical to your kids enjoying it. Ordinary clothes will get wet and frozen and the kids will be all tears instead of smiles. If you don’t have a 4WD or AWD, you’ll have to pick up chains at Adaminaby.

Enjoy!

Okay so we didn’t make it out there today BUT we do have big intentions to go for a decent drive tomorrow … any suggestions for a good vantage spot (or better still, something at ground level) to see some snow? Or do you think it’s all gone now?

Does anyone know of any good spots close by (but willing to travel if necessary) where I could take my kids to see some snow, either close at hand (better still) or from a distance? We can’t get out anywhere til late morning but thought it might still be worth it. We have an AWD vehicle if that makes any difference.

I just checked the Roads ACT website and can’t find any details of the above mentioned roads still being closed ……. anyone know?

TIA.

ant said :

kathysav said :

Americans have it all over us for snow driving. Their Interstates often get very snowy, and the yanks just take it in their stride.

Should I really take these guy’s as an example ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM2gLjfE_3Y
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npTRXr4Sgxg

It does kinda show the danger though .. 🙂

Just remember the old saying – “Never eat yellow snow”

Nice to read here that quite a few people have worked out snow driving, and yes, you guys are spot-on. I have a light 4WD which I have managed to get all kinds of places in snow, even drove it from Guthega to Blue Cow once… along the ski runs at Guthega! But that’s another story (i was annoyed that they’d closed Guthega so early).

The best drive was a Tuesday night the year after Perisher bought Blue Cow/Guthega (96, I think it was), and stopped ploughing the road. It wsa snowing heavily all the way up from Jindy, but when I made it to the Guthega turnoff, there was the plough, parked, with its yellow light going. Great, I thought, it’s ploughed the road, Thank God.

But where was the road? With amazement, I realised the foot-high shelf was where the road was. It hadn’t ploughed the road. Why was it there?

So my car jumped up onto the shelf, and off we went. I was sure i’d spend the night out there. Even at the low point of the road, the normal white roadside posts were almost covered, the little reflectors at the top were just visible. On the higher points of the road, the usual tall orange posts were there. So we struggled on, I was convinced that at any time I’d get bogged and stuck. But onward we went, in the thick blizzard.

Eventually, we were at the carpark. With joy i drove into the mess… and we fell nose-first into a hole left by some large vehicle which must have left some hours earlier. So in the blizzard I had to put on chains, for the first and last time ever (I always carry them, however).

That was the year I really learned to drive in snow.

mother of many said :

PLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ pleeeeeeeeeez pleeeez can somebody post pix of the snow on the mountains (wait, make that pix of snow anywhere in Canberra fresh-fallen last night)- I am stuck inside with sick kids and looove seeing the snow on the hills (yeh, I know: small things amuse small minds…)

Thankyou! (I hope)

Canberra has lots of funky goodness (aka small things) that many are just mentally unable to see let alone enjoy.

Went over that road (brindies) to stock up on meat from Fullers butchery in Tumut (shameless plug) over the weekend, it’s a beautiful drive. It would be possible to do it in snow in a 2wd provided you aren’t an idiot, which excludes a significant number of Canberrans. And back by Wee Jasper, which was a bit dull because they’ve graded it recently.

Just go slower than you think you need to, gently does it and you can easily get through. Maintain a steady speed with the lowest revs and you’ll be fine.

There’s a couple of local clubs, ACT 4wd’ers and Southern Tablelands 4wd’ers, they both do courses. Just google them.

I once drove the V8 from Adaminaby to Cooma in 4-6 inches of snow the whole way. Hold it in second gear, 40km/h, very gentle inputs, and had no problems at all.

The biggest problem is people not understanding that:
1) The speed limit is irrelevant under such conditions, you need to drive slowly and smoothly; and
2) sharp control input = loss of control (throttle, steering and brakes).

ant said :

and yet that lodge, and other huts, were built decades ago, when there was far heavier snows, and yet somehow, they got to them.

snow shoes?

Didn’t have H&S to worry themselves sick over us enjoying ourselves in those days?

and yet that lodge, and other huts, were built decades ago, when there was far heavier snows, and yet somehow, they got to them.

Corin Road closed to all traffic at Wood Reserve. (No access to Corin Ski Lodge)

Snow cuts off the ski lodge….

Anyone note the irony?

ant said :

kathysav said :

Where can you learn to drive in snow? Is there a course you can take?

You just go find some snow, be careful, and feel the road, get a feel for what you can and can’t do. I learned the hard way, driving to/from Guthega (and Thredbo sometimes) and they hadn’t ploughed the road. People in 4WDs who think they can flog along on ice annoy me, because it doesn’t matter WHAT you’re driving: on ice, you are in trouble (unless you have studded tyres which are hard/impossible to find here). Ice can often lurk under the snowy surface too. And on bridges!

Americans have it all over us for snow driving. Their Interstates often get very snowy, and the yanks just take it in their stride.

it has always amused me to see someone who has never driven on ice / snow go sliding past me with a look of abject fear as they desperately try everything to stop. swinging the steering wheel, jamming on the anchors, hehehe. all amusing attempts, but not going to help… want to learn to drive on snow and ice? go to a car park in the snowys out of season, after they have had either early or late snow, and drive to the conditions.

kathysav said :

Where can you learn to drive in snow? Is there a course you can take?

You just go find some snow, be careful, and feel the road, get a feel for what you can and can’t do. I learned the hard way, driving to/from Guthega (and Thredbo sometimes) and they hadn’t ploughed the road. People in 4WDs who think they can flog along on ice annoy me, because it doesn’t matter WHAT you’re driving: on ice, you are in trouble (unless you have studded tyres which are hard/impossible to find here). Ice can often lurk under the snowy surface too. And on bridges!

Americans have it all over us for snow driving. Their Interstates often get very snowy, and the yanks just take it in their stride.

kathysav said :

Where can you learn to drive in snow? Is there a course you can take?

I organised a 4WD course through a TAFE 7 years back for all us local Landcare coordinators – highly recommended. Learn things you’d never know, like starting in gear, self-rescue. And yes it snowed during the practical session that had a slipping and sliding down some woeful mountain trails. Hats off to the guys running the course who put up their own 4WDs for us all to use…

(Thumper: where do the SES folk go for their tickets?)

And my old Forester has been into (and through) some very hairy places.

Ceej1973 wrote:

Ceej1973 said :

Took my newly purchased Subaru (dual range)up to brindies a decade ago

Just the sort of car I was thinking of getting myself! Else you can’t get around the other half of ACT (i.e. the ranges)

kathysav wrote:

kathysav said :

Where can you learn to drive in snow? Is there a course you can take?

Course?? Yes, Corin Rd would be a good start. You start by learning to cope with your back wheels having a mind of its own.

Where can you learn to drive in snow? Is there a course you can take?

Took my newly purchased Subaru (dual range)up to brindies a decade ago for some picks in the freshly fallen snow. Driving along Mt Franklin Rd at sensible speed, when this clown in a 2wd Sigma, comes flogging it around a moderate bend in track, 1 foot deep in slush. I pull over to far left, steep drop just a foot away, and the clown in the 2wd sticks foot on brakes, slides in slush for a good 50m and takes out the side of my car. Luckily another driver (4wd) and the Ranger happened to see his driving habits, and acted as witnessess for his part in the repair bills. Point being, if you cant drive to the conditions, no matter how confident you are in rally driving, dont go there. You just spoil a perfectly wonderful day and vehicle (or two), and end up annoying beaurocrats who decide to close roads so the sensible ones amongst us can’t enjoy.

what would happen if it was snow on the ground here in canberra? many of the local yahoos would be permanently carless. or possibly, lifeless. snow driving is like nothing else. when at the snow, the sickening feeling that the long slide ends in a pole is enough for me to drive at 10kph. idiot drivers who have never been on snow think they can do 60. I watch them slide past.

I’m with ant on this one. Having driven during heavy snows in the US, in a two wheel drive car with no snow chains (They’re banned in many places, as they screw the road up), it amazes me what closes a road here. I once did a trip from Black Springs to Goulburn through snow that 4WD’s were turning back from (again, I was in a small 2WD car) and I had no issues at all.

Having said that, I’ve seen what inexperienced or stupid drivers can do when they hit snow/ice… I don’t want to be around them when that happens.

If people knew how to drive in snow (ie, carefully) they woudln’t have to close roads for a few flakes.

Many years ago, I left Guthega Carpark early evening in the midweek, to head home. The road was pretty deep in snow, even at the lowest point. But where the road joins the Perisher Road, they’d stuck a black and yellow fence up with a flashing light, saying “road closed”! Bloody hell.

So I sat there and debated turning back, and ringing work to say, truthfully, that the road was closed and I was stuck. But in the end I got the fence out of the way, drove onto Perisher Rd, and put the fence back. I hope I gained some good karma for that.

PLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ pleeeeeeeeeez pleeeez can somebody post pix of the snow on the mountains (wait, make that pix of snow anywhere in Canberra fresh-fallen last night)- I am stuck inside with sick kids and looove seeing the snow on the hills (yeh, I know: small things amuse small minds…)

Thankyou! (I hope)

If you got through to Bombala the snow can’t be that good. In the past, whenever my mother drove down to Nimmitabel to pick my brother & I from our Grandfathers in Nimmitabel. It would ALWAYS snow & quite a few times the highway was shut at Cooma. We would always meet our mother at the home of a friends of the family in Cooma. So our Grandfather would drive from Nimmitabel to Cooma & be unaware of the road closure until he saw the Police blocking traffic on the Cooma border. He would then have to spend the night at the family friends place.

But once when a blizzard came up from Antarctica, snow stayed on the sides of the Monaro Highway for a month or two. So hopefully some of it is still there, so I can get down there on the weekend.

There’s quite deep snow on the Brown Mountain road, too, although it’s probably cleared/melted by now. Bombala/Nimmitabel got quite a good fall, and Cooma was all white this morning. Up around Oberon they got good falls, too.