Summer Riding Holiday part 3 - Thredbo

The beautiful NSW high country

So 2013 dawned with sunny blue skies and forecast warm weather, today was a rest and travel day. With the rest of the group heading back to Melbourne, we started our drive towards the NSW high country through Tallangatta and Khancoban then along the Alpine way to climb up to the cooler, but still warm and sunny, weather of Thredbo. We made camp a few kilometres down the Alpine way towards to Jindabyne, on the banks of the picturesque Thredbo River. Unfortunately the high volume of human traffic in this part of the high country means the river water isn’t safe to drink without boiling – but it did provide a pleasant place to escape the heat and wash off the dust.

We had discovered that one of the Newy Cogheads was staying at Thredbo with his family so we arranged for a tour of the local singletrack the next morning, before retiring to bed for a deliciously cool alpine night.

visitors at camp

Thredbo is yet another ski resort, with a decent history of DH riding, which is currently trying to develop a cross-country network of trails to attract more summer time visitors. They currently have a small network of trails based around the village and lower slops and a trail is being developed that will head down the river valley and eventually will link into the Crackenback resort trails about 25km downstream.

Unfortunately, we got the feeling that Thredbo isn’t quite there yet in terms of riding. The first inkling we got was at the information desk when we were trying to discuss the trail network with the girl behind the counter. Thredbo have built a downhill flow trail, similar to the one at Mt Buller and we were keen make the long uphill grind up from the valley floor to the top lift station to test out this flowing downhill run. The conversation went something like this”

Me: do we need full-face helmets for the Flow trail?

Girl: No they aren’t required.

Me: what’s the route to the top?

Girl: you get the lift, you will need to do the $99 induction and if you don’t have full-face helmets and bikes you can hire them. It’s $299 for the day to hire everything and do the induction.

Me: Can’t we just ride to the top along this route on the trail map?

Girl: Oh no, that’s advanced! You need a guide who will assess your skills and do the lift induction.

Me: we don’t want to use the lifts, we are XC riders and have XC bikes.

Girl: Then you need to ride the XC trails in the valley, you can only ride to the top with a guide and full-face helmets.

Me: Ok so how do we get to the start of this advanced XC trail (which appeared to start from half way up the slope)

Girl: you need to walk up the Flow trail!

Colourful, but lacks trail direction and sends you up the Flow trail!

Hmmmm… now at Mt Buller as an XC rider, you could get on the DH tracks easily as they accessible from the top of the road, but there’s adequate signage and information and a general vibe that it’s up to you to take some responsibility for your own skills and riding experience both on XC and DH trails. Now at Thredbo, we started to get the feeling that we were being treated like complete idiots.

Having decided the Flow trail was out of the picture (why build a Flow trail if it’s only open to DH anyway???) we grabbed another XC trail map and tried to work out a route. Compared to Mt Buller, Thredbo trail maps suck! First of all, it’s a crappy A4 sheet of paper, which won’t last a day’s riding. Secondly, there no directions marked on any trails despite some of them being impossible in reverse unless you are an accomplished trials rider. Feeling distinctly grumpy we headed off to meet up with Ian for a lap of the valley trails.

Walking tracks make fun singletrack

We started the loop by rolling down the Valley trail – the one that will eventually head 25km down the valley to Crackenback. At the moment only 3.5km of the trail has been completed, and it’s a shared use trail of fairly smooth surface and gentle corners. It’s fun ridden at speed and Tim and I were soon covered in dust from Ian ripping it into the corners ahead of us. Soon we hit the extent of trail work and turned around for the gently climbing ride back towards town, but just before reaching the village we turned a hard right into the Bridle Loop which offers a few switch backs and rocks to keep the climbing interesting. At this stage we were starting to feel that there was a bit less oxygen available at 1500m than we were used to.

The Bridle loop pop you out onto what appears to be a beginner baby ski slope and a trail switches up that through the summer grass before you’re out onto firetrail. A bit more climbing and we ducked into some more single track, I think this may have been walking track but it was great fun with loads of steps and rocks which required quick on-the-go line choices and behind the saddle action. Then you pop out again onto firetrail at the top of the summer luge track, wave to the kiddies and it’s onwards and up again on some more firetrail.

Sections of rocks, steps and roots :-)

Then comes the Thredbo brilliance, you cross the DH track and suddenly you are riding UP the flow trail. Yup, you can only ride down it with a full-face helmet and induction but you can ride up it just by correctly following the XC trail map. Of course we stayed off the side of the trail where we could, but the trail provides a few narrow points where this is impossible and it’s also hard to see people coming. A confused DH rider stopped and told us we were on a DH trail, I don’t blame him for being confused – it’s a bloody stupid idea.

After a few hundred metres of hard uphill along side the flow trail we ducked into the most advanced XC trail on the map – Meadows Trail. This actually isn’t an XC trail but a walking track that they allow bikes on. This means that while you are negotiating the steps, rocks and roll downs you need also be away of summer walkers including children who may be on the trail. Following Ian’s big 29er wheels this track tested the best of my read-and-ride line choice and behind the saddle abilities. Linked up sections of steps and rocks were all ride-able and even roll-able but baulk and unclip and you were walking for a while.

That fun ended all too soon and we were out onto the trail around the golf course. This would be a fun descent except that so close to the town, the shared trail gets a high volume of walkers so that you are constantly stopping and starting. After less than an hour of riding we were back in town having covered 95% of the Thredbo single track, fun but definitely nothing like what we’d come to expect after our Alpine riding in Victoria.

Firetrail to Cascades Hut

That afternoon we headed up to Deadhorse Gap to ride one of the firetrails accessible to bikes in the National Park. The ride out to Cascades Hut is very pretty although it is 100% firetrail with no singletrack. Unfortunately it’s hard to appreciate the beauty while being attacked by March flies, perhaps we should have picked a windier day as the still heat was definitely sending the flies crazy.

Alpine scenery on Cascades Trail

Over the next days in Thredbo we explored the Crackenback cross country trails, a fun and flowing loop of just over half an hour with a decent skills park. All this in a little self-contained resort complete with Segway tours… odd! And headed back to the Thredbo trails to play on the more technical trails with their rocks, roots and steps. We knew that good riding was to be had in Jindabyne and at the Bundarra trails but the weather was hot even up at Thredbo and the idea of heading down to Jindy where it was 5-10 degrees hotter was not inviting, we put those trails on the “next-time” list.

The final day of riding in Thredbo became a road ride day. We decided that Charlottes Pass was worthy of an ascent and leaving our camp at 8am we headed down the road towards Jindabyne. Despite the forecast for a hot day, the alpine nights are cold leaving before the sun came up would have required vests and warmers.

While the ride to Jindy is primarily a descent, it does have two decent climbs as you head up and out of the Thredbo River valley into an adjacent valley before continuing down towards Lake Jindabyne. It must be a hugely popular area for training camps because we passed literally hundreds of roadies coming the other way, complete with support vehicles. Once down at Jindy we met up with Ian and headed along the road towards Charlottes Pass which follows the lake edge for a little way before crossing back over the Thredbo river and then commencing the climb. From the base there’s a fairly constant climb of around 5% for about 13km. From around 900m elevation at the base you reach 1600m at the 13km point before the undulations begin, you promptly descend 100m in elevation and the climb another 150m to gap … a pattern that repeats itself several times and sees you pass through winter ski towns like Perisher and Smiggins Holes. These towns are eerily ghost-like in summer with deserted buildings, signs creaking the wind and not a soul in sight except a few confused tourists wondering where everyone is.

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The total distance from the base of the climb to Charlottes Pass is about 32km with the road ending in a locked gate at about 1840m in elevation. For the last 5-10km of the climb the road weaves through beautiful alpine grassland with mountain streams running over glacial boulders, a truly beautiful to ride! Topping out at Charlottes Pass we were met by Ian’s wife and kids in their car, on his 29er Ian elected to save his off-road tyres by skipping the descent so it was just Tim and myself on the roadies heading back down to Jindabyne.

Topping out at Charlotte's Pass

The undulations meant that there were still several decent uphills to content with on the ride back and these were made worse by the return of my friends the March flies… nothing like uphill motivation than trying to outride something bitey!

Soon though we were on the 13km descent back to the base of the climb and the temperature was steadily climbing. The Thredbo river looked so inviting as we crossed at the bottom and then a hot north-westerly wind hit us as we slogged up the hill back out of the river valley. Luckily this proved to be mostly a tail wind back into Jindabyne – a welcome help seeing as we had by now covered 100km and 2000m of climbing, it was also well over 30 degrees.

We had picked up my Dad the afternoon before from his 6-day solo hike in the high country and he met us in Jindabyne with the car for some cold milkshakes and lunch by the lake. Then it was back to camp for a swim in the river and the final night at camp. Of course while I drove back to camp Tim decided to ride and, not only that, but went up to Dead Horse Gap before heading back into camp – why not on a 33 degree day!

Collecting Dad from the top of the chairlift post hike

Finally the holiday was over and it was time to head home, we drove to Canberra for our first hot shower in two weeks and to drop Dad off with relatives so he could catch a train back to Melbourne. Canberra greeted us with 39-degree heat so we decided to give the Canberra singletrack a miss this time and headed out for a dinner of steak instead. Then after a fitful nights sleep in oppressive heat it was onto Sydney the next morning for brunch with friends then eventually home to Newcastle and the reality of unpacking and starting the many, many loads of washing generated by two weeks of riding…