Course Description
The "Snowball in Spring" course is in a rarely visited corner of Deua National Park, around 130km SE of Canberra past Captain's flat, and encompasses the headwaters of the Shoalhaven River. The difficulty of the terrain varies greatly over the course, with wide open grassy flat valleys and some areas of open forest. However, the course also contains a number of steep rocky hillsides dominated by fallen timber, and there are even areas of dense rainforest and inpenetrable heath. The course setters will do their best to help competitors avoid the nasty stuff! The altitude is between 800 and 1100m and the map will be a single pre-marked A3 sheet taken from the NSW Department of Lands' 1:25000 topomap series. There will be free camping at the HH site on Friday and Saturday night.
Full Results of the "Snowball in Spring" 6/12hr Rogaine Rogaine held on 4/11/2006 at Deua NP 12hr event results Overall Category/Age Place MO MV MS XO XV XS WO WV WS J F Score Time In Team Names 1 1 - - - - - - - - - - 1820 1136 24 Warwick Dougherty, Phil Whitten, Scott Hamilton 2 2 - - - - - - - - - - 1780 1204 21 Patrick Mickan, Martin Lefmann 3 3 - - - - - - - - - - 1580 1142 12 Keith Conley, Adam Hunter 4 - - - 1 - - - - - - - 1440 1152 7 Grace Cantillon, Duncan Palmer, Matt Webster 5 4 1 - - - - - - - - - 1310 1144 26 Don McLean, Michael Challen 6 - - - 2 - - - - - - - 1280 1151 42 Jonathan Miller, Melisah Feeney 7 - - - - - - 1 - - - - 1240 1142 4 Claire Davey, Danielle Winslow 8 5 2 - - - - - - - - - 1210 1019 18 Peter Cox, Chris Cowie 9 - - - 3 1 - - - - - - 1180 1203 20 Michael Harrap, Margaret Harrap 10 - - - - - - 2 - - - - 1170 1153 5 Benita Sommerville, Tracey Crooks 11 - - - 4 - - - - - - - 1160 1152 70 Belinda Bright, Vincent Carolan 12 - - - 5 2 - - - - - - 1150 1131 15 Wendy Stevenson, Malcolm Bradley 13 - - - 6 - - - - - - - 1150 1157 73 Christine Henry, Greg Jolley, Kieran Carney 14 6 - - - - - - - - - - 1120 1128 60 Jaakko Jarvinen, Tiago Pereira 15 - - - 7 3 - - - - - - 1100 1221 19 Jean Douglass, Ron Simpson 16 - - - 8 - - - - - - - 1050 1151 1 Philip Keaton, Debbie Saunders 17 7 - - - - - - - - - - 980 1119 23 Craig Bugden, Dan Clark 18 - - - 9 4 - - - - - - 970 1146 54 Brett Davis, Karen Davis, Kynie Evison, Sandra Kelley 19 - - - 10 - - - - - - - 940 1131 29 Steven Hanley, Lina Eriksson 20 8 - - - - - - - - - - 930 1216 11 Rick Whyte, Mick Adams 21 - - - 11 - - - - - 1 - 910 929 68 Snowy Haiblen, Michael Pfeifer, Hannah Cliff 22 9 3 - - - - - - - - - 910 1107 27 Greg Dunstone, Gary Caitcheon 23 - - - 12 - - - - - - - 910 1154 34 Anna Kricker, David Kricker 24 - - - 13 - - - - - - - 850 744 33 Chris Hatherly, Natalie Chan 25 - - - - - - 3 - - - - 810 1142 32 Jasmine Elson, Christy Sutherland, Carli Semmens 26 10 - - - - - - - - - - 690 1136 45 Nicholas Bye, Tim Mayfield 27 - - - 14 - - - - - - - 690 1202 56 Angela Brungs, Simon Hudson 28 - - - 15 - - - - - - - 660 838 53 Murray Russell, Brad Page, Shane Russell, Karolina Jones 29 - - - 16 5 - - - - - - 640 918 61 Ian Almond, Rod Doyle, Bronwyn Wilson 30 - - - - - - 4 - - - - 580 1050 43 Sharon Losik, Niccy Aitken, Martha Rees, Katie Miller 31 - - - 17 - - - - - - - 550 1156 8 Ineke Kuiper, Byron Biffin, Jason Hawker, Matthew Hawker 32 11 4 - - - - - - - - - 530 555 10 Rod Tracey, Rob Kimbrey 33 12 - - - - - - - - - 1 370 1031 64 Doug Collier, David Collier, Peter Collier 34 13 5 1 - - - - - - - - 350 743 51 David Clark, Trevor Lawrence Late 1415 31 Matt Ryan, Kate Wingrove 6hr event results Overall Category/Age Place MO MV MS XO XV XS WO WV WS J F Score Time In Team Names 1 - - - 1 - - - - - - - 1120 557 67 Tom Landon-Smith, Alina McMaster, Karl Strode-Penny 2 - - - 2 - - - - - - - 1030 556 76 Selina Stoute, Mark Mcdonald, Adrian Keough 3 - - - - - - 1 - - - - 900 603 62 Judi Barton, Leanne Wilkinson 4 - - - 3 - - - - - - - 800 549 52 David Moore, Sarah Bishop 5 1 - - - - - - - - - - 740 558 37 Peter Smythe, Liam Whyte 6 - - - 4 - - - - - - - 720 552 49 Julie Quinn, David Baldwin 7 - - - 5 - - - - - - - 710 550 79 Matthew Hollingworth, Tracey Edmonds 8 2 - - - - - - - - - - 640 608 22 Michael Bortz, Felix Schill 9 - - - 6 - - - - - - - 630 559 13 Gavin Bliesner, Susie Williams, Fraser Nicholson-Bliesner 10 - - - 7 - - - - - - - 620 556 48 Amy Davidson, Josh Bobruk 11 - - - 8 - - - - - - - 600 550 25 Christine Butzer, Horst Punzmann 12 3 1 1 - - - - - - - - 590 559 41 Christopher Lang, Grant Battersby 13 - - - 9 - - - - - - - 580 542 44 Glenn Bridgart, Helen Mains 14 - - - - - - 2 - - - - 560 557 2 Pip Wilson, Cheryl Woods 15 - - - 10 - - - - - - - 550 558 14 Sue Ashley, Simon Skirrow 16 - - - 11 - - - - - - - 540 555 71 Alex Ramsey, Sally Ramsey 17 - - - 12 1 - - - - - - 530 544 6 Michael Sullivan, Jennifer Sullivan 18 - - - - - - 3 - - - - 460 602 59 Annabel Battersby, Simone Ward, Stephanie Goodrick 19 - - - 13 2 - - - - - - 410 537 17 John Harding, Carol Harding 20 - - - - - - 4 - - - - 400 608 39 Katie Hahn, Anna McNair 21 - - - 14 3 1 - - - - - 370 601 57 Parissa Poulis, John Sutton 22 - - - 15 - - - - - - - 350 557 38 Kerrie Hammond, Katherine Hall, Michael Baker 23 - - - 16 - - - - - - - 340 530 35 Nicole Sellin, Nigel McDonald 24 - - - 17 4 2 - - - - - 340 615 40 Ian McAuley, Helen McAuley 25 - - - 18 5 3 - - - - - 320 550 3 Jack Palmer, Jane Reynolds 26 - - - 19 - - - - - - - 320 555 16 Liam Byrne, Aidan Byrne, Emily Byrne 27 - - - - - - 5 - - - - 270 556 74 Danealle Lilley, Laura Garvican 28 - - - 20 6 - - - - - - 230 553 55 Marian Matti, Heinz Matti, Barbara Chapman, Julie Brennan 29 - - - 21 - - - - - - - 170 514 28 Terry George, Raeline George 30 - - - 22 - - - - - - - 120 536 36 Joanne Elkner, Paul Kelly 31 - - - 23 - - - - - - - 100 526 47 Simon King, Rachel Blackwood 32 - - - - - - 6 - - - - 90 543 30 Louisa Longman, Maria Levtova 33 - - - 24 - - - - - - 1 80 451 46 Matthew Searson, Penny Searson, Charlotte Searson 34 4 2 - - - - - - - - - 20 617 50 David Elsey, Andrew Gardner Late 715 66 Sally Mapp, Tamara Hartwich
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"Snowball in Spring Rogaine "Snowball in Spring" 6/12hr Rogaine, 4th Nov 2006 Scott Hamilton, posted on 6th Nov 2006 After work on Friday I picked up Belinda and Phil, then Vince. We picked up Warrwick in Mittagong and enjoyed an Italian meal at Vin Santo's. We then continued another three hours to the hash house in Deua National Park. When we awoke the campground was covered in a low cloud that soon lifted. We discovered the source of the occasional foul smell. In the dark, we'd set up the tent near a dead wombat who didn't quite make it out of his burrow. We loaded up with food ahead of the twelve hour event. Soon enough we had our maps and were applying contact and looking at route options. We bid Belinda and Vince all the best and assembled for the briefing from Adrian Sheppard. It sounded a bit horrible - thick scrub, lawyer vine, rocky slopes, fallen timber. At the stroke of 11 am the teams scattered in all directions. We tackled the steep south west corner first 32, 73, 90, 70, 71, 100, 72, and 40. 540 points in about three hours. We were happy with that. Control 57 gave us reason to stop and scratch our heads just briefly. Then 83. We had our first taste of the boggy flats of the upper Shoalhaven river on the way to 64. Then more of the same to 43, 63, and 91. The open snow grass covered valley was very scenic. In the south east we climbed up to 45 then 92. Phil had an unexpected slippery slide on the slimey rock slab in the creek from 92. I crossed my fingers as I watched him pick up more and more speed over about 30 meters. A thin branch provided enough resistance to bring him to a stop. Now heading north up the eastern edge of the course we collected 75, 66, 46 then 65. Here we adjusted our plan to drop the rest north eastern section. We thought we'd be cutting it a little fine. So it was westward to 62 and 55 where we could stock up with water again. It was a little after 7 pm. At 82 we met Vince and Belinda who were looking well. We took out our torches for 42 and the climb to 76 hung on the Snowball trig. The gully with 41 was indistinct and we almost walked past it. Now we worked the road on the western side of Middle Mountain, collecting 54, 53, and 52. Across the paddock to 51 and back to the hash house. We were a bit concerned that we finished 25 minutes early and thought about other choices we could have made at 65. We added our score which came to 1790. This put us in front, however I was confident a team would come in with a score to beat that. The catering was superb and we refueled with soup, pasta, toasted sandwiches and cake by the fire. I heard a whisper that the winners scored 1820 and we joked about what might have been. When the presentations were made we were surprised to learn that we had won. We'd miscounted. Another team, Patrick Mickan and Martin Lefmann returned 4 minutes late due to a navigational blunder with the same score. It doesn't get much closer than that. Congratulations to the organisers and course setters for an excellent course and another well run ACT event.
Trailbikes at the Spring 12hr "Snowball in Spring" 6/12hr Rogaine, 4th Nov 2006 David Singleton, posted on 6th Nov 2006 ,/br>Accessing most of the 12hr course required crossing a reasonably deep ford and travelling a 4WD track that was rutted and rocky in places and had numerous large erosion bumps. Although the Outback got around it OK, it would have been a slow and tedious 1.5hr trip to get around the three waterdrops. As an alternative, I enlisted brother Jason and his mate Ash Rutledge to do the Safety Patrols and waterdrop checks on their trailbikes during the event. From my point-of-view, this worked very well. They easily checked all waterdrops 3 times during the event and were able to get out onto the safety routes very efficiently when there were teams late at the end of both events. They would have identified the late 6hr team if they had filled in the intention board at W2 and quickly came across the late 12hr team (over an hour before they got back to the HH). I'm wondering how competitors felt about the use of trailbikes. Were they offended or distracted by these vehicles? David
Exploring Snowball "Snowball in Spring" 6/12hr Rogaine, 4th Nov 2006 Debbie Saunders, posted on 31st Jul 2007 As member of the Canberra field naturalists I love exploring natural areas and one way of doing this is by participating in rogaining events. Rogaining involves long distance bush navigation with only a map and compass, often where there are no tracks or other human constructs to use for navigation. The ACT Rogaining Association (http://www.act.rogaine.asn.au/) holds several events each year in the local region, and last spring the event was held over 12 hours in a little visited area near Snowball Mountain, including parts of Deua National Park, Tallaganda State Forest and private properties. The topography was varied ranging from flat valleys to steep mountains rising up to 1200m. The upper reaches of the Shoalhaven River and Currambene Creek criss-cross the landscape providing a variety of stunning gullies with huge tree ferns, towering eucalypts and extensive bogs. With an abundance of frogs calling in the swamps, it wasn�t too surprising to also find a few snakes lingering amongst the long grass. Both a copperhead and a red bellied black snake were way too close for my liking, but neither of them really seemed perturbed by my presence. Lyrebirds called frequently from the dense gullies, thick with ferns and vines. The dense heath for which Deua NP is well known was great to see but it certainly also made for some challenging navigation. To add further to the diverse landscape, there were also rocky ridges on most of the mountains, including at Snowball trig. After a gorgeous sunny day navigating and exploring through the area, the sun set and the clear sky provided a spectacular sight with constellations and shimmering stars galore. The tranquility of the forest in the day was even more pronounced into the early hours of the night with just the occasional owl calling and possum scrambling. However, before too long the cool crisp night air was accompanied by a thick fog which rolled in rapidly making navigation at night much more challenging, only being able to see a couple of metres ahead. The inviting forest we had known during the day had turned into another world. Step after step we became entangled in vines, tripped over and were regularly going backwards to get around impenetrable vegetation. With the darkness, fog and vegetation closing in on us it was easy to get disorientated. However by following a bearing on our compass we were able to traverse through a diversity of terrain and vegetation, exploring by torchlight. Through the fog, the shape, form and beauty of gnarled tree branches and clusters of rocky outcrops were accentuated by torchlight. We knew we were going in the right direction and the end was near when we once again heard to chorus of frog calls signaling the last creek that we needed to follow back to the start. It is great to know that there are still wild, natural areas close to Canberra where you can get off the beaten track and experience the rugged and varied Australian bush.