Backcountry Snowboarders

Backcountry Snowboarders
Rams Head Range, Snowy Mountains, NSW, Australia

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This is our very small backcountry snowboarding community, David, Tim and myself. As it is early in our snow season, I could only get together three of us for this panoramic photo. Usually there are a few more people that join us for backcountry snowboarding missions, missing are Pete, Sebastian, and Steve.

We hiked out from the top of the Thredbo ski resort main chairlift, for approximately 2.5 kilometers West from the top of the chairlift; it took about 1 hour walking in snowshoes.

We had planned to drop West from this point into Leather Barrel Creek, which provides some of the steeper slopes for riding in this area of the NSW Main Range, and which would have provided much more interesting scenery for this panoramic photo. Unfortunately, the snow conditions on this day were not favorable for snowboarding, with a thick buildup of ice on the surface of the snow.

This location is on the Rams Head Range in Kosciuszko National Park, part of the Australian Snowy Mountains Main Range, with views to the West across the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) and into the alpine region of the neighboring state of Victoria.

This relatively small area of the Australian Main Range contains the 10 highest mountains in Australia. To the North of this point, across the frozen Lake Cootapatamba down in the valley, the highest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko (2228 metres), can be seen, along with other high Australian peaks such as Mount Townsend (2209 metres), and to the South, the nearby Rams Head (2190 metres).

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Australia - New Zealand / Australia

Lat: 37° 30' 12.49" S
Long: 148° 15' 43.42" E

Elevation: 2080

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

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HARDWARE

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• Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL (EOS Digital Rebel XT) Camera

• Canon BG-E3 Battery Grip

• Canon RS-60E3 Remote Switch

• Canon EF-S 10-22 mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Zoom Lens

• Canon EW-83E Lens Hood

• Peace River Studios 3Sixty Panoramic Camera Mount

• Manfrotto 338 Levelling Base

• Acratech Universal Cork Top Quick Release Camera Plate

• Acratech Ultimate Ballhead Tripod Head

• Gitzo G1227MK2 Mountaineer Carbon Fiber Tripod

• Gitzo G1586B3 Location Shoes (Tripod Snow Shoes)

• Inca Hotshoe-mount Dual Spirit Level

• SanDisk Extreme III 1GB CompactFlash Memory Card

• NextoDI Nexto-CF ND-2500 60GB Portable Storage Device

• Garmin eTrex Vista C GPS Receiver

• Burton Snowboards F-Stop Camera Backpack

• Burton Snowboards BaronES 164 Snowboard

• Tubbs Pinnacle 25 Snowshoes

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SOFTWARE

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• Adobe Photoshop CS2 (RAW Image Conversion, Image Editing and Adjustments)

• New House Internet Services B.V. PTGui (Panorama Stitching)

• Helmut Dersch's Panotools (Panorama Stitching)

• New House Internet Services B.V. PTGui (Panorama Blending)

• Andrew Mihal's Enblend (Panorama Blending)

• Thomas Rauscher's Pano2QTVR (Blended Panorama Image to QTVR Movie Conversion)

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EXPOSURE

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• Panorama Type: Spherical

• Number of Images: 32 (3 rows x 8 images, 1 x zenith image, 3 x nadir images, 4 x additional images)

• Focal Length: 10mm (16mm at 35mm film equivalent)

• Aperture: f/8

• Shutter Speed: 1/1000 second

• Sensor Sensitivity: ISO 100

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