Another Sunny Weekend on the Snow

When I saw that there had been an overnight freeze yesterday (Saturday), I decided that despite the wind it was going to be the best snow of the week. The wind chill was -9C as I set off and my vest never came off in the strengthening wind. Luckily the air temp went up several degrees taking the real chill out of the day.

A lot of snow has disappeared since last Wednesday.

As with any overnight freeze, there was ice on the walking track and the snow was firm and fast. However, the slopes with the strongest aspect to the morning sun were already soft. This led to having both hard and soft on each run. The contrast was most noticeable with every step taken whilst climbing the ridge line to the top of Everest. I had to kick into ice with my left boot while my right boot sank into the soft snow. Furthermore, the SW wind was so strong that climbing Everest turned out to be even more difficult than expected. My first turns from Everest hardly left a scratch on the hard snow but the bottom turns were slipping on the very soft snow.

Last night the temperature remained above zero all night. The wind was light and the sunny day promised to be a lot hotter with even softer snow than yesterday. I decided to give it a go anyway, as skiing today (Sunday) would equal my personal best for most days skied in Australia in a single year. Once I had walked out the first kilometre, I stored my vest in my backpack, where it stayed until downloading on Kosi chair. The snow was soft but not too soft. The North Face was softer than at 10:00 yesterday but firmer than at 11:30 yesterday. As it turned out, the soft never got too soft or sticky or slow, during my morning's exercise. The breeze was just right and I hardly raised a sweat climbing my rebooted staircase. There were a lot of others out sharing the weekend, mostly free-heelers and walkers. I ran into Daniel and Sofia both days on their way out to Kosi.

I did some more stair counting over the weekend. 500 steps up the steeper section of the Main Face of SH. Another 200 to the top of the North Face. A further 200+ up the final ascent of Everest and around 150 back up the Back Door, where I also did a few runs on Saturday.

Thinking it may be too soft today, I didn't go to Everest or the Back Door but instead did my runs on North Face, The Chutes and the Main Face.

Hardly a scratch on the snow at the top of Everest
and yet snow slippage can be seen on my lower turns

A different view of the main range from the top of Everest

2 runs on North Face almost an hour apart. First on skiers' left
The second on skier's right on slipping snow

A huge group of people (top left) on the Ramsheads

This free-heeler found the steeper section on the Main Face a challenge

The firm snow is not smooth as you might expect.
It's pitted and eroded and very bouncy.

A view of yesterday's work taken from behind Eagles Nest

The challenge today was finding which chutes are still open ;-)

View from top of the hill of the bridge over Merritts Creek

Photo of the hill from the bridge - today

Weather permitting, I will break my record later this week, for days skied in Australia in a single year, hopefully by many days ;-) There are still a lot of turns to be had. Kosi chair closes next Sunday with Slowbums taking over for November

Well done to the Aussie motorcycle riders at Phillip Island this afternoon with podium finishes in all 3 races! You made for an exciting and enjoyable afternoon and special thanks to Casey Stoner for so much great sports viewing. Enjoy the fishing.