8 X 8

I awoke this morning to a setting moon in a crystal clear, blue sky. The wind was up, it was summer, there hadn't been an overnight freeze and yet I felt it was a good day for a ski.

I checked the wind-chill up top on my computer just before going out the door. It was -1.6C and this is Summer. As I rode Kosi chair I quickly found myself putting on my winter hat, vest and gloves (always travel prepared for anything). Up top I walked out into a 30-40kph WNW wind with my vest tightly zipped. It wasn't until I had reached the base of the 'hill' that I removed my vest and swapped hats, as I was now in a bit of a wind shadow.

With both ends of the hill melting at a great rate, I only had to kick in 250 stairs up the Main Face. Together with the fact that I no longer had to struggle up from Snowgums chair (yes, Kosi reopened on Saturday) I had more energy for stairs and turns. I took to the hill with methodical enthusiasm. Figure 8s were the order of the day. Despite the lack of overnight freeze, the snow was quite firm with just a centimetre of soft on top. The bouncy surface made precision somewhat difficult and lining up each set of turns was a one-turn-at-a-time event as the convex shape of the slope meant you couldn't see more than a couple of turns ahead.

Probably being my last ski on Signature Hill and liking things symmetrical and ordered (a long computer background) I proceeded to lay 8 sets of figure 8s but certainly nowhere near perfect 8s.

It was great fun and jolly good exercise. I do get some strange looks carrying my skis around the village in summer but I've continued to set more personal bests. 120 days skiing this season - now stretched to 8 months and 16 runs (albeit short ones) on the 'hill'. That's a total of 4000 stairs climbed for those 16 runs.

The setting moon over Eagles Nest this morning

The North Face

View of the bridge over Merritts Creek from top of Sig Hill

Frozen dinners for the birds

Minusculeflowers bursting out in the high alpine

The snow pack flowing towards to the ocean

My view up the slope and boot-pack staircase

My view looking down the slope - hard to line up the next turn

8 sets of figure 8s with a couple of hiccups along the way and a sudden stop at the bottom

What's left of the 'hill' taken from the bridge

What will the future bring? Well, in the short term it certainly looks as though it may snow this week. Not that that will improve the skiing. In fact I suspect any new snow will be slow and sticky compared to the fast and bouncy conditions experienced today.

A big CONGRATULATIONS to Kylie and Sandy (Black Sallees) on the birth of their baby girl. All are doing well, although Steve tells me that Kylie is looking for the instruction manual ;-)

And Happy Birthday Toni.