Mizzle and Drist

Saturday started with promise but the soft sticky snow was falling to pieces. Mizzle (a mixture of mist and drizzle) pervaded the day and the highlight for me on the slopes was viewing a beautiful rainbow hanging over the village.

After a few hours of working hard in the soft and sticky conditions long lunches became the order of the day. Kareela Hutte was to open on Saturday but they just weren't ready in time. Adding to their woes was the fact that the snow base was so soft that snow cats could not deliver the last of their supplies. A long lunch was had by many in the many other restaurants and cafes both on mountain and in the village.

Stars appeared on Saturday night and the revised forecast was hard to determine. Heavy rain fell (so I was told) between 4:30am and 6:30am but I awoke at 7:00am to a village covered in white. Admittedly the new snow was very wet but good for base building. By 8:30am the falling flakes were huge - like those big wet 50-cent piece flakes that you see in Whistler. Figuring the snow conditions could only get better during the day, it was hard to get motivated enough to get on the 8:30 chair into the mizzle and drist (drizzle and mist). Obviously some people spend too much time categorising precipitation around Thredbo.

The snow was soft and very sticky - more so than Saturday's but the grass and rocks and gravel were pretty well covered - well at least until you made a turn. The underlying base (where there was one) had firmed up somewhat so the depth of soft was not nearly as bad as yesterday.

A few runs on Crackenback, one down High Noon and a couple on Antons (which opened yesterday for the first time) then hot chocolate at Merritts.

When we heard that Kareela Hutte was definitely opening at midday we had a reason to go back out into the wet snowfall. The new owner, MD and crew at Kareela Hutte were all eager to please and I left many a soggy but well settled-in traveller enjoying another of those long lunches.

Rainbow over the village on Saturday

Many hands make light work of another long lunch

High Noon late afternoon Sunday

By 3:00pm the snowfall had stopped but the forecast has even more on its way. Hopefully some cold nights will see the new snow consolidate and the groomers able to sort out the mess. This was not a repeat of last year's June 29 40cm dump but the system has still 2 days to move through.