A Sara Lee Day

The temp dropped down to -8.9C overnight and snow making ran for more than 12 hours resulting in (I am told) an amazing cover at Merritts and Ballroom was opened today.

To avoid the expected weekend crowds I headed off, in new boot shells and old inners, out towards Signature Hill. And what a great decision as I heard later that there were start-up issues on Cruiser this morning.

I didn't make my mind up as to where I would ski until well past the bridge. The cover was better than I expected but upon leaving the walking track (mostly covered in hard packed snow) I was delightfully surprised to find the untouched off piste was soft, dry and light.

The soft cover over the firmer base ranged from 1-10cm deep and consisted mostly of hoar frost crystals. I've only encountered these conditions in Nth America. The snow was easy to skin on but would have been hell to walk over as the base is not as solid as it looked. My skis ran fast and smooth.

It's amazing that even with the temp well below zero, the lack of wind, stunning sunshine and lots of exercise had me stripping off layers (yes, the Sara Lee layer over layer ;-) and still I was sweating on the climbs.

I did a slalom run (between the rocks) down the north face of the Hill and was inspired enough to go back up and cut another virgin track down the main face. This was a little trickier due to not being able to clearly see a line to the bottom between the boulder outcrops and still unfilled creeks.

As I returned towards Eagles Nest I could see a lot of others heading out into the brilliantly clear and sunny day. It was a real stunner.

The new boot shells didn't bother my feet too much but being stiffer than my old slippers require me to make a conscious effort to flex-forward in them. I still have to test out the new inners and foot-beds that caused me so much grief in 2011. I had them modified after that injury but have never skied on them since. May be tomorrow for a short time?

Speaking of tomorrow, the general consensus is that a change is on its way but it seems to have slowed and may not get here till Monday. A nice dump of 20-30cms to the village would open up the resort :-)

Some of my favourite chutes still need a little more snow for my liking

Everest too needs more snow

I wasn't first. A myriad of animal tracks amongst the sparkling diamonds

Looking towards Club Lake Chutes with Seaman's Hut centre left

Looking towards the Ramsheads and south

Slalom course through the rocks on the north face

A flash of hot pink caught my eye a kilometre away on the other side of the valley
Camera on full zoom and I'd recognise those pants anywhere

The crowd climbing Sig Hill after I'd left
Does that make them lemmings?

Looking down towards Friday Flat from above Kareela

Shot from the bridge

So what else is new? The boxes are back on the Basin T-bar. High Noon has received a lot of work from both gun and cat and must be getting close to opening. The cover on the upper Supertrail to Bunnywalk is looking much better and the natural snow has settled to a point just below mid station. The clear, cold nights are great for snow making and are dropping a good frost on everything else.

The days have started getting loooooonger... they couldn't have got any shorter ;-)

A BIG Happy Birthday to Peter. He looks a good 20 years younger than the great land mark he has just reached. Goes to show what mountain air and exercise can do - not too mention a good wife and love of red meat.

And condolences to Stavros's little blue/green truck - I hope no one was injured.