Thredbo Masters

The weather improved for Saturday but there was still a strong, crisp wind blowing. Snow conditions could only be described as frozen and although the racecourse was smooth as a …, the rest of the lower mountain was death cookie central. I heard that snow above the Basin was dry and deep – I never got there, what with races and all.

The race started at the top of the Rossi racecourse and crossed over the top of Sundowner, down Sundance and finished as you crossed under the Merritts chair. There were many, including myself who misunderstood the printed instructions “meet at 10:00” as reading “course inspection at 10:00 am” and so many missed course inspection. I got to inspect the bottom half, which was not visible from the top of the course.

There were some timing troubles but otherwise the event was very well organised and considering the slickness of the course, there were very few DNFs. Congratulations to the winners and the organisers. Thanks to the sponsors and staff. My only gripe was the dropping of the lucky door prize – a draw card for the many entrants who stand no chance of winning their age division (including moi). I suspect the organisers will see a significant drop in entrants next year because of this.

Sunday was a fairly clear day with that same brisk, crisp wind. Conditions had cooled enough overnight to allow the snow makers to do a wonderful job and much of Saturday’s frozen base was well covered with soft, dry man-made snow. The areas that I was told were so nice on Saturday, like Karels, were somewhat wind packed but as the day progressed, windblown stashes could be found on Little Merritts, Merritts Falls, Wiamea and other upper east facing slopes.

Frozen corduroy at the top of the racecourse

A maze of gates on Rossi racecourse

Randy sans camera, timing troubles, the aim is to kill gates

There were colourful suits and not so colourful

Below the steeper part of the Sundance section

Sunshine and shadows at the end of the course

Georgina gets air in the transition between turns infront of the cameraman

Frank about to blitz another gate

The race end

Kerry about to slice through the only people who came out early on Sunday morning

The mid range forecast is all over the place again – changing every 24 hours. I did however, get a prediction for 30cm for next Friday.

A little local gossip, Macca is back. After a 5-month trial on the north coast, it appears you can take the boy out of the mountains but you can’t take the mountains out of the boy. Macca is looking for a place to live.