Thredbo - Back Where We Love Her

Although I thought there would be more snow in the village this morning than what I saw and despite the snow being wetter than it looked, the first in-resort, off-piste skiing was pretty awesome for the first few runs.

Kozi chair was to open late so we reluctantly queued for Snowgums to start. As each chair went round the bull wheel we wondered why the liftees weren’t banging the snow off them. It wasn’t till we started loading that there was a frantic effort to remove the many inches of snow but we still rode up on a cold wet seat. This would never do in Japan, or any other country I can think of.

Three skiers got away before me at the top of Snowgums, while I passed the boarders who were on the other chairs in front of me as they were clipping in. No time for decisions, I took to World Cup and got an interesting mix of fresh on groomed, some deeper off piste fresh untracked and some very firm groomed from Meadows to the bottom. My second run was from the top of Kosi chair. Fresh untracked off Eagle Way and then down True Blue in deep and somewhat heavy fresh snow. This time I had no groomed until the exit onto Milk Run below Tower 10. This run was great. Third run (Little Beauty and then across to True Blue) revealed many others had had the same idea and I skiing the pillows between deep tracks. So deep in places were some tracks that the grass and soil were about to break out. Ski Patrol were now busy closing lower Little Beauty.

The now chopped, heavy and deep snow was really working out my legs and I kept having to get my hands forward as I found my weight shifting back time and time again.

A break for some caffeine and then I decided to stay mostly on groomers. There are still a lot of sharp rocks just below the unpacked surface. There were some very keen/foolish riders out on the Bluff. Ummm, too many rocks under the snow just waiting for a tumbling body. Speaking of tumbling bodies: I managed to double eject on a turn (for what reason, I’m unsure) after dropping of Eagle Way. The really weird thing was both my skis slid to the bottom of the slope with brakes extended into the snow.

Lower Sundance Wednesday afternoon

Same view this morning

True Blue, deep ungroomed

Flat light and blowing snow meant ...

Blurry photos and poor focus

Fresh snow on a grass base

Lower Supertrail and Milk Run

Village view

Kozi chair after lunch

Closer view of High Noon on Wednesday and today

You can now ski to both sides of the resort. Cat Walk and Sundowner have been opened.

Yep, it is windy and still snowing, meaning a cool wind-chill up top. The weekend is looking good with so much more terrain open. It is possible that Antons may open on the weekend but don’t expect Sponars for a while as the inside word is that the boxes won’t be attached until there is a cat track up the lift line.

The Grump: Cold damp seat after the slow ride up Snowgums with snow on the seat. Break out the brushes and squeegees, please. A little more class than what the ads promote, is what we all want.