Three Days of Contrast

Kosi chair started 5mins late on Friday but I wasn't waiting in the huge queue. I went out about 20 minutes later with no plan to ski in the resort with a brazillion others. Podsie and I went straight out to Signature Hill in a stiff, cold NW breeze.

First run was a long one down the main face of the hill and all the way back to the top of the Basin. The snow was super dry windblown. In places it was boot deep with my skins on. Second run was down the steeper east face just a tad skier's left of my first run. The steep was great. I had snow up to my knee and the light dry surface came with me as I dropped down to the flatter section. I didn't return to the Basin but skinned straight back up in time to watch 2 tele skiers frame my last run. Despite the sub zero wind chill, I had to open the vents on my helmutt as I was cooking from the climb. I went right to the very top and down the north face in more wonderful, dry stuff. I continued all the way back to the Basin and a very late morning coffee. In bounds, Merritts Falls from the Basin was superb as were the ever growing drifts off Karels.

Saturday arrived and the Kosciuszko Express opened early. I was there to witness the event, as I wanted to get a run on my own skis before starting demo-ing of skis. The day was sunny and the snow nice but like the previous week, the windblown had all but disappeared. There were smooth faces with just a dusting of windblown but some other Friday powder runs were now sprouting sastrugi and were no fun at all. I started the demos with a new K2 Recon, hoping that it may be lighter, less stiff and more responsive than the previous model. I'm currently skiing old Recons, which I know one day I will have to replace. They are light and no where as stiff as later models. The new Recons ran slowly - may be the tuning or wax? I knew I should try as many "all mountain" skis as possible. I wanted nothing less than 78mm under foot and both weight and stiffness were important, however my mind was open to any suggestions. Many stiff skis just want to submarine when in deep snow. I tried some Salomons - too stiff, then Daf suggested the Salomon Lord - fatter twin tips. Interesting, stable, went everywhere but just seemed boring and noisy. I moved through other skis, including Volkl AC50 - stiff and fast, an Elan without metal that was the nicest Elan I have demo-ed - strangely noisy as well. Also tried the Head Peak 78 amongst other skis now forgotten. There were no Nordicas or Fischers to try. Disappointing as I had been recommended to try certain models in both. The Kastle and Dynastar skis I wanted to try were "out on the mountain" when I asked.

By lunchtime I was over demos - it's tiring work testing and summarising skis never tried before. So far the Peak 78 had my vote over the Recon, even though the Recon liked to turn quickly and sharply on steeper slopes.

Sunday awoke with high cloud over the region. The cloud helped keep the temperature down. It had gone a little high on Saturday requiring vents and pit zips to be opened. The wind was up and there was no crowd. Kosi chair opened early again. Well done KT. There were no grumpy lift liners this weekend. Surprisingly the skier-cross course that had been built for the inter schoolers had been extended and opened to the general punter. Now, what ski patrol call the Hump Run, was truly that. My one run on the course, chasing Shannon through the burns, proved the course to be quite tame.

Getting to the demo tents immediately after one run on my own skis (for calibration purposes) allowed me to get onto the Rossi CX80s. Wow, a lot of fun and very fast. Although, supposedly a very stiff ski, the construction suited me and I had a few enjoyable runs. At 170 they were a tad short for me but if I were to have a resort ski - they would probably be it. Next was the somewhat softer Bandit SC80. Again only in 170, they were surprisingly more stable than my previous adventures on the earlier B series had been. As long as you got hard on the edge, they were stable at speed and yet are a very light ski under foot. Later the rep got me a pair of 175s but they didn't seem to have quite the grip of the others - may be a tuning thing? Even so, the SC80s could be driven to accelerate almost as quickly as the CX80s.
Lunchtime came really late as I retried the Recons and others. Sorry Rosco: the Recons are no better than the ones you just sold in despair. Rosco, Waz and I all love the old Recons - pre 2005 but not the later models.

Rossignol won the weekend as far as I am concerned: CX80 for in resort and SC80 for outback. My dilemma is that I want (and can afford) only one pair of skis for all conditions from the "Top to Bottom" to deep outback drifts, crud, ice, corduroy, crust, drops, steeps and flats - not to mention for skinning, back carrying and boot packing.

Airborne ice crystals at the top of Sig Hill

Main face tracks already filling in

East face of Signature Hill

North face

Friday’s wind out of and in the resort

First Saturday rays on Michael’s Mistake

Cannonball and Basin

Eagles Nest

Exhibition off Sponars T-bar

Hump Run above and below Kosciuszko Express

The school horrors have left along with the well-behaved and more considerate ones. The average age on the slopes has risen about 40 years.

Still no snow this weekend - contrary to forecasts. The wind has been moving the snow around, more so than one stranded snowcat I saw in the Basin this morning that looked as though it had thrown a track.

As for the other cats (with a lot of help from the new snow guns), the grooming was very nice on True Blue and Little Beauty along with all the regular groomed runs.

Let's hope all the forecasters have it wrong and that we see at least 40cms of dry snow during this week.

Happy 50th Sharon! You are now old enough to take skiing seriously ;-)