The Cold Snap Continues

It has been quite cold all week, as most of you would know unless you are in QLD or NT. As a result an amazing amount of snow has been made this week. Last night it was over 16,000 cubic metres. Think about it - that's the equivalent of a ski run 1 metre deep by 10 metres wide for 1.6 kilometres. Without snowmaking we would not be skiing. The combination of really cold air and low humidity means lots of manmade but no natural snow.

The run of failures and breakdowns continues. On Wednesday there was a region wide blackout hitting Jindabyne, Thredbo and Perisher. Luckily Gunbarrel chair, where I was stranded when the power went off, was quickly switched to diesel back-up and we were unloaded before hypothermia set in. Thursday morning saw Merritts Chair out of action and the queue for Snowgums was nearly back to Ramshead chair, looping around behind the work sheds. Today with Sundance open for the first time, you could enter Snowgums from either side. Upper section of World Cup opened up yesterday and provided some alternative to Upper Supertrail.

The quality of the snow is good. I enjoyed some manmade freshies on World Cup and Sundance early this morning.

The new "Bagjump" went up and then went down and is up again today. They were still working on the take-off ramp when I left the mountain today.

With the huge amounts of man made snow I suspect that Village Traverse / Cat Track, Antons, and lower World Cup will soon be open even without another natural fall. Kosi Express remains closed for skiers and boarders. We need natural snow and wind to finish the preparation of Eagle Way. May be Kosi chair could be opened to mid station?

The Bagjump on the Meadows beside Kosi chair just below the old mid station

Crow attacking food supplies destined for on-mountain restaurants

Frozen Waterfall

And another frozen waterfall - it's been really cold

Leatherbarrel Phil is back in town but managing only second chair on Snowgums ;-)

Lower Sundance today (compare with my last report)

Upper High Noon

Middle of High Noon

Upper Supertrail and World Cup

NSW public school holidays are starting this weekend and there's not much snow in the forecasts until later in the week.

Our thoughts are with Jude who has done a complete job on her knee and so early in the season. The only consolation is that 2 broken wrists would have been worse.

Grump: Don't you hate it when the end of your biscuit falls in your coffee? One way to prevent this is to leave the plastic wrap on before dunking ;-)

I'm still working on the Telstra thing.

PS: There is still accommodation available in Thredbo next weekend.