Racers Ready

This weekend saw some serious racing at Thredbo. After the course inspection in pre-dawn light on Saturday we all assembled at the top of the Karels T-bar awaiting starter’s orders. This event was new to me and I was certainly a little excited although not expecting to be nor intending to attempt to be competitive. A little after 7:30am I walked rather than ran the Le Mans start to the point some 50m away where you could put on your skis and begin the descent from the highest lifted point in Australia to the valley below. This race covers the full distance of the greatest vertical drop of any ski resort in Australia.

There were spills along the way. Twice in the Veterans Race (that’s me) I had to avoid ski equipment left behind after ‘incidents’ involving faster veterans than I. In the open categories there were several of the Australia Ski Team members who we watched during the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Yes, they did win their respective divisions.

At 10 am the Inter-Club race began. A team event between different ski clubs with handicap points applied depending upon age and sex. A much shorter course but with over 200 entrants it took a considerable time to get through both runs. The course was very firm and didn’t rut up as severely as some previous events.

Off piste was bullet-proof while on piste became a bit of a horror story with slick icy concrete patches between the big soft slushy bumps formed from the scrapings pushed off the slick bits.

Sunrise breaking prior to the start of the Nokia Top to Bottom race in Thredbo

Not the winner of the snowboard division but a great finish

Winner of the Women's Open division and a very close 2nd and 3rd in the Men’s Open division

Interclub racecourse

There were spills in this event as well as the Top to Bottom

Serious ‘starting gate‘ concentration from the president of the Brindabella Ski Club

Sunday morning’s warm temps brought softer snow conditions than the concrete base encountered on Saturday. Clouds began moving in early in the morning and although the snow up high around Sponars was very carvable the ever-increasing humid and overcast conditions made the snow to soft and somewhat sticky. Snow is predicted for the next 3 days - I hope we get it.