Rain, Rain, Go Away

Predictions of rain sort of came true. There puddles in the village this morning and I deliberately left my hood behind so that I had no excuse to stay out in the rain if it should fall as predicted.

What a surprise as I rode up Kosi Express at 8:30am - I didn’t hear any snow guns last night – this must be natural snow. There was about 5cm of new snow down low and more up high.

First run down Crackenback was a hoot. Creamy wet snow that built up on the front of your boots at every turn. There was still a firm slightly icy base underneath but what fun the new snow was.

On my second ride up the quad I realised that finding more freshies on the main face was going to be difficult without venturing into areas where yesterday there were rocks showing.

Instead I went straight into the Basin and while waiting for Karels to open I had a couple of runs traversing out from the base of Karels T-bar and enjoyed the fresh untracked slopes.

When Karels opened it was good for a few more untracked runs before I ventured to Sponars, which broke down so I next moved to Antons. Wiamea was lovely as were some of the trees down to the Cruiser. Powder Bowl / Boundary Rider were fairly trashed so back to Central Spur.

As the temps rose (the air also very humid) some of the new snow (especially where it had settled on man made) became sticky and slow.

World Cup under Kosi Express

Basin freshies

Wiamea

More Wiamea

Still there are predictions of rain and snow. Hopefully the rain will bypass Thredbo. Currently the sun is shining and there is a light warmish breeze blowing.

The snow base has responded well to the new snow although you must watch out for many of the hidden rocks waiting to grab the unwary ski or board.

From Cruiser chair it appears as though there may have been a small slide in Stanley’s on the SW side of the gorge. No, I didn’t get a photo – too slow.

Am coming to terms with new graphics software on the new computer so please bear with me (and the photo quality) while I go through yet another learning curve.