Busiest Weekend

The Bank Holiday long weekend has traditionally been the busiest weekend of the season and in keeping with tradition it has been the busiest so far this season. The quality of the snow was good, the weather very nice, although a bit breezy for those who claim to be true fair weather riders.

The keen got good freshies both Saturday and Sunday morning. Chasing Traktorman and Lucky Phil, I didn’t quite make first chair but I got some nice powder between the firmer outcrops. My pick were Cannonball and Sponars.

We had a small amount of fresh snow over the past few days – not the “significant falls” that were forecast but a freshening. The cold and strong W-SW winds kept the snow dry and moving around the mountain. The upper slopes were a combination of windblown powder stashes and very firm wind packed. The lower slopes fortunately had man made top ups and although there were occasionally patches of ice generally everything was good. Dream Run and The Schuss have been closed since that last heavy rains and will probably stay that way until sufficient natural snow falls to cover and bond with their current ice surface.

Yes, we did have some rain last week and it firmed up everything but as I’ve already mentioned the fresh natural snowfalls and the snow guns saved us having a resort of boilerplate.

Lucky Phil on Sponars

Good wind-blown powder

And about to do a re-entry on Wiamea

Ski Patrol on Kareela Face

Getting first tracks – Sunday morning

I didn’t get a lot of photos. This global warming trend was just too cold on my hands to want to get the camera out. This session continues to the coldest I can remember. Windchills have been consistently below –25C morning after morning.

The Top-To-Bottom is on next Saturday, hopefully that will mean more fresh snow and no need for edges.