A Weekend To Bank On

The Bank Holiday Weekend is traditionally the busiest weekend of the year in Thredbo. Not to disappoint, and nice fresh dump of dry snow added to the excitement.

It snowed on Thursday then (dare I say it) rained on Thursday night before turning to a full on blizzard, which started in the village around 10:30am on Friday. I went to Jindabyne at 1:00pm on a wet road and returned at 3:00pm to see snow settled on the road from the park entry right through to the village. There was chaos on the roads even at that stage and it just got worse all night. Very sadly a Thredbo staff member died in a car crash on the Alpine Way early on Saturday morning.

I headed down to the Kosi chair extra early and still ended up on about chair 12 as everyone and their aunt turned up for freshies. One good run under the blue sky in the fresh snow and by my second there was hardly a skerrick of untracked to be seen. I moved from queue to queue to finally settle with several memorable runs down Wiamea where the wind maintained a 20cm deep face of dry wind-blown snow all day long.

Sunday was overcast but the cover remained excellent. Monday was more of the same without the humongous crowds. The queues on Saturday were, without doubt, the biggest I had seen this year. Ramshead was taken out of mothballs and Annie and I went for the tourist ride – it has been 2 years since I rode Ramshead. Meanwhile the wind-blown slopes are simply wonderful.

There were some mechanical/electrical problems that could only occur on the busiest weekend of the season. Both Antons and Sponars T-bars were taken out of action on Friday afternoon after the failure of an electrical sub station (well, that’s what I was told) and on Sunday afternoon Kosi Express went offline just after lunch for some time. Luckily, and no doubt due to a lot of hard work, replacement equipment was hauled up to Antons and Sponars and they were both running again by Saturday morning (albeit a little late). Kosi Express did fire up again before the end of Sunday.

Freshies await us on Saturday morning

Sponars to open later on Saturday morning

The Bluff just before the onslaught

Nearly at the top of Kosi chair for first run

Ski Patrol hit Swaggies first

Not quite first tracks on Bunny Walk

Ramshead - the alternate tourist ride

Annie beside the Corporate Games racing tubes

A busy SnowGums chair when Kosi chair stopped on Sunday afternoon

Sponars on Sunday afternoon

It is hard to tell how much snow has fallen. KT’s precipitation gauge has been inoperable for sometime. I would figure 35-40cm from Friday to Saturday and a little more has fallen since then. Let’s just round up to 50cm for the entire long weekend.

There is a heap more snow forecast over the next week. Next weekend looks like a repeat of the past two, so expect at least another 50cms by Sunday. “Fine weather?” - who cares. The season is getting more like Japan every week.

The groomers are showing what they can do with a decent cover and the cold air temps are keeping every thing in tip-top condition. Even the snow guns put on a show last night.

Top to Bottom next Saturday. I guess it may not be starting from Karels once again but I like speeding in deep snow with little visibility.