Traktorman Came To Town

Traktorman came to ski two days midweek in Thredbo and picked the only two sunny days in quite a while. After several days of poor visibility it was great to be able to see again. The marble base on the groomers and the sastrugi off piste added to the challenge and kept us to tight turns on long fingers of soft, dry windblown snow.

Contrary to many others, I actually enjoyed Wednesday more than Tuesday. Wiamea had some deep wind drifts and the quality of the snow on the upper mountain was generally excellent. The temperature in the village rose a lot on Wednesday and the snow making coming out of the Milk Run turned quite sticky.

I got the full dermabrasion on Antons yesterday. Strangely the top of Sponars was a lot gentler on the small amount of skin being treated ;-)

After hearing the rain on my roof top last night I was pleased to wake up and see new snow on the trees above Kosi mid station. The KT site said 15cms and indeed today I found that much in some areas. The main face skied out within a single run and I quickly hit the upper lifts to find lighter snow and more untracked. It was quite a morning out there in limited vis and fresh snow :-)

In an attempt to add a little colour (and with no drugs involved) I've had a play with the graphics software to highlight some of the fun we had on Tuesday.

I did 8s on Traktorman's turns, then Traktorman did 8s on mine
We ended up doing 8s all over the place

Then Jane joined us for a run and showed us that she too was up to the challenge
doing 8s on my tracks

Traktorman on 'Balls To The Wall' where I failed to do 8s ;-)

'Balls To The Wall' viewed from Eagles Nest on Tuesday

Wednesday arrived with fantastic wind blown
Traktorman below the Bluff

Skiers Left and Right of Sponars T-bar in the afternoon zephyr

Eagles Nest and Central Spur this morning after last night's 15cm

First tracks on freshies on Supertrail this morning

Off the Rim Run today

Happy birthday to Lynne Haydon for Wednesday and again a big one for Outback Phil today.

It's currently dumping outside as I write this report. The weekend is looking great snow wise. Not sure how the races will go with the weather outlook. I expect to hear the snow ploughs before long :-)

Late update Friday morning: nothing spectacular to report - a little overnight snow and lots of snow making.

The Grump: You can't have missed the headlines (outside of the Olympics) over the past two days where Prime Minister Gillard is blaming the states for the high cost of electricity. Well Hello! It was the Labor state governments that sold off the electricity companies to those now charging the high rates. Derr - they couldn't see that coming?

The arrogance of Gillard in trying to pass that one off. And what about Abbott? Does he even know why electricity rates have risen or is he too embarrassed to speak the truth because the new Lib/Nat state governments are trying to sell off the final remnants of the electricity industry. And yes, electricity prices will keep going up, thanks to our politicians have sold out this essential industry.

Only 2 reports ago I had a swipe at the Australian media about how they were treating our Olympians, well here I go again. Is it just gross incompetence, laziness or political collusion when the media can't or won't report what's really behind the electricity prices?