Top To Bottom (Almost)

Saturday: I awoke before dawn and could see that activity was already afoot around Valley Terminal. It was Top-To-Bottom day. Australia's longest ski race - even if it did not start at the top for another year. I suspect the reasoning this year was lack of snow. There didn't appear to be enough around Karels for the full 'Top-To-Bottom' course to be put into action.

For a third year I was not competing but I could still sense the atmosphere from across the river. As it turned out conditions were rock-hard. Favoured by real racers but not my cup of tea. There were quite a few disqualifications. My inside information was that a blue gate in shadow near Kareela Hutte was the main culprit.

There were some new faces amongst the winners. Maybe the old guard is slipping away. I know that the shortened and slower course is not as enticing for many (including myself). I just loved that sensation as you approached BunnyWalk and then straight-lined it down the Supertrail with goggles pushing on your eyeballs and clothes being sucked off your back. Oh well, times have changed.

As I said above, the course was hard, hard packed. There was hardly a scratch on the course when I rode up Kosi chair after the prize presentations. The entire mountain had frozen solid over night and the only place I could find any wind-blown / softer-than-rock snow was out of resort. I saw the longest queue on the Basin T-bar in my entire life. It may not have contained the most ever people but as it wound back up hill in single file it was approaching the top of the last drop to the T-bar. For those who have experienced a really long queue on the Peak chair in Hirafu, you will appreciate what I'm talking about. I attempted to take photos but could not get even a third of the queue in frame.

Sunday: Today started much like yesterday. The forecast of cloud and moisture was so way not going to happen. Winds were forecast to be lower than yesterday but under a bright clear blue sky the winds had not abated but in fact were rising.

Despite the wind strength I was determined to go further out of resort in order to get away from the crowds. I left my start a little later hoping for more snow softening. Conditions in resort were solid. The strong wind made hiking difficult. I didn't use my skins as the snow pack out of resort was very firm to solid. I had a couple of runs off the Hill but refrained from going much further west as the wind was gusting around 70kph. I was able to get an edge in the snow but it wasn't much fun being quite bouncy. Coming back through the resort before noon I found the Supertrail had deep sugar snow on skiers' left and wind scoured concrete on skiers' right. Somewhere between the two was the ideal line.

Red sky dawn with the race course already set

It was an eerie start to course inspection

With the sun up, the races were on

Open Womens Snowboard: (all results listed 1st to 3rd not left to right)
1st Bethany Palmer, 2nd Cassie-Jo Coates & 3rd Ellen Rowles

Open Womens Ski: 1st Katya Crema, 2nd Sami Kennedy-Sim & 3rd Marie McGree
Podium steps (left to right) are 2nd, 1st & 3rd

Veteran Men Ski: 1st Duncan Burns, 2nd James Kilmartin & 3rd David Harper
and special congrats to David Ting in his best ever position just one off the podium at 4th

Open Mens Snowboard: 1st Peter Baff, 2nd Phillip Maclarn & 3rd Henri Maxwell

Amateur Men Ski: 1st Will Dawson, 2nd Sebastian Wirth & 3rd Aaron Dibley

Open Mens Ski: 1st Scott Kneller, 2nd Anton S Grimus & 3rd Tom Lewis

I enjoyed the best snow on Saturday all by myself

A big congratulations to all who entered the big race and a big thanks to all the course setters, the officials and the amazing work done by the groomers.

Last night was disturbing with the bozo dome in full fright but I won't go into that here. This report is for the intrepid Top-To-Bottom entrants.