Another Weekend Wonder

A little after 1:00am on Saturday morning while the village nightlife was at its peak it began to snow big flakes. By morning there was a reported 10cm of new up top and 3cm in the village.

From Friday’s brown slopes to the proverbial “winter wonderland” in 7 hours. The wind chill was brisk and it snowed on and off all day, continually refreshing the slopes and even covering our tracks in the less frequented places.

The snow was light and dry and had fallen on a frozen base. If you picked the right spots the fresh had a smooth base but if you selected those areas where the previous day’s ruts had frozen you were in for the odd surprise.

After a few of untracked runs from the top of Crackenback to the village we decided to go higher. The best snow in the resort was definitely up high, drier and deeper than the lower slopes. In some places the snow was more than boot deep and a glorious sensation it was to feel the snow flowing off your shins and knees.

Basin and Karels were excellent. I don’t often use that word ‘excellent’ but the quality of the snow was great and with the deep, rolling base on the upper slopes the skiing & boarding was fantastic. Sponars, Antons and Wiamea were also very nice and provided freshies all day.

Today brought clear blue skies and a light breeze that continued to grow in strength all day. There was a queue waiting at the bottom of the Kosi Express at 8:30 to take advantage of the great weather and snow but alas there was a power problem with the quad and we ducked over to Snow Gums to get on the groomers for untracked turns.

Very low overnight temperatures kept the off piste soft and dry while the groomers were firm yet carvable. I quickly headed for Karels once it opened and after a warm up down to Basin I headed off for Signature Hill. Beaten there by someone else who had the pleasure of first tracks several minutes before me I was no to be put off. A great run in soft powder followed by an immediate invitation to Dead Horse Gap. Conditions were superb for Dead Horse Gap and you could still ski right down to the bridge. So nice was it in fact that after a short snack we headed off and did it for a second time.

Saturday morning with fresh snow to the village

Mid Supertrail awaiting our onslaught

Freshies top to bottom – just fantastic for this time of year

World Cup was grass the day before

Peter doing Karels to the Basin

More freshies we couldn't resist - dropping into the Basin on the high side

Sunday morning - Signature Hill - first down unknown, Sasha was third

On the way to Dead Horse Gap the first time

A different line to DHG the second time round

As I look out my window I can see the winds have really picked up as the barometer drops rapidly. There will (should) be great dry powder wind drifts tomorrow as I can see the snow being blown off the peaks. The afternoon weather report says to expect further snow tomorrow morning.

How good is this for the end of September?