Ice Cream Head

Monday was a typical Spring day. Firm and fast to start followed by a nice run to DHG. Tuesday was just another Ground Hog Day.

Wednesday was really fast as I skied Kosi chair with Leatherbarrel Phil. We had the liftees complaining that their ticket scanners couldn't keep up with the time gap between scans ;-)

I awoke early on Thursday to the sound of rain and thought - at last a sleep in. But no, when I awoke again before 7:00 I saw there was a dusting of new snow on the roof and the sun was shining.

A quick check on the internet told me to expect cold conditions. The extra layer went on together with the cold temp gloves and neck warmer. I must admit I felt a little stupid walking to the lifts with all this gear but by the time I reached mid station on Kosi chair (my 4th day in a row on first chair :-) I was really glad to be rugged up. There was a very strong wind and the wind chill was way down there.

The fresh windblown snow was 10-15cm deep on the Bluff and there was windblown on the groomers to the bottom. World Cup was great. By the time Leatherbarrel Phil and I got back up top, our tracks on the Bluff had filled in. After a few more fun runs down the front we went into the Basin and Karels for more long fingers of untouched windblown. Here the sting on the few square millimetres of bare skin told me that the wind-chill was below -20C. I even got some mild "ice cream head" through the helmet and skull cap - that's a first.

After coffee, Scot joined us for more untracked windblown freshies off Karels, The Basin and then Sponars. It took some hard work getting to some fresh lines as anything that was not deep in windblown was hard frozen rutted tracks and lumps of ice from previous days.

I was really taken by surprise today finding the conditions so good and would have to rate today inside the top ten ski days of the season, even if some of the skiing was "join the dots" powder turns deep below the Bluff.

The company says that it will extend the Basin T-bar till the end of the week after the long weekend - conditions permitting - of course.

The lower slopes are softening each day but the cover is still really good even at the bottom.

Linda & Lucky Phil, Sally & Rob enroute to DHG on Monday

Lucky Phil has a binding failure - not so lucky

Snowwoman at DHG

Linda approaches DHG - a good cover but messy

Marion leading Michelle & Brent towards Bogong on Tuesday

Time to look at the trees enroute to DHG

DHG lower car park looking like a refugee camp

Snowgums chair closed for the season

Bottom of Sundance yesterday afternoon

World Cup and Hump Run this morning

Farewell to many of the lovely people who make Thredbo what it is in Winter. We look forward to your return next year.

The Bag Jump camera appears to have been turned off. A pity as it did give us a good view of conditions on the Meadows and it faced away from the snow storms. We have also lost Snowgums chair and Easy Rider T-bar; closed due to lack of crowds. Understandable as it is very quiet on the slopes :-) Snowgums will reopen if Kosi has to be put on wind-hold.

Grump: No sensible response from the BOM or RTA about getting adequate safety information to us in the Snowy Mountains since they changed their web sites. Where are our taxes going?