Some Sunny Sunday Soft Snow Skiing

For 3 days we were surprised at the quality of the early morning snow. The temperatures had indicated that we would be facing slush from top to bottom from first chair but instead we had firm conditions that we all enjoyed. Of course the continual plus temps eventually won their way and so on Sunday I decided to go west.

After a couple of runs in an already softening Basin I headed out from Karels. My first run was short and steep, off North Ramshead, which I had climbed both for the view and to test the snow conditions before going off the top of Mount Etheridge. Etheridge always gets my heart going a little faster. From the highest point you cannot see the bottom. It's only after a couple of turns and when you have committed yourself to going over the roll-over that you get to see what really lies below and where the rocks are. The cover was topped with 10cm of soft wet snow and was slow. The turns on the steep were easy but I didn't bother continuing across the flatter section to the second face but instead skinned back up behind Etheridge and skied a line I had never done before - down to Rawson Pass. It's not steep but being west-facing it was faster than north-facing. From here I climbed almost to the peak of Kosi, turning left when I knew I had enough elevation to ski along behind the cornice. I had earlier spotted a break in the cornice with 2 sets of tracks from the previous day. This helped me spot the gap from above, avoiding getting too close to the cornice. The snow was soft and balls of snow rushed past me for the first few turns. At the bottom I sat on Cootapatamba lake and consumed my light lunch whilst watching other adventurers around me. The climb out of Cootapatamba valley was, as always, difficult but I still got a few turns down into the bowl west of Kosi Lookout. The hardest part of the day was skiing on the soft slow snow back down to the village around 2pm.

I was exhausted but satisfied that I couldn't have done any more. After a hit and run accident at age 17 and having denied the doctors desire to amputate my right foot and having defied the doctors who told me that I probably wouldn't walk again and if I did that I would be crippled with arthritis by the age of 40, I get some satisfaction as an old man in his 60s proving so many experts wrong :-)

My first target was the top right peak of Pyramid and to ski the north facing slope

My second destination was to ski the north face of Etheridge
Looking east across the north face

Looking south from Etheridge - from left to right: 1970, Kosi South Ridge, Kosi Cornice
and the snow capped Victorian Alps in the background

View from Etheridge of Guthega on the left and Blue Cow on the right

View north from Etheridge to Watsons Crags
Can someone tell me if it is Mt Tate, Mt Anderson or what in the top right?

Looking east from Mt Kosciuszko across Rawson Pass to Mt Etheridge

Skiing the gap in the cornice where the snow balls raced around me

Three young adventurers getting air off the cliffs below the cornice

Looking back at the Kosi Cornice
And again from Kosi Lookout, with my tracks in the Bowl on the left, Kosi in the centre and Etheridge on the right

More North-facing slopes: The Back Door to Signature Hill on the left and the Back Door to Everest on the right

The beginning of the end has begun in Thredbo. Sundance was the first of the runs with snow-making to be closed and looking at the brown patches at the bottom of the ungroomed World Cup, True Blue and Hump Run it won't be long before these have a "closed" sign to stop riders going down to Tower 10. All is fine to Kosi mid station and from there you will have to take Supertrail to the bottom.

Meanwhile, the winter concert season in the Village Square is over for another year. On Saturday night the band 'Alpine' produced some great music but once again it was the wrong location for the volume output. Admittedly the volume level was slightly reduced from the previous concerts. I could comfortably hear the band with my noise cancelling headphones turned to max, whereas during the previous event I had ear plugs under my headphones and still ended up with a massive headache and ringing in my ears for the following 5 days. For those thinking I doth protest too much, it's not so much about the concert. Like the previous concerts, the sound check started at 2:40pm and continued in a loud and discordant manner until the music started at 5:30pm. The concert ended at 9:50pm meaning their prisoners (sorry, that's the guests and owners in apartments around the Village Square) were subjected to 7 hours of volume levels that I believe would be illegal in a factory without substantial hearing protection.

Some very clever people thought that moving the snow dome volumes from the other side of the valley and reproducing them only a few metres from residential apartments would not cause serious health issues. If these apartments were work places, NSW Health and Safety would have had a field day, as would have the unions and indeed the media but no, instead the apartments housed families, some with young children, so no protection was available.

And what a brilliant marketing plan: bus in people, who stay in Jindy and spend their money in Jindy at the expense of the comfort and safety of rate paying owners and their guests who spend their money in Thredbo. Why didn't I think of that?

Now some or may be even most of you will say I'm just a grumpy old man. I agree but I also feel I am the only voice for all those people who complain to me about things in Thredbo. When people complain to me I tell them to complain to KT but they say that it's pointless because they don't listen. Unfortunately I have to agree with them but that's even more reason to persevere.

And now that I've got you in the mood ;-) here is part two of my grump entitled "The Age of Entitlements".