The Glass Is Almost Empty

What beautiful weather this morning - pity about the snow. I made another first this morning and I wasn't even trying. I was first at Kosi chair on a sunny Sunday morning. It was like a ghost town. Even when Dennys arrived (he's usually first on weekends) at 8:15 he was on second chair.

Maybe I hadn't been told how bad the snow was yesterday or how good the Keller was last night? The groomers were pretty soft from first run down as far as BunnyWalk station. From below BunnyWalk there had been a temperature inversion and the Supertrail was firm to the bottom. Firm but not all that wide. There wasn't a lot of grooming done - there wasn't a lot to groom.

Upper Supertrail has trenched and awash after the first run. Strangely, skier's left was firmer than the rest - usually it's the other way around due to the cats late run back to the cat sheds after grooming. World Cup wasn't groomed for the reason mentioned above. The World Cup onsen has reopened and the mountain bike tracks are showing through.

So after 2 on the front it was into the Basin - soft and trenched on the bottom half but still firm on the upper half. Holes are beginning to open up in the Basin too - and pretty much everywhere else. Merritts is holding up OK. Central Spur T-bars are sloppy at the base but other wise OK. Friday Flat, unlike Mark's song referencing the 'tree island', is a series of white islands. With no snow making its days are numbered as are those for High Noon. I didn't venture down Sunbrowner as it wasn't good the last time I did it - some four days ago, before the rain.

Speaking of rain: we ended up with 53mm over Friday and Saturday. That's a lot less than forecast but there was no apparent new snow either. Mind you, the lads who did go out yesterday said wet snow was falling above Kareela Hutte. They said it was so sticky that it forced them off the mountain and there was no sign of it this morning.

None of this glass half full - glass half empty stuff. I call it as I see it - almost empty.

Meadows natural snow level - well at least the grass is doing well

Looking across the Meadows

Looking back down Supertrail and towards Tower 10 from Kosi mid station

The World Cup onsen, the crack and the bike trails

More than a basin in The Basin and
the new bike trail over Merritts Creek beside the High Traverse

Looking back to Eagles Nest and Basin area from the top of Sponars

Merritts Creek at the start of the Cat Walk
showing where the creek exploded out of the culvert during the last big rain

Friday Flat

Looking out past the bridge(s) towards Signature Hill

Sundance with High Noon in the background

As I've said many times this year 'stranger things have happened' and there may be one more good dump this season but time is running out. Talking of 'stranger things', I can't remember a season like this one with seven start ups. I remember worse and better seasons, drier and wetter seasons but nothing quite like this one.

So, will there be a saving dump this week? The forecasts for Adelaide don't say so. The 540 line shows a possible dusting on Wednesday. The bureau shows snow falls for the next 6 days with 20cms on Tuesday. WeatherZone show even more snow over the next 6 days. Even MountainWatch is showing reasonable snowfalls everyday of the week but Thursday. The Frog has a little snow falling on Monday and Tuesday. The law of averages calls for at least one significant dump in September. Only time will tell but the clock is ticking faster. Only 3 weeks left.