Mondayitis

After a pretty miserable weather weekend the sky was clear and blue first thing this morning. Saturday was so miserable I didn’t bother going out. Raining in the village, gale force winds, no visibility and only 6 lifts open. No Cruiser, no Kosi Express or Ramshead. Even Snowgums was only open for a short while in the afternoon. It was so bad that the junior races planned for Saturday were postponed till Sunday.

Sunday proved better than expected. It was still drizzling in the village at 8:30am but with almost all lifts in operation there was some new snow to be trashed. Funnel Web was particularly nice first up. Smooth and untracked even down through the ‘S’ bend. No bumps until the run out. Golf Course was very nice in the trees and that’s where we spent the morning. The postponed GS race was held in tricky conditions - the new snow was very wet. The slalom event was cancelled after declaring the conditions too dangerous.

That leaves us with today. Strong winds from the west dried out and blew around the snow leaving some beautiful deep dry wind drifts as well as a fair bit of sastrugi in exposed areas. The best was up high with a further 10cms overnight. Below mid station the conditions were frozen but the groomers did soften up in the sun. Karels and Basin were great if not cold on the face (-25C wind chill). The golf course was even better than yesterday – yes, I know all you weekend warriors wanted to hear that. I would say we had around 30cm of snow since Friday up top but the lower slopes have suffered from the rain.

Fresh wet snow below the Bluff on Sunday morning

Untracked into Funnel Web

Looking back towards the village from below Trap Door

Peter getting first tracks above Funnel Web

Freshies into Golf Course

Wet snow balling in Golf Course bowl – less than stable

GS course on World Cup

Boarders getting some air in Golf Course Bowl this morning

Forecasts have a little more snow this week and then continual snowfalls from next Sunday for an entire week. Bring on those August blizzards that we missed last year. It is now snowing lightly and cloudy on top of the mountain.

Commiserations to Richard, president of Brindabella Ski Club, and his broken collarbone.