Richard's Report

The Best

Friday’s soft snow and pleasant weather conditions were transformed to rain and the consequent damaged slopes overnight. I decided not venture out on Saturday until midday and then only for lunch and the ski back down from Eagle’s Nest. It started to snow heavily about 11:00am and as I was nearing the top of Crackenback I could see untracked snow below me. At least 15cm fell in the next few hours. After lunch 5 of us went out into the deep and it was simply wonderful. The snow, not pure light powder, slowed our speed enough to enable short fall-line turns through the trees. For 3 hours we had a ball in drifts, up to knee deep in places and all untracked.

Further snows fell overnight and with the sun trying to break through on Sunday morning we knew there would be many more on the slopes for freshies. The early snow report said 30cm in the last 24 hours. I was not early enough, even though queuing at the base of the Kosciuszko Express at 8:15 I was still relegated to about 20 chairs from the front. Those first off the top split in all directions and I could see the snow looked great. No friends on powder day and my friends who got to the top before me were not to be seen.

Decisions, which way down? As the Basin was already open I thought about Cannonball but on the way over noticed that there were no tracks into Funnel Web. I couldn’t believe it and the choice was obvious – first tracks down Funnel Web – a first for me. Experience from the past few days told me to watch out for the rocks and grass in the middle of the steep section. Only the tops of the big bumps were showing through the fresh snow that was knee deep in places. Second run was Cannon ball beside the boundary rope – untracked till traversing out to True Blue that was now completely trashed. The next 6 hours were fantastic – off piste and untracked.

New snows midday Saturday