Best Since The Best Of 2005

Friday was the best day of the season to date. The forecast snow showers did not eventuate but instead a blue-sky day with crisp cold dry winds which kept topping up the slopes with a layer of dry powder.

I stayed out till lunchtime and Sponars was still not open but was later in the afternoon. The conditions produced the longest lift lines this year but the waits were worth it. True Blue and Little Beauty were groomed top to bottom (as they were over the weekend as well). The Bluff and Cannonball were great as was Wiamea and the Powder Bowl. Funnel Web and the Golf Course Bowl were not open but you wouldn’t have known, for all the poaching that was going on.

Who would have known that Saturday was to be even better - the best since the best of 2005 - 20cm boot-deep powder in all directions off the top. May be it was a 7/7/7 thing? After skiing myself stupid down Plan A (inbounds and would love to tell you where but I would then have to kill you), I went out into the Basin with Malcolm where the snow was still virtually untouched. Funnel Web trees were a treat. Everything was open. OK, Ramshead didn’t run and I’m not sure if the Schuss was open but the resort was on fire.

By early afternoon I just couldn’t do any more but I was still skiing untracked – now in the Merritts area. If it hadn’t been for the no-clue, social-misfit morons who managed to awake many of my neighbours and me at 2am; I would have had a nice sleep. In any case there were freshies to be had again on Sunday morning. The early lift line on Kosi was significantly shorter than Saturday – obviously I wasn’t the only one suffering from Saturday’s over enthusiasm. For once the off piste didn’t look as inviting as the wonderfully groomed slopes with 5cm of fresh on top. Four fast runs down the front in the first hour and I was ready for coffee. World Cup and True Blue, Little Beauty and near the Racecourse were all great – fast, smooth and creamy.

After coffee I went all over. The Basin was great as was Cannonball, Merritts Falls, Sponars, Wiamea and the list goes on.

I was warned not to go to the Golf Course Bowl run out as the vegetation was waist high and treacherous. I found wonderful snow in other places and never had any ordeals in extraction.

Friday sunrise over The Bluff and The Basin

The big blue-sky view and Sponars ready to open later on Friday

Second T in the Basin on Friday, Tim loved the firm and the soft

Swaggies, Wiamea, Powder Bowl to Stanley’s

Saturday morning

Milk Run, True Blue and below Bunny Walk station

Malcolm on Funnel Web

World Cup, Kareela Face, Ramshead Chair

Malcolm enjoying Thredbo’s best

Sunday: Fashion lives, Sponars, Into the White Room, Hard life for high alpine trees

The official base depth (Spencers Creek) is within yahoo of last year’s maximum and we should be past that with in a couple of days – and it is still early July.

It is still snowing – heavier now than it has all day. Oh God, not another early morning lift line ;-)

Sorry Traktorman (in Vietnam), hopefully next weekend will be better still. Rosco – you’ll have to give up work soon. I suspect Tim Bailey's prediction of half a metre of new snow by the end of the weekend will come true.