Highs and Lows

Surprise, surprise: I awoke Monday morning to a village coated in white. There were a couple of centimetres sitting on the village and 5-10cm at the top of Kosi chair. I was 4th onto the Bluff. The snow was dry yet slightly sticky and required some effort to get through. The lower I went the slower the snow.

The wind was increasing and Jax and I decided it was better to go into the Basin immediately rather than risk missing it altogether if the chair went on wind hold. Wow, silky, smooth, dry-snow freshies to the T-bar. Got to the top and had the same again skier's right of the T-bar. I counted only 8 people (excluding working staff) sharing the Basin and Karels. Initially the visibility was very poor off Karels but the snow was 10-15cms deep and dry. Dropping over into the Basin there was a slow line just before you reached the piste. This dried out within an hour due to the cold wind and the continual snowfall. Yep, it was really cold but in the wind exposed areas our tracks were filling in every 2nd run. Jax and I skied here untill we needed coffee and as the wind had dropped a nudge, we decided to go to the bottom. A bit of a mistake as the Supertrail had become really sticky, so we returned to Karels where the sun was now occasionally showing through.

Tuesday was a different day altogether with a light breeze in a cloudless sky. After a couple of runs on a thinning Supertrail, we headed outback. It seemed that everyone else was doing it too. There were groups of ski tourers, boarders, snow shoers and cross-country skiers. A quick run down the north face of Signature Hill revealed very soft fresh snow balling and sliding on a firmer base. My next target was Pyramid and we trashed that. By the time I returned to Signature Hill it too had been trashed and a group of boarders had built a mega kicker.

Monday morning’s fresh snowfall

Snow in the village and over all the grassy closed runs

Fun in the Basin with Jax and friends

Bare spot at Bunny Walk station on Tuesday morning

Our target and a later trashed Pyramid

View to Mt Kosciuszko and Club Lake chutes

View to Candelo from the top of Pyramid

A trashed Signature Hill

Preparation for Dummy Gelandi, noon Wednesday

Take off good. Airtime good. Pity about losing your head on the landing

Today offered no reason for me to go out. Winds were very strong and the sky grey. It has rained a little. The big test is going to be tonight and tomorrow with a lot of precipitation forecast. Depending where the snow line is will determine how much resort is open by Friday. There is still top to bottom skiing but without substantial fresh snowfalls, that will soon not be the case.

PS: I’d like to thank all those who left the resort on Sunday, including Rosco, for it was undoubtedly their bad luck that brought Monday’s snow ;-)