Failed Again!

It snowed yesterday and a little last night. The new snow was welcomed by all as the mountain had been severely scraped yesterday for interschool events. BUT guess what? The Kosciuszko Express did NOT open on time because of de-icing. Then it just got worse.

It became apparent at 8:15 that there was no way Kosi chair would open on time so I joined the ever growing queue on Snowgums. That was probably the only correct decision I made all morning. I had thought about making a run for Gunbarrel but instinct told me Snowgums. I had three sets of tracks in front of me down World Cup that had about 15cms of fresh on top of groom. As I skied under Kosi chair, the first punters were on their way up. A lovely run but then onto the back of a still enormous queue for Kosi chair. Finally getting to the top for my second run I decided to abandon chairlifts and go for Sponars T-bar. Merritts Falls was nice and the rope line had been dropped much further down meaning bonus untracked turns. Wrong! Sponars was not running. Hmmm, so I skated to Antons. Wrong! It wasn’t running either. I decided to wait and wait and wait and wait. Staff told us it was a de-icing issue but I could see further up the hill a lot of mountain crew activity and a snow cat doing what could only be cleaning up a hydraulic spill. At 9:45 when I finally got to ride past the spill it was obvious that this had been the cause of the delay.

I had a nice Wiamea following ski patrol. Gave Antons a miss and had a run off Sponars between the rocks. The snow up top was over 20cms deep in places. Some spots were soft and others firm. Down to Kosi chair where the queue was still massive. By the time I got to the top it was 10:30 and I had had only 4 runs (2 of which were on T-bars). Had a coffee and went to the Basin as I could see many empty Ts. Wrong! The queue was huge and it was learners causing the empty Ts. Thought I’d try Karels, no queue. Wrong! Not operating. As I traversed along the Rim above the Basin I could see from the lack of tracks above me that Karels hadn’t run all morning.

In every queue I stood in I could here everyone complaining about the poor service. The staff are trying to do their best but the infrastructure is failing. I won’t surmise why in this report.

Possibly one of the worst powder mornings I have experienced. Come on KT - get a grip!

Exhibition off Sponars on Monday

Meadows Wednesday morning

Interschool events on lower Supertrail and Hump run

Snow falling Wednesday afternoon

Crackenback early this morning

Queue for Kosciuszko Express at 8:15 this morning

Queue on Antons this morning
Note snowcat above tower 4

The clean up going on near the traverse on Antons

Cat Walk under Snowgums

Above mid station on Kosi chair

The forecast shows a 4-day snowstorm arriving late Sunday. The school kiddies and Uni students will be gone. Hopefully the lifts will operate and the good life will return.

You know that old saying; “The worst day on the slopes is better than a day in the office”? Well, I might dispute that. Like everyone else, I don't go out early on a powder morning to just stand around waiting.

It is snowing lightly outside. They did forecast 5-10cms today.