Time To Pad Up

I took the big plunge yesterday and decided to ride Snowgums chair ;-)

It was a slow, cool ride up but once off the chair and in the lee side of the hill, the jacket, gloves and ski hat were replaced with my sun hat. Marion and I trudged off towards Conrod Straight and wound our way up between the branches of Merritts Creek. Somewhere near Summer Drift we stopped for a light lunch before proceeding to the bridge and then back down to Snowgums via Eagle Way.

There was still a little snow hiding away in the shadiest parts of Signature Hill. All other traces of last week's snowfall had long melted. As a consequence the creek was quite cold and flowing reasonably fast for this time of year.

The first of the winter trail signs and protective padding have begun appearing on the slopes. Mountain biking finished last weekend when Kosi chair close for maintenance. The village was quiet over the weekend. There was at least one wedding but otherwise it felt more like the middle of the week rather than a weekend. The weather has been great - a little foggy up top first thing yesterday but otherwise a glorious blue sky with pleasantly mild temps.

A Volvo cheese mover?

New concrete work at the Cat Shed

Looking back towards Woodridge stage 3

The spa was way too cold for me

There's still a lot of gushing water up top

A more gentle flow near our lunch spot

The winter signs and padding are going on

Last of the fresh snow on Signature Hill

Looking from the bridge

Snow is forecast for this Tuesday - Wednesday.

Regarding my previous grump about Thredbo earlybird (their spelling, not mine) Platinum passes; I have done more investigation. On the KT web site the price for the current earlybird Platinum pass (expiring June 7th) is slightly higher than many of us paid in April.

However, it appears that those (like myself) who rushed to beat the advertised April 7th closing date paid the same $1190 for an earlybird pass as those who got the extension closing on April 30th. Now, if each extension of the earlybird pass came with a higher price I wouldn't have anything to grump about. OK, I would, because if you look at most North American resorts and the sorts of early bird discounts they run, well ....

One final note on 2010 lift prices: The 1 day lift pass will be $103 (ouch) while, the 2 day pass at @ $138 seems remarkably generous - you get the second day for a mere $35 extra. Is it a typo?