Party Time

There were two parties on the snow at Dead Horse Gap yesterday. Baz had his 50th birthday and a big crowd of locals attended. Meanwhile on the west bank of Bogong Creek the Denman Hotel and Veuve Clicquot Champagne put on the Veuve/Denman "Clicquot in the Snow" picnic. Lots of fine champagne, fine food and fine weather were enjoyed by all.

Marion and I took the explorer’s route via South Ramshead. I should have known better. Once in the tree line the skiing was tres technical and the trip took us almost an hour longer than expected. We had to climb over two creeks without snow bridges and walked a section of the lower walking trail as the skiing was simply too difficult. The chilled Veuve Clicquot at the end of our trek was well appreciated as was the wonderful Denman food put on by Ed and Judy, not to mention Ian and all the staff - thank you.

Despite the groomers’ best efforts to get Karels T-bar open early for the weekend, we had to skin up from the Basin T-bar yesterday morning for our trek to South Ramshead. It was a little like Pitt Street out on the range with tourers, snow-shoers, boarders and tele-skiers heading in all directions.

It has been a week of many birthdays. Just some include: Tommy 84 last Friday, Penny of Eagle’s Nest yesterday along with Barry (50) and then it's Traktorman on Tuesday. Happy Birthday to all.

Stopping to have a short chat to Traktorman and Traktorwoman this morning on my way to the ski room, I thought I would be late for the chair. I could see the chairs going around and there were several racers standing around in the loading area but assumed everyone else had already departed before my arrival only to be stopped getting on the chair with a “you have to wait to 8:30”. Surprised by this I glanced at the clock to see that it was only 8:28 and that I was in position for first chair when loading began at 8:30. Imagine that - I arrive at 8:28 on a Sunday morning to be first in line for Kosi chair - just bizarre. As you can imagine, there was no one around for my first few runs that were quite enjoyable. Crowds started building from around 10am but still it was relatively quiet considering the beautiful weather and good (man-made) snow conditions.

Apart from Karels, open for a short while this morning but closed when I went to ride it a little later, we skied all over and the cover is holding up well. The best is the man-made snow areas and in particular Sundowner and Sundance. We are still shaking our heads over how good Sundowner (normally called Sunbrowner) is.

Tommy at morning tea - 84 and still patrolling

Working on Karels T-Bar while Sally rips the Rim Run

Pitt Street behind Karels on Saturday morning

Contrast between the main range above tree line and open creeks below tree line

Marion above and below tree line - it got a little technical at times

Veuve / Denman 'Clicquot on the snow' picnic

Fine champagne for fine food

Judy (far left) and Ed (far right) from the Denman

Lots of bright colour in the snow

An echidna in the quiet woods
Baz's bash at Dead Horse Gap

The forecasts are not looking good. The talk of 20-30cm of snow on Thursday is now looking to be only above 2200m, meaning !@#$!

Considering how fast forecasts have been changing this week, we can only hope they are all wrong and that the Southern Division Interschool races scheduled for next Friday in Guthega, will bring a huge dump.