Not With A Bang But A Whimper

The long weekend and final* weekend of the snow season for Thredbo resort was a weak affair.

I didn’t bother putting the skis on for Saturday as the temperature on top of the mountain was 6C and rising early in the morning. The snow had not had a freeze and was very soft. Sunday was just a little cooler and with a brisk breeze to add a little wind chill I decided to put in a good appearance.

By being prepared to walk over sections of grass and rock we had some nice turns (ok - they were in soft snow) in the off piste areas around Karels and The Basin. There were not many skiers or boarders on the slopes but a lot of visitors to the top of the mountain - Eagles Nest was busy for lunch.

Last runs on Central Spur and Merritts proved to be ‘interesting’. The only reasonable snow was Lenny’s Leap on Antons and Wiamea above Merritts. I was amazed to see how much snow had disappeared since last Wednesday (my last day on the slopes). All lifts but the Basin t-bar were closing for skiing and boarding on Sunday afternoon.

The area around ‘Balls to the Wall’ in The Basin was still untracked

Boarders and skiers enjoying Charlie’s jump

Fresh tracks (trenches) above the Basin after walking over the grass and rock

Looking up the ‘Supertrail’ in today’s rain

Raining pouring down on Kosi chair when it finally opened

Today started with high winds so not even the Kosciuszko Express (Crackenback chair) was running. Before the winds dropped enough to start the chair (and Basin t-bar) rain began to fall and kept up (on and off) most of the day.

*Late news: the final Thredbo snow report on the local radio reported that the Basin t-bar would remain open till the 11th of October. That will provide a challenge for the slopes crew as yesterday large holes were appearing in several places on the lower groomed sections of The Basin.