Arrr - Thar Be Snow In Them Hills

For the lesser educated, yesterday (19th of September) was International 'Talk Like a Pirate' Day ;-)

It rained on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday and I don't do rain. On Wednesday night the temperature (up top) finally dropped below zero and the rain turned to snow settling down as far as 1400m. The most important part of this is not the snow but the drop in temperature that set up the remaining snow pack. The snow that fell on barren ground melted off during the day but it snowed again early this morning settling all the way to the village until about mid morning when it thawed.

The ride up first chair revealed a beautiful looking fresh cover from Kareela Face upwards. The wind was up and with the sub zero temp the wind chill was around -11C. I was early getting to the chair, they were not ready. De-icing was the issue. Chairs began loading a little after 8:30 and I got to the top around 9:00 where de-icing was beginning on the Basin T-bar. Initially we (the punters) were outnumbered by the 4 ski patrollers on duty.

The new snow was almost squeaky dry and lay in light drifts over a frozen and uneven base. The groomed run was nice but I eventually was lured onto the Rim Run where I ended up having 3 runs on powder on ice with the odd icicle sticking well out of the powder. Turns sounded bad but felt good - an interesting morning. I even went back for another after morning coffee but the vis was worsening. Poor vis & frozen obstacles do not a happy skier make.

The second night of Efterski was on Saturday night

The colourful background was constantly changing for the bands and DJs

Jenny and Marion on our last ski to Merritts on Sunday
We came in over the top for the best snow

Wednesday

Thursday

Wednesday

Thursday

Wednesday

Thursday

Today - Friday: Frozen base exposed near Karels T-bar

It's still snowing lightly in the village. Full winter gear is required both for being on the slope and for walking around town.

Grump: The new Federal Government has only just been sworn in and already state and territory "leaders" are calling for Abbott to break his election promise and to increase GST.

Don't these so called "leaders" realise that broken promises were the demise of the last Federal government and will in turn be their own demise. What sort of standards, ethics and morals do these "leaders" have? Oh, of course, we've already had NSW and QLD state governments break their pre-election promises so it just figures that WA & ACT should expect Abbott to do the same. What a wonderful example to the Australian population these treacherous double crossers are. Hopefully Abbott has more integrity than these other so called "leaders" (leaders in lies and dishonesty).

Only the Australian people can stop the liars getting into parliament. Don't vote for them! Eventually some will learn, the rest should be keel-hauled and then made to walk the plank as any good pirate would suggest.