'Taint Over Yet

Yesterday dawned with a perfectly clear sky and just a comfortable breeze. Touring had to be the go. On my ride up Kosi chair one could see a nice white cover to the bottom of Antons and Sponars T-bars and even the early web cams had even Merritts looking good. After 4 or was it 5 runs on very nice cord in the Basin, I boot packed it up the Karels lift line so I could record the state of the track having been closed for some time now. See the photos below and make up your own mind. When Perisher had 17 lifts open it seems incongruous that 'Australia's highest lifted point' should not be open for riding.

The range was busy but then it was the perfect day for touring and the cover was way wider than I had expected. The snows of Thursday and Friday improved things far more than I thought - not just in depth of snow but also quality. The preceding freezes stopped the creeks and set up a very solid base.

After boot packing up Karels I skied to the base of Sig Hill, boot packed up and across to North Ramshead and stopped for morning coffee where I was joined by 3 intrepid skiers doing the '10 highest peaks'. And when I say 'doing', they were actually removing their skis and climbing the rocks to the 'peak'.

I skied the steeper face of Pyramid only to find it had a couple of centimetres of soft on a frozen base, to which my rock hoppers didn't get much purchase. I then headed towards Cootapatamba Valley to see if it was possible to traverse along the west-facing side of the valley. Surprise, surprise I was able to ski down to the valley floor. Here I finally donned my skins for the climb up the south ridge. The Kosi Cornice has redeveloped. There were a couple of frozen bubble-wrap patches by mostly soft snow and at times my skis were sinking in several centimetres whilst skinning up.

The run down was great. I just enjoyed the flow of big turns on a great cover. After stopping for half my lunch I headed up again. I counted 1500 steps and that was starting from above the valley floor where I had had lunch. Two other skiers who followed me up south ridge had done the steeper face just past the big slide area. Although my favourite slope, I figured there would be more ice patches on that than my chosen line.

On my second climb a lone boarder followed me up and took a line boarder's right of my first line. I started from a different knoll and then completed 8s to the bottom, enjoying that run even more than the first. The other 2 skiers (Tom and Peter) then joined me whilst I ate the second half of lunch. It turns out that Tom is the son of Rob, our favourite ticket checker in Thredbo. Whilst packing up, 2 walkers approached and asked if we knew the way to Thredbo Village. Given we were closer to Cootapatamba Hut than Rawson's Pass, they were well off course and heading towards Victoria. We put them straight. I hate to think what might have happened if a white-out had suddenly blown in. I told the youngsters to go and do a third run whilst I began heading back to North Ramshead from where I was able to ski all the way back to Sig Hill and down to the bridge. This hasn't been possible for several weeks.

Looking up Karels T-bar line and then back down from the top

North Ramshead (aka Pyramid) - I skied from the top right peak
Looking to the main range across the face of Pyramid

Back of Everest (left) and Sig Hill (right) as seen from Pyramid

My target was the peak on the left. Kosi is on the right
Looking back from target towards Pyramid (right)

Tom and Peter just beyond that slide area I've shown on previous reports

Looking from target to Townsend and the back of Kosi (right)

Tom and Peter above both my tracks
Can just make out boarder track between mine at top then skiers right

Tom & Peter (centre bottom) show some perspective of the slope

Zooming back, Tom & Peter (2 specks centre right)
And yet our turns went on below the bottom left of shot

You guessed it - that standard shot from the bridge
showing the worst of the frozen bubble wrap

I still haven't gone to have my free day at Perisher where there are still a stack of lifts open - will wait for better weather.

Today the grooming in the Basin was again (like yesterday) superb and 5 of us had it to ourselves for the first few runs then our numbers doubled. All that carvable cord :-)

As I downloaded this morning from Eagles Nest it had just started snowing and blowing - 'taint over yet.

Traktorman has been too busy watching youtube rather than skiing our pristine slopes ;-) This youtube expresses the disappointment of many an Aussie rider. Be aware that explicit language is used to express that disappointment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-pNEyhn8JA

Then there is this one also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZCSBMDfvFY.

You've got to hand it to those Victorians.