But They Just Can't Kill The Beast

I awoke to a beautiful, clear, blue-sky morning. Freshies beckoned Marion and me to once more go out back. Considering what a bad winter we had, the touring season has been good. It has only been the constant high winds that have prevented more touring.

The fresh snow was not the same sticky stuff of past mornings, it was dryer and in places quite deep. The whole range looked much more like winter than our previous trip just 5 days ago.

Whilst much of NSW has been in the grip of bush fires, the Snowies has had two snow falls between massive winds up to 141kph and wind chills as low as -18C. It has really felt like winter during the last week - even more so than many weeks during winter.

The South facing brown bits were frozen solid but north facing had softened nicely. The new snow was dry and in places 20-30cm deep but mostly around 5-10cms. Although a tad slower than the brown snow, it wasn't sticky :-)

How deep was the new snow?
Top of Kosi chair and then behind Sig Hill

A frozen Merritts Creek from the bridge looking towards Thredbo

There were many beautiful frozen ponds beside the walking track

Looking north west to Club Lake chutes
And west to the northern Ramsheads

Top of Everest was again very firm
But the freshies and mini snow balls on the North Face were delightful

It is hard to see that I'd skied Everest (right hand side)
but not so on the North Face

Marion getting freshies on the Main Face

I could feel the difference between my first run on the Main Face (left)
and my second (right)

We could not find Marion's waterfall (still under snow)
so she settled for the next best thrill

Looking out to the hill from the bridge
Some ice formations looked like ice bergs on the creek

My latest information is that Kosi chair will shut for maintenance on Sunday afternoon, reopening for 2 days on the following weekend and again for the 2 days of Snowy Ride weekend and then it remains shut until November 30. That's a lot of maintenance - might make it go faster ;-). Meanwhile we should have Slowbums chair to take you almost to the top.