Another Day At The Beach

People keep asking me "Is there enough snow to ski on?" and of course the standard summer question: "Why do you do it?". I've tried to explain it is like surfing. If there's enough swell you can do it all year round. I prefer the waves to myself and like today there can be a rocky reef below the waves.

Today the swell was pretty consistent. I got in a lot of turns in a fairly short period of time. The paddle up was tiring but worth every stroke. Unlike surfing, I didn't have a fresh canvas for each run and so I sparingly used up what I had. It was good that Marion was too tired to come with me this morning because there just wasn't going to be enough untracked to go around.

I suspect she enjoyed the KT Xmas party a tad too much for an early start - Marion says otherwise ;-) Whilst on the subject, KT, as usual, put on a brilliant Xmas party. Special mentions should go to Stewart and Nick as well as Glenn Claus (and Santa's helper Neen) for making everyone feel welcome at their grand feast and get together.

Back to my report. I got between 14 and 17 turns on each run with an average 250 steps back up each time. I worked around the only remaining 8s from a week ago and ended up putting in 7 new sets of 8s albeit in a less than perfect configuration. The snow was soft on top of a firm and bouncy base - hey - we are only 7 days from the summer solstice. Just think, in 2 weeks time the days will be shorter than today :-)

Despite such a shocker of a winter season and all that global warming, I thought I had broken my record for skiing later into December than ever before until I went and did a little checking and last year was later than I had remembered.

I'm not sure if I will get another go this year. The fat lady has been sending me messages through 'the force' and they aren't good, but if the gods are willing, I'll try to at least equal my last year's record.

The photos below start with 3 from last Sunday when Marion insisted we go out for freshies on Summer Drift after I had had such fun the day before on Sig Hill. The remaining photos are from today.

View to Signature Hill last Sunday
Amazing how much snow had melted in 24 hours

Last Sunday on Summer Drift Marion preferred the old snow

Whilst I preferred the freshies even though 3 days old.
That really was a big dump of snow!

6 days later (today): The 'Under & Over' MTB trails mid mountain

The mountain bike trails seemed quite popular today, but it is a Saturday
Many locals sneak out of Friday to avoid the crowds

The wild flowers are really coming out now

The North Face today - it looks like it's over for 2013

BUT I went out to ski the Main Face. This might have been my last turn for 2013.
Note the rocky reef below the waves ;-)

I really got some enjoyable exercise during my 2 hours on the hill
You can barely see last week's 8s second from the left

View from the bridge on my way back for a beer at Eagles Nest
just after midday today

I've been particularly lucky with the weather and although the bureau had forecast less than perfect skiing weather for today, once the fog cleared it turned into a beautiful morning. A breeze kept the temp down and I hardly raised a sweat on my 14 ascents. Clouds began to build whilst I was on the hill and so I quickened my pace to ensure I completed my turns before any precipitation might occur.

Thredbo has got to be the coolest place to be in OZ to escape those horrid temperatures I keep hearing on the news.

A big "Gudday and Get Well Soon" to Frank, who I believe is now be out of hospital and in Canberra with his sister whilst he recovers from his dislocated shoulder.