I Thought I'd Have a Rest

Although I said in yesterday's report that I would try hard to take photos today, once out in the freezing wind I wasn't planning to take enough photos for a report but here it is anyway.

Saturday morning: wind 90kph from the SE, wind-chill -20C from the South Pole and the cloud was beginning to break up, revealing more and more sunshine.

The unusual SE wind was lifting the seats on the Kosi chair during their descent back to the village. Apart from keeping the liftees on their toes, it brought back memories of the Hanazono 3 chairlift in Hirafu where strong winds would sometimes lift open the quad chair covers on their descent.

The crowds were in form - winter is in full swing - and queuing demanded more time than riding up and riding down put together, except on those lifts fully exposed to the strong morning chilled wind.

The snow was mostly wind packed. Pockets not being hammered by the south easterly were mostly deep and chopped up. My pick of the groomers was True Blue whilst runs like the Basin and Supertrail were pretty much straight into the strong head wind. Up high there was reverse-sastrugi. Coming from the SE rather than the NW meant the sastrugi had their vertical faces on the downhill side not on the up.

Karels had horizontal wind drifts across the T-bar track and when the light was flat the whoop-de-dos whilst riding up the lift were quite exciting (cheap thrills ;-).

Once out of the resort conditions changed a lot. Up high there was a wind crust but we didn't break through - it just felt and sounded like we would. Below the tree line the untracked was getting heavier (probably because of the wind effect) until we got lower enough and out of the wind where the deep untracked was just a delight :-)

In amongst the dead wood glades

There were signs of live wood

Marion almost fully recovered from that broken arm

Edie ripping in some short turns in the dry untracked

With big smiles all around

Little cascades between the snow white canyons

Anyone for marshmallows?

Dead Horse Gap

Tracks by Edie, moi & Marion

The girls celebrating a most enjoyable run with a glass of bubbles

I forgot to mention in yesterday's report that I rate yesterday as my best day this season so far. Some thought it was Thursday.

The forecasters seemed to have recoiled a little from forecasting big dumps but something still looks like it is on the cards around next Thursday - maintaining the weekly pattern. Personally, I'm a bit more optimistic about the series of cold fronts approaching Western Australia.