October Long Weekend

Yesterday, there was a moving memorial for Sasha Nekvapil who passed away in June of this year. As Sasha's younger brother Frank noted, Sasha would have celebrated her 95th birthday yesterday. There were several speakers at the church ceremony before we all moved across the road for a lovely and very informal get together in honour of Sasha and her life well lived. What a wonderful job done by Frank, Sasha' s family and all those who volunteered their time and effort in putting on such a great celebration.

Now that we are at the end of another 'official' snow season, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to all those responsible for making winter what it is. From the ever friendly liftees, the nocturnal groomers and snow makers, the maintenance guys who rarely get a smoko ;-) , to the ski patrollers (both pro and vollie), the crew who keep the village running under the intense pressure of big and often demanding crowds, including the bus drivers (never forget the bus drivers) and the garbos (sorry, that's sanitation engineers ;-), the restaurant, cafe & bar staff, the musicians, the medicos, ski tuners, all the shop keepers and everyone else who contributed to making my (and I'm sure many others') winter both an enjoyable and memorable time.

Scenes from the long weelend from left to right: 60foot jump at Q5
spectacular fireworks on Saturday night second only to opening weekend, Milk Run still intact,
and preparing the fireworks - job well done!

Scenes from the last week: Sponars T-bar line, High Noon, The Bluff

Scenes from the last few days: The photo Ian wasn't expecting,
Duncan too fast to film, Ball's-to-the-Wall,
and Snow Plough, Skid Marx and Scotty downloading yesterday

Ski patrol kindly set up a challenging slalom course in the Basin yesterday

Ian, Scot, Randy & Duncan on the stunning Basin T-bar
and what about the weather - superb

Frank, yesterday in the chapel, telling us of Sasha's life

The celebration of Sasha's life held in the Community Centre

More photos from yesterday: Frank about to cut the cake and
Elysse taking snappies after a season working in Eagles Nest

We managed to convince Butch to come out for one last day
Butch said it would take only 20 runs to get his 2000 vertical.
I think he left after 2 runs ;-)

Jock and Gen setting set up the slalom course today in the Basin
Actually the Basin was more of terrain park - for testing 4WDs ;-)
But it was fun

Hopefully I will get some back country skiing over the coming weeks but a change in maintenance timetables may somewhat limit that. I am informed that Kosi chair maintenance will start after next weekend not at the end of October as it has in the past. The weather over the next few days doesn't look inviting and I'm still trying to get my back repaired enough for the longer walks and climbs required.

Checking on my calendar I see I have skied on a total of 83 days this season and I'm sure there are several who have out down this number this year. Even with future back country days, I do not see how I will get any where near the 126 days I skied in Australia last year - interesting how the cards can fall.

I foresee several possible scenarios for my summer but only one of those will see me back in Thredbo next winter. In the meantime I will continue my reports and grumps. Speaking of which, Squatters Run held it's AGM on Saturday afternoon. Poorly attended as usual but a font of information - some of the more juicy bits I will share with you once I get my pages of notes collated. In the meantime, here's a short article to fill in the gaps before I get down to the "you're kidding" articles.