Blown Away

The Kosciusko Express chairlift opened for 3 days over the Snow Ride weekend. One look at the forecast and I decided to front the winds on Friday rather than what was promised over the following two days.

Having Kosi open rather than Snowgums saved me around 45minutes of slow ride and extra climb and left me with a little more energy to expend on Signature Hill.

I wore my gortex shell and it remained on for the duration. Whilst the air temp was double digits on the plus side, the wind chill, with wind gusts in excess of 70kph, kept it to just above zero. The snow, what was left of it, was delightful. A soft couple of cms on top of a still firm base. I started on the North Face but when the wind shifted slightly more to the north it was nearly blowing me off the face when at the steepest part of the climb back up. The top of the face is so steep that I had to push my fingers and toes into the wall to maintain grip.

I did a bad set of 8's on the Main Face, which has seriously less turns than last week, and headed back. All round it took me 4 hours from from Kosi base to Kosi base, for a total of 5 runs and 2 cups of DIY coffee on the 'hill' :-)

As for Snowy Ride, Mother Nature was not kind. Very strong winds, at times above 100kph, and rain made for a miserable time to be riding a motor cycle. Numbers appeared to be down somewhat and that was probably due to the forecast weather.

Despite the return to brilliant sunshine, it currently feels like winter outside with a cold south westerly wind blowing up the valley :-)

Game of Thrones - new platform to make it easier for mountain bikes to off load on Kosi chair

Continuing with the theme of comparison photos over the past 3 weeks
Merritts Creek

And the pond

Old North Ramshead and the Club Lake Chutes

Everest and the main range from behind the 'hill'

Looking back up the North Face

Less turns on the Main Face of the 'hill'

More rock than snow

Marion's waterfall now flows into a boulder field

Shot from the bridge

It's hard to believe I skied until December 20th last year and yet I haven't skied in November this year. I'll have to get out at least once more to take my ski days up to 90 - still more than 30 less than last year.

Kosi chair will now be closed, for more annual maintenance, until November 14th.

Anyone looking to rent a studio over summer (from now till the end of May) let me know.

For those who haven't been following my ever growing grump series about the hidden side to life in Thredbo, the best place to start is probably at the beginning. More articles coming soon.