Waiting For Round Three

Since last Friday (best day of the season so far) not much has improved. The Basin T-bar eventually opened with a very thin single cat wide track. Normally it is the "rock garden" at the bottom that determines when Basin T-bar opens. Well, the snow cover at the bottom ended up being better than the mid slopes of the Basin. Each day more has been groomed but the cover is still very thin.

Speaking of "thin", most of the resort is "thin". The failure to fill in the mountain bike trails is becoming more obvious with groomers leaving brown stains on the trails - not their fault - it's what they have to work with.

The corduroy has been good on most mornings although the grooming on Little Merritts has caused some confusion and chaos. The crowds have not really eventuated considering it is school holidays. Just as well considering the limited options. I skied all over during the weekend. Merritts has the best cover. Boundary Rider was surprisingly good and the run out has been cleared of a lot of shrubbery over summer. The best off-piste snow was on Wiamea after Friday's fresh snow had settled.

Karels was to open today but I couldn't see it. The weather had been quite pleasant up until today with cold temps and mostly sunshine. I only removed a layer of clothing for the past two days.

Today started grey and damp with clear snow falling up to BunnyWalk and then wet white snow above that. Visibility has not been good and wet goggles were the order of the morning. The cord soon cut up into a wet and slowing mess and I was back inside before 10:00am.

Friday evening Rails Competition on the snow-play area (old tennis courts)

Competitors had a choice of 3 rails to ride

Under spotlights and into the dark hours

Monday and a look out towards Signature Hill

This morning in the Basin where the grass helped provide some definition

Top of the Basin T-bar

Looking across towards Karels T-bar

Karels T-bar ;-)

Back inside before 10:00am as the cloud descends lower and lower

As I type away, I see snow flakes passing my balcony but they are coming from the north-east. The forecast is for a cold front to approach from the south-west bringing significant snow. I'll update my Twitter as things develop. I may also add another photo to this report before the end of the day.

The very up beat forecasts for Tuesday through Thursday have been somewhat quashed in the past 24 hours. Time will tell. A good deep (even wet) dump will hopefully get the resort into full operation allowing all runs to be opened.

Waiting for the third dump of the season ...