Like a Bee Attracted to the Honey Pot

On Friday it rained until dark and then suddenly switched to snow. The wind kept blowing and the snow kept falling - lightly. Saturday morning and it was very dull outside. There was about 1cm of white covering the village. There was snow in the trees - despite the strong wind.

Being a fresh-snow morning and a Saturday, I was about to line up for SlowBums chair when I saw the Kosi cable moving. This meant no de-icing issues (for a change) and so I remained in line for 5th chair. The queue grew and grew as the word got out that Gunbarrel chair was out of action due to an incident yesterday afternoon.

As we ascended towards Eagles Nest the new snow (both fresh and man made) looked good and very inviting. Lower runs that were grass and rock yesterday were pure, smooth white.

My initial thoughts were to get first tracks down True Blue. At the top ski patrol were telling everyone that the Bluff was closed - I assumed for avalanche clearing - because it was open later on. Visibility up top was marginal to say the least. Little Merritts felt good and I headed to the top of World Cup. After my first few turns I cancelled my idea of doing True Blue. The new snow was heavy and slow and a few hundred metres into World Cup I experienced a ski separation followed by a head separation. Due to dressing in my neck warmer earlier I had failed to realise I had not strapped my bucket to my head - dumb ass!

A few awkward turns further and I was able to get onto the groomed Supertrail and then to avoid the massive queue on Kosi I boarded SlowBums at BunnyWalk to get back up for some more punishment. On the way up I spotted a large class of skiers in the trees under the chair. There was carnage all over. This told me it wasn't just the snow making responsible for the atrocious conditions. I figured that the rain must have soaked back up the new snow.

I decided on a calming run down the Supertrail. Calming for me, not for others. On the Meadows below BunnyWalk station the groomers had only groomed skiers' right - probably because skiers' left had been grass yesterday. Anyway as every skier entered skier's left they too experienced ski separation - one ski to the left and one ski to the right. More carnage.

Kosi queue had dissipated when I got there. On my ride up I spotted further carnage across the mountain side. Boarders were doing much better in the conditions - board separation is difficult and not advised ;-)

Into the white room called the Basin. The snow felt OK. No queue. The ride up was interesting, first my right knee went up and then my left knee went up after the right had come back down. I couldn't see what was going on but assumed the T-bar line was anything but level. After a Braille run back to the T-bar I decided that maybe some caffeine might help. I dried all the damp and frozen bits - yes the wind chill was somewhat below -15C and my crash had planted some white bits in places not meant to hold white stuff.

Back outside I found that conditions had not changed much. Tried the Basin again but no change. Karels and Sponars were closed due to poor visibility but Gunbarrel was back on line. Little Merritts still felt nice. Supertrail suited my edge holding skis. At the bottom the Kosi queue was building again and I called it quits. It was one of those days where my softer touring skis would have handled the honey pot goop better but their lack of edges would have been horrid on the hard base on runs like Supertrail.

The snow has kept falling lightly during the day and the wind is gusting to 100kph again as I type away.

A fresh cover of white across the village and slopes this morning

The queue on Kosciuszko Chair before opening on time

Not much change in the Meadows snow depth after the rain and the snow

The snow guns were still pumping as we headed up first time

Lower True Blue looked fantastic compared to yesterday

The fresh white cover was calling out to us all - little did we know

This shot taken at 4:10pm - just before posting this report

Nothing much to add here. Keep an eye out for my next tweets and report.

And to answer your questions: No, I did not take any photos of my first tracks on World Cup :-)