The Seventh Rising

Yesterday's snow was rather ordinary but I did manage the Trifecta - 3 consecutive rides on Kosi chair with the 'boys' (Duncan, Randy & Peter ;-)

We waited with baited breath to see how the bureau's forecast of 45mm of rain would turn out. After the previous forecast from the bureau for 45mm of rain we ended up with 103mm of rain. Surely not again? Well, true to form, the forecasts were way off mark but in a pleasant way. After a few mm's of rain yesterday arvo, it started snowing last evening and kept going all night, although the snow level gradually rose to just above BunnyWalk Station. The forecast for today was up to 30mm of rain but it's snowing above BunnyWalk.

The snow that was sitting in the trees in the village last night was washed out by morning. So, my guess was the snow was going to be wet with possible tendencies towards heavy and sticky. I remember well that last heavy dump on a Saturday morning when I crashed on World Cup. See past report.

I didn't rush out and took my rock-hopping tourers with me. I was second in the queue only to Rusutsu Peter. What was going on? It was Saturday morning and there were freshies (of sorts). On the way up we could see that the cover down low was thin but a definite improvement on yesterday. Visibility up top was limited (a bit like holding a sheet of A4 paper in front of your face). Evil Way wasn't groomed. Little Merritts felt nice then in the off piste behind Kareela I quickly decided to get onto the groomed Supertrail. I followed a single cat-wide late groomer to the bottom - short swings that eventually resulted in a spin-out of sorts at the top of Milk Run. The groomed runs soon became wet slush bump runs but not sticky.

Up high, the off piste felt like champagne sorbet and was 15-20cm deep. I liked Peter's description of the lower slopes being like mashed potato with gravy. The lack of vis up high didn't help the enjoyment level. I did a couple in the Basin before coffee. It didn't change much after coffee except it was snowing more and it was now raining below BunnyWalk - I don't do rain.

Friday Flay yesterday (Friday)

Looking down to Cruiser from Wiamea

Same spot on High Noon, first looking down then across

Top of Sponars looking back towards Eagles Nest

The waterfall above the top of Gunbarrel
and thinking what will it look like after 45mm of rain

Riding Gunbarrel across Dream Run

Sundance and High Noon yesterday arvo and then this morning

Meadows snow depth yesterday (Friday) and this morning (Saturday)

Ski patrol snail trail below Kosi Mid Station - first lift this morning

Merritts Creek above Conrod Straight this morning

So it appears we've dodged the big rain bullet and got a top up of snow to boot. The forecast 75mm of rain for Friday-Saturday didn't happen and the air stream now sou-westerly should keep any more rain falling as snow up high. If my memory serves me well, this is the 7th time the season has restarted.

Thoughts on the Week:-
* After the debacle on Thursday when Labor got votes passed in parliament because several Liberals had left, Bob Katter was interviewed about the mess and said that in the future no Liberal parliamentarians will be able to go to the bathroom. Does this mean that we will see a resurgence in the use of 'Chamber Pots'?

* If you shut the lid on a box of 'Free Range Eggs', technically they're no longer 'Free Range'.