After a week of early season snow I knew I’d only have a brief window for a pre-season ski. I headed up on Saturday Morning and I was surprised about the amount of snow which had fallen. Perisher had a nice cover, about 40cm worth and some solid drifts high up. Perisher had the guns firing on Front Valley, from the Mid-Station and on the full length of Towers. Front Valley was full of skidoos and I didn’t have time to head out onto the main range so I drove up to Charlottes to have a look at Mt P. International looked like a goer but I was wishing for more time when I got to the turning circle. Mt Clarke looked stunning.
After all of the snow which fell on Friday and some intelligence from friends I chose Guthega to get some freshies today. Viveka started off her season with some lovely freshies down escape. At the Blue Calf T we met up with Mark and Mic and did a couple of laps down Basinski before we became frustrated with the growing ques on the Blue Calf T and the late opening of the Blue Cow T so we had a run through the trees to the bottom of the Car Park Double. There were some great knee deep drifts to be found.
What a weekend, there isn't much more to say really, but I'll try anyway. Saturday morning was cold, calm and bluebird. Masters training was the call of the day which we spent "freeskiing" (powder piggin'!) in the morning with actual training in the afternoon. There were boot deep freshies everywhere in Guthega and when we ventured onto them the groomers were perfect. At the end of the day Ben and I went for a quick dash down Farm CK.
Telemark Courses run by the Australian Professional Snowsports Insructors are aimed at telemarkers who think they might like to do some Telemark Instruction. The course is over two days and introduces you to the beginner telemark progession, pedagogy and your skiing skills. These courses are a great way to improve your skiing by learning how telemarking works.
Courses have already run at Perisher and Falls Creek, two more are on offer at Threbo and Mt Buller
The New Zealand Snowsports Instructors Alliance Telemark Division have announced the dates for their Telemark Courses. You can get a truck load of information from their website. If you have any questions send an email to Greg McIntyre the Telemark Course Director.
In most cases a skier with even a modicum of courage will try to surmount obstacles in his path and pass them directly. Nevertheless, in exceptional situations a skier may need to execute an abrupt stop. When skiing in a snowplough position, the T-stop is a technique suitable for executing such a stop.
I forgot my camera yesterday so no pics. But I was pleasntly suprised by all of the snow at Blue Cow, it looked like a dust on crust day at the Perisher Car Park, but at Blue Cow there were drifts of 10cm! I had a great morning on Brumby and spent the afternoon as an examiner at a APSI Nordic Level 1 course. Onto the report. There was a dusting of snow at the Waste Point Poo Tube and 2wd cars had chains on at Wilson's Valley. For Masters Training we headed over to Guthega after the summit mysteriously closing shortly before we arrived. Today was another day of the season.
After being spoilt on freshies all day yestaerday Tony and I decided BC was the way to go today, especially since the cloudy cover seemd to be clearing. We headed straight out to Eyre and had a run down Shifty's and satisfied that the wind blown hadn't fully cover up yesterdays tracks we headed towards Snow Snake. The south side of Mt Perisher had enough cover, but only just. The lack of snow broke up the line down Snow Snake, but added an extra dimension of lots of playful bumps and lips to hop around and off.
It had snowed a reported 30cm overnight and Scruff, Tony, Johno and I were all excited. After ticketing issues we finally got out on the hill at 9am. We made the choice to check out Leidchardt first and had a couple of nice runs with good snow. Then we moved onto Mt P and suffered the scourge of the next few hours, 20min+ ques. We made the most of it though by skiing Come back again and Shifty's. The snow was worth the wait and the ski back down Kosciuszko Rd to the Double. 30cm of ohh so silky smooth snow.
