Perisher 30th of July to the 1st of August 2010
Friday Saturday Sunday
These last three days have been a story of big contrasts. On Friday I went up the hill to have some practice on my slalom skis before training on Saturday morning. The hill was busy when I got there due to the Interschools Southern Division GS and Skiercross events on Front Valley and Yabbie Flats. After a few runs down Mitchell I started to make my way over towards Mt P to avoid the crowds. The lift lines were huge on the idiot and the quad so I skated over to Lawson and saw the damage the rain through the week had done. The t-bar track was a nasty brown streak, I was amazed when some kids skied down the track towards me. Brown patches had started to appear on the man made runs. After a couple of runs down towers I gave up and headed home.
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It was busy early on FV |
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The Interschools GS courses |
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The patches were showing on the duplex |
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| The Lawson's track was nasty, but still a run apparently? |
The cleft and surrounds. Way to thin for the last week in July |
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Big crowds at 10:30 am |
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Friday Saturday Sunday
On Saturday I had another early 7am start for Slalom training on Zali’s. I was so determined for a dump of snow I bought up my Armada ARGs (silly fat skis, or the canoes) to ski on in the afternoon. I was excited to find some snow had fallen overnight, but not enough and it was wet. I improved in the gates, but due to the dangerous snow one participant was taken off in a banana boat. When I stepped out of the ski tube terminal at Perisher it was puking down with sago. It wasn’t settling much, but it inspired me to take out the canoes and head for the area between the Mt P Double and Inter. The canoes were skiable but awkward on the piste, but they opened my skiing horizons in the off piste. No matter how terrible, variable and patchy the snow-cover they made it fun. I had four great runs followed by a run down Olympic. I now heartily recommend fun shaped skis to any Australian skier. To top off the day I caught a happy snap of the Monoskier with the flouro feet baskets!
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The juniors slalom course on Lower Rollercoaster |
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A FIS kid in the gates on Zali's |
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| Clearing gates, people & slipping the course |
Towers was messy |
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Thanks to the canoes variable off piste mank was fun! |
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The snow is normally at the top of the fences |
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| Vista was very patchy |
Olympic was fun! |
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Big crowds at 10:30 am |
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Friday Saturday Sunday
At 6:30 things hadn’t changed much since Saturday afternoon. There was only 5cm of fresh at Blue Cow, but it was snowing. We didn’t start GS training until 8:00am due to rime on the Summit chairs cables. The GS course was cruisey and fast and after three runs we pulled down the course. I had too much fun to get many images. The morning session was a blast and once again I had too much fun to take many pictures. At least 15 more cm of snow had fallen by the end of training.
After training I picked up the canoes and met up with Owain Williams and we went and did some runs down Boomerang, Wyles and Exhibition. The snow was at least boot deep and knee deep on lee slopes. The canoes were fun, but not as exceptional as in the mank. They gave you more options in how you skied the slope, but I still had fun in my run on Owain’s Karhu Guides. In my final run down Olympic the snow was almost as deep as I have skied in Oz. Sunday was as good a day as I have had in the last four seasons. When I got back to the car it looked like we had had 40cm throughout the day!
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| Puking on the Ridge |
Too much snow is never enough |
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Owain is psyched |
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Owain loving it |
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The canoes were a blast on Boomerang |
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I have not seen such a change since a BC trip in October 92. The mountains were green and now they are white and it is still puking. I officially declare the season having started,... yesterday!
Richard Hocking
