Perisher 11th of September 2010
Today was brilliant, fresh snow, blue skies and a cool breeze to prevent the hill from becoming a sweathouse. I arrived at Perisher at 8:00am and the car park was already half full thanks to the Interschool Nationals. It was skiercross today and the last thing I wanted was to be caught up in all that mess on my way to Mt Perisher, so I walked up Kosciuszko Road to Eyre T-Bar. The hill is still full of snow, the best I’ve seen since 2004. I got on the first T at Eyre and got three runs with first tracks on Shifty’s before Skifree and Katherine joined me for a ski. Despite Skifree and Katherine bringing the crowds with them we got three more runs with first tracks. The snow was 5cm – 10cm deep and dry in most places with some crust peaking out higher up, as usual the deepest stuff was down low.
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Blaxland and Wentworth |
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Leichhardt with Mt Back Perisher in the Background |
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Towers |
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Mt Back P |
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| International |
Eyre |
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Patrol got some tracks before me on Boomerang |
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| My First set of Tracks |
Second Set |
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Third and Second Sets |
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| Katherine following my 4th |
Skifree following my 5th |
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Skifree chasing up my 6th set |
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After a run down Olympic, which is in great condition, not even a traverse rut, Katherine and I boarded the Quad for a run down Farm Creek. I was stunned as we shared the run with two other skiers (that has never happened to me before), despite the crowd Farm Creek was brilliant as usual. Next we headed for the Parachute trees, which had more great, but quickly softening freshies. For a bit of variety we headed right from the top of Parachute instead of the usual left. The snowgum regrowth became too thick on the lower third of the run and we traversed back to the regular lines to ski down to the road. In another couple of years the Parachute trees may well be unskiable without some surreptitious pruning.
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| Katherine on Olympic |
Skifree on Olympic |
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| Me on Farm Creek |
Katherine amongst the regrowing Parachute Trees |
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More Parachute Trees |
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We finished the day on No Name Ridge (the rock line between Pleasant Valley and the Interceptor, please email me if you know its name). I got a nice little 12 to 15ft of air, the landing was a bit flat and the snow wind affected due to how the snow has drifted in this year and I ended up dropping a hip. Katherine skied her first compulsory straightline. After a countdown she committed and skid the line with confidence, until she hit some boiler plate and crashed (made a great photo though).
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| Katherine lining up for her straightline |
Committed |
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| The deed is done |
But lost on the first icy turn. |
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My takeoff and landing in red and Katherine's straightline in yellow |
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Today was brilliant. Every run I wanted to ski we got first tracks, 6 on Shifty’s, one on Farm Creek, one on Parachute trees and one on No Name Ridge. It is not often I have a day this good at the resort on a bluebird day, epic.
Richard Hocking
