Clearing Conditions

The much hoped for dump of snow didn't arrive last night and the warm blustery conditions continued today although the wind wasn't nearly as strong so the chairlifts reopened. It's interesting how the conditions impact on the snow. Both today and yesterday the snow was very icy in sections. In these areas the snow had melted slightly, then refroze thanks to the wind chill factor creating a top sheet of ice. One learnt very quickly how to avoid or deal with these areas! Loved the wind formed icicles on the Freedom chairlift!

Another day co-ordinating who was doing what. Our group again was reduced in numbers - we said goodbye to Patrick who returned to Canberra to have a new cast put on his hand and was not returning to the snow, while Cathy, Luca and Mia attended an athletics meet. So we had Josh, Maki, Grace and Katy in lessons while there rest of us - Andy, Susie, Ella and I were free.

We began with a loop of Rollercoaster, up Ridge Quad Chair to Mt Blue Cow before completing a few laps there. Next we were aiming for Happy Valley and possibly exploring new trails on Mt Perisher. Unfortunately our timing was off and the weather closed in just as we were riding the slowest and longest chairlift - Pretty Valley double. Ella was frozen by the time we reached the top so we made a beeline to Mid Perisher Station cafe. While warming up and eating lunch, we realised we didn't have enough time to execute our plan and get back to the kids lessons finishing.

Actually by the time we left Mid Perisher Station we had to beeline for Blue Cow arriving with a few minutes spare to do a single run of Brumby. The kids were pretty cold, tired and hungry from their lesson so into the terminal we went for another break. Our afternoon plan was shaped by the limited enthusiasm and energy levels of the kids with the majority keen to return to play on toboggans and make snow dogs(?!). However at the Freedom chair we bumped into Grandpa and all the plans changed! Katy was the only one to come back to make now castles while the others had a few ski runs with Grandpa.