First Ski of the 2007 Season

I’d been watching the Bureau of Meteorology website like a hawk for two weeks, waiting for the first signs of snow, and then it happened. A couple of lovely cold fronts blasting out of Antarctica, coupled with cold air at the 850hPa level and enough moisture and bam, we received our first snow of the season. Everyone in Canberra kept on complaining about how cold it was, I just kept grinning.
We drove up to Perisher on the 2nd of June, and were rewarded with enough snow on the tops of the higher hills and the east facing slopes to do a bit of touring and test out our new gear. We started on the front valley at Perisher in front of the resort, where there was enough snow to muck around a bit and practice some technique. The place was almost deserted as the lifts and snow making had not started and the beginning of the official season was a couple of weeks off. Salome had only been on skis once before last season, and Oskar had only had a short go once last season, so there was plenty to practice. Oskar was getting a bit frustrated as he thought he could ‘just do it’ – maybe we shouldn’t have watched the Youtube videos the night before of guys hotdogging in deep powder! Once Salome and Oskar started concentrating on their technique though, they got it under control. We mucked around on the slope for about an hour, and I noticed Oskar’s gloves starting to get wet as he had been falling over a bit. I told Salome and Oskar to hang around the spot we were at, about a third of the way up the front valley slope, while I zoomed back to the car to pick up Oskar’s back up gloves. When I got back, I couldn’t find them. After a couple of yells I worked out where they were – next to the top of the Village Eight chair lift! They had stomped their way right up to the top of the hill and I was suitably impressed.

Skiing amongst the Snow Gums

We worked our way along the top of the ridge amongst the Snow Gums as the weather started to deteriorate. The forecast cold front was moving in, but our gear was keeping us warm and dry and more snow was falling. The snow that was there was nice thick powder and a pleasure to ski in after last years ice. We worked our way over to the top of Happy Valley and followed the road down. Salome was a bit put off by the hills, but got in plenty of practice side stepping the descent. Oskar invented his own style of downhill technique by crouching right down on his skis and going for it whenever possible. He felt safe doing this as by crouching down he didn’t have far to fall.

Salome side-stepping down Happy Valley

We stopped at the small canteen (which was closed) near the bottom of Happy Valley. It was very nice to be out in the resort without the usual madding crowd and with light snow falling. We had lunch and a rest then set off to the bottom of the hill, then followed the creek line back to the main resort. All in all, a very pleasant start to the season.