Skiing August

With Peter down, it was decided we should make a pilgrimage to the snow.  The only day that was really going to work was yesterday.  Unfortunately the weather was not in agreement.  Very high winds closed most of the lifts, leaving long queues at the T-bars.  Most of Bluecow was shut down and don't even know about Guthega.  So the morning was spent at Perisher on front and centre valleys, and the afternoon was spent at Smiggins.  

It took us *forever* to get up the mountain too, as they were forcing chain fittings just before Smiggins (Steve has an all-wheel-drive so at least we didn't have to do that).  So didn't get on the snow til 9:50am.

The morning was snowy and very cloudy, so terrible visibility from having goggles covered in snow and melted snow as well as no contrast.  The afternoon was basically hailing - little balls of very solid snow/ice.  So the day was pretty miserable.  But it did clear a bit later in the afternoon, with visibility much better, so actually enjoyed the last couple of hours.

Red in the morning, shepherd's warning?
Snow August
Snow August
I couldn't find the others at lunch so sat by myself and pretended to have something a bit healthy.
Snow August
Barely took any photos of the snow - it was too much effort to take off gloves.

This was on one of the t-bars at Smiggins in the afternoon.  It had cleared somewhat by this point so doesn't show how miserable it was.
Snow August
Snow August
After a few good runs in the afternoon I was much happier about the day, and this beer went down well
Snow August
Stopped at the bakery in Jindy for pies, then headed home and collapsed into bed about 8:30pm

Today discovered that the GPS turned itself off at lunch time.  Don't know if the sudden change in temperature/humidity after lunch confused it, or if it got switched off by accident.  Who knows.  But it would have been pretty boring anyway with only Perisher in the morning and Smiggins in the afternoon, so no huge loss (other than not knowing how many runs I did since some of the lifts don't have RFID on them).