Christmas in July!

After a somewhat shaky start to the season - burst cylinder head gasket on the way to Jindabyne, a $1000 repair on a $600 car followed the very next weekend by a cancelled bus trip to Perisher for the opening weekend due to there being no snow, we finally got to the Snowy Mountains, my new home for the season in Jindabyne and my new job at Thredbo, Australia's 'Premier' ski resort.

D-day was the 26th June to start as Ski Tech which is definitely the best job in the mountains. It is said that Thredbo is the highest or biggest resort in Oz, it is not that it is actually any higher than anywhere else and Perisher Blue covers a bigger surface area, Thredbo has the longest vertical decent (620m) which makes it seem higher than the rest. It is also very Europe-influenced with lots of German/Austrian and Scandinavian bars and mountain restaurants and Alpine chalets being the normal style of building.

The Snow

The snow? Oh yeah. Since I've been here we have had 3 big dumps. 40cm of fresh fell on top of a metre or so cover on the 28th and it rocked. Near perfect conditions, just a little bit windy at the top but once you got into the protected tree runs, it was bliss. The snowmaking was kept on during this time for something stupid like 40 continuous hours to improve cover on the lower slopes - the whole village was a winter wonderland!!!

Following that dump, conditions remained pretty stable, however with 2 massive low pressures above us it started snowing (or puking down as the locals put it) on the 3rd, kept on through the 4th and continued on and off until the 7th!!! That was about another 47cms of the white fluffy stuff and the following day armed with a free staff pass, meant that most of the day was spent finding new runs through the trees. Not that we miss out when working, we get 2 hour lunches so we can spend time on the slopes.

The Mountain

The runs here are pretty vaired, lots of blues and blacks, some pretty scary but a limited amount of begginer slopes - beginners are better catered for at Perisher or Selwyn. Tree runs are plentiful and there is a good amount of off piste and more back country than you can shake a stick at. The terrain park is very limited with only 2 jumps and one rail but the bordercross track is pretty fast and bloody good fun. Speed freaks can tear it down the Crackenback Supertrail (5km top to bottom) which is wide enough for everyone to use apart from the completely clueless, but it does get very busy and has been overtaken this week by school ski races (and obnoxious competitive parents!!). However all this ends this weekend and we get the slopes back to normal - can't wait.

= Stop Press =
Since the first part of this diary note was written we have had a further dump and it was blizzard conditions when we left work. It's not expected to be as much as previous but there is more to come at the weekend.

Thredbo, and Perisher by all accounts, is manic just now as it is the school holidays with bus loads of people arriving daily. So far all records for income, skier days, rentals and lessons have been smashed and the season is really only 3 weeks old. Thredbo is a much better resort than I ever imagined an Aussie ski resort could be but its still pretty weird going snowboarding for the day passing wild kangaroos on the way!!!

More very soon and sending much luv to those left with the snowflex in Sheffield, see you all soon.

San

Words from Sandra Nelson - Natives Resort Reporter

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