After some amazing mid-week snow on Wednesday and Thursday, the weather turned sour and we encountered a rainy weekend. It was pretty depressing seeing all the nice fresh snow being washed away and all the soft runs turning into sheet ice. Around midday on Saturday snow patrol opened up Currie Bowl for the die-hards that were up on the slopes despite the miserable conditions. Despite the extensive bombing they had done, and do every morning, an avalanche came down through the 123’s chute, set off by a group of skiers. Luckily no one was badly injured and the response was quick in locating and assessing the skiers. Over the same weekend three people were killed in avalanches in Alberta, which is strong evidence that snow safety really is important and we owe a lot to the snow patrol team, who are up on the mountain each morning sometimes letting off as many as 200 bombs to ensure the terrain is safe and skiable. I’m sure after the weekend, everyone that has ever whinged and complained about closed terrain feels bad. Understandably, the whole side of the mountain was closed off for days, giving snow patrol plenty of time to bomb out the bowl and reassure themselves and everyone else of the safety and giving me an extra day off.

Since that weekend there hasn’t been much good skiing to be done up on the hill, given the icy slopes and debris leftover from the avalanche. Zane and I went up on Tuesday to hit the slopes but we only lasted two runs, it was so icy and a little bit scary.

After a long time, the sun finally popped out. It had felt like so long since we’d encountered a sunny day. It makes for busy days at work, as sun goes hand in hand with beer, surely why Australians drink so much. Up on the balcony at Lost Boy’s, our beer sales went through the roof, meaning our tips also increased, which makes everyone happy. On Friday night I did a catbox, which is when one of the staff members stays back late with the supervisor to load up a big storage box with stock, and go up on a cat and unload it into the store. Normally this is a bit of a pain, as it means lots of carrying and stomping around in ski boots but the good benefit is that when everything is unloaded, you get to ski down, generally at 7:30 or 8 o clock at night. It is an eerie sensation, what with skiing in pitch black, with only a little miner’s light to light the way, and if it is snowing, like it was on Friday night, the snowflakes whizz past your goggles, making it look like you’re going at lightspeed through space. It was an especially awesome ride down, as it had been spewing down snow all afternoon, so we were making first tracks through a nice 15cms of fresh powder. I was shit scared and couldn’t see where on Earth I was or where I was going, but after the first few turns I just didn’t even care. Every now and then I would think “I’m sure there’s a chairlift pole around here somewhere.... oh there it is!” but luckily there weren’t any collisions.

It’s Australia Day today in Australia so we’re going around to a friends’ house shortly to have some beers, a BBQ and listen to the triple J hottest 100. It’s actually a nice sunny day and pretty warm so if I close my eyes and face the sun I can sort of pretend I’m back home. Tomorrow night is meant to be a huge night in town so we will have to try and back it up if we have a big one tonight. I’m working tomorrow and the next day but everyone at work is Australian so I suppose we will all be hungover together.

Hope everyone back home is having a sausage and a beer and enjoying being Australian.
Thinking of you all and missing you lots, Love T and Z.