| Rain, rain, and a little more rain. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been very helpful and what snow we had has pretty much rotted away. We've spent several days in rain gear stumbling around in poor visibility and praying for a change in the weather. |
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This is what most of the last few sweeps have looked like. Fortunately the patrol rain gear is quite effective and I'm actually dry underneath all of that blue rubber. It's also nice that the hood is large enough to fit over my tootsie pop helmet! (no, my forehead is not that big) |
On the days that it hasn't been raining, the effects of the rain and warm weather are more and more visible. What was a ski run a week ago is now the remnants of a tobaggan run. For a while we were catching tobogganers in this net, but at this point there's not even enough snow for them in this area (Burnt Hut). |
This picture is taken a little further up the hill than the previous one (and is actually one of Nathan Lyon's pictures). This gives you a pretty good idea that (a) the snow is getting pretty thin, and (b) the crazy Aussies don't seem to care, they just keep coming anyway! Yes, this entire area should be completely covered in snow, not bushes. Would somebody please make the appropriate sacrifices to the snow gods so that we can get back to skiing? |
And here's a view from the other (south) side of the mountain. This is the Little Buller Spur run which is one of the main runs here. There is snowmaking all the way down this run, but as you can see the temperatures have been too warm to make snow. |
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This lack of snow has lead some of the staff to desperate, and somewhat strange behavior. Here we see Sam, Ossie, and Camo enjoying one of the better runs that we have available at the moment. You may well ask "Why is Ossi smiling?" Please refer to the next chapter in the saga for the answer to that particular question. |
Even with no snow we're still all having a great time. Take July 27th for instance. At afternoon coffee the staff at Kofler's discovered that it was my birthday. They quickly produced this lovely keepsake, signed by most of the staff. Later that evening I discovered an interesting Australian tradition: on your birthday everybody buys you a drink. We won't talk about the day after my birthday. |
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And of course there are still the sunsets. Once again I trotted up to the summit, this time with Ossi's tripod so that I could get some better shots. I don't know if this qualifies as "better", but the tripod allowed me to set up the camera, hit the self timer, run down the hill, and then pretend that I was just approaching the summit. |
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It was actually a pretty impressive evening on the summit. The clouds were blowing by so quickly that the view was constantly changing. At one moment I would be completely enshrouded in the mist, and at the next I would see something like this. Pretty cool place all in all. |