snow time

Top of Royston Road

Winter came with a vengeance last week and opened the door for some early skiing. Thing was I was on a tight schedule for time as I had a trip to Brisvagus for a catch up with Mister Sister and a short 160km ride. I did however manage to make one trip to check out Lake Mountain and i was not disappointed.
The heavy rain and low temps had dropped the snow level quite low and there was snow on the Black Spur. The road leading up to Lake Mountain had snow early on and the view to the surrounding hills was spectacular given that there is very little vegetation since the Black Saturday fires. The snow had brightened up the somewhat bleak surrounds of fire damaged forest and made the forest like a black and white photograph.
I found 30cms of snow at the control gates which you don't see that often which meant that there would be plenty of snow up on higher elevations. I was not disappointed with the amount of dry snow when I hit the trails.
I had a descent first ski of 3 hours of classic skiing on a soft base. Due to the fire the groomer was destroyed so they trails were being groomed by a Skidoo and bully piston which did the job. It was a great first ski which I rarely get in the first week of June.
I headed back yesterday and was greeted by a diminished snow base with a few rocks sticking through the trails. A week makes a big difference, but I still got a session in on some very ice covered trails. With snow forecast for next week I am hopeful for some more ski time before racing starts in July. The substitution training with some running is coming along, and rollerski sessions will be added from this week end combined with a little bike riding.... should be fun!
Happy trails


Top of Echo Flat near Triangle Junction