After a couple of perfect traveling days to get to Falls Creek and clear skies even last night as we grabbed our skies and settled into Schuss Ski Lodge, it all went downhill around 5am this morning with the sound of heavy rain on the roof.

The thunderstorms that had hit Adelaide only 10 hours earlier had made it to the snow and there looked like little respite for a while.

Checking out the radar, it wont be at least til after lunch that we will get out on the slopes and what damage has the rain made.

I have just had a look at the mountain cams and there is about 10 people that are brave (mad) enough to be out there doing it and most of them seem to be shredders (typical). 🙂

At around 2pm, the rain started subsiding so we decided at least to take our skis up to a locker at the top of the mountain and if the conditions were OK then do some skiing.

There was a light drizzle up there and visibility wasn’t too bad so we skied until the lifts shut down. The snow was very good and it probably had something to do with the lack of people on the mountain – obviously fair weather skiers. 🙂

Nevertheless we did get very wet and cold by the time we finished but a hot shower and beverage around the fire made it all worth while. Even though we were only out for 2.5 hours, the mileage was an OK 23 km.

The rain has persisted into the night and looking at the radar there is some good stuff on the way including lightning. Hopefully there is some snow left in the morning.

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With overcast conditions and low temperatures this morning including a little fog, it looked like it may not have been a good day on the slopes at Falls Creek. It was good that everyone else was thinking that as there were hardly anyone on the slopes.

Started on the Summit on some nice groomed runs where I managed to make my own tracks up until 10:30 am when the ski schools descended. Made our way back over the mountain but couldn’t quite find runs that would top the ones from this morning.

Around lunchtime the clouds parted and we had blue skies which was unexpected. Then the temperature dropped and the snow crusted up followed by snowfalls.

After doing 55 kms for the day it was time to call it quits today and head back to the Schuss Lodge.

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For our 2nd day in the snow, again it was a typical spring day with warmish weather (11C), clear skies and no wind.

We headed over to the Summit for the morning before spending the afternoon over at Scotts and Ruined Castle.

The snow held up a lot better today than yesterday and you could find somewhere to ski with reasonable snow up to around 3:00. A big day distance wise with 66kms on runs and lifts. 🙂

Rachael decided to try out snow boarding and it looks like that some more lessons are required.

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Well after a 2 day drive, we have made it back to the snow at Falls Creek – and there is plenty of it. It has been said that it is the best in 8 years and I would have to concur it is pretty good for this late in the season. There is plenty of snow on the sides of the road coming up and the roads in the village are still covered. It has been quite a while that we haven’t been able to drive to our accommodation.

It is probably lucky that the roads are covered as the Lift company replaced all the Oversnow vehicles so they needed to recoup their outlay. I just wasn’t expecting to have to allow them to recoup their cost in the first year. They charged me for Rachael as an adult as they thought she looked older than 15. Not happy Jan 🙁

We arrived at our accommodation to find a lot of familiar faces staying in the lodge. We are almost becoming part of the furniture at Schuss Lodge. It has a great atmosphere and is a friendly lodge. One day we may even become members. 🙂

Today was our first day on the slopes and there was certainly a lot of snow. There were a lot of brown patches but it was not the dirt coming through but dust that blew over last week with the storms.

No matter what slope you chose the conditions were good but unfortunately the weather was warm (12C) so the snow became slushy around 1:30. Still managed to get in around 42 km of runs and lifts for the day so wasn’t too bad.

Another good day is in store for tomorrow.

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The sun was shining but the wind was brutal this morning. I found out later in the day that if the wind speed was 1 kph faster then the lifts would have been shut down.

Despite the wind we spent the morning over on Ruined Castle on some pretty good snow but it started to soften around lunchtime.

Rachael managed a private lesson in the morning as her other class mates didn’t turn up, then did some racing in the afternoon with a 26 second run. 🙂

Jenny went for a lesson after lunch and also did some racing and got fastest adult female but didn’t beat Rachael with 27 seconds. It did get her a voucher and a couple of free wines at the presentation in Cloud Nine.

The plan was for us to catch the Falls Creek Express back to the top at the end of the day, drop our skis in the locker and bring Jenny back down.

The plan soon changed with some weather coming in and the lifts being closed due to the chance of lightning.

So we couldn’t get up and Jenny had to ski down after a couple of wines. Luckily she had to bring a 5 year down on Wombats Ramble so it was a very slow sobering ski. 😉

I guess we will be taking our skis and stuff up in the morning.

We didn’t see much lightning but it did rain tonight – hope it doesn’t wash any of the snow away. 🙁

The GPS track today was 45 kms.

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What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the sun was out, it was warm and the snow remained icy. Today it was overcast, windy and cold and the snow turned mushy – go figure.

As we headed up the mountain, we knew it was going to be cold, the trees were all covered by a thick covering of frost.

The morning skiing was good with the overcast conditions and the runs were great.

Around lunchtime, the wind picked up, the wind chill dropped dramatically and the snow conditions went downhill. We still persevered until 5:00 pm though.

We were cold and it was good to get back to the Schuss Lodge and thaw out.

Even with the conditions, the GPS track for the day was 48 kms. 🙂

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