Michelle and Emma on the Roadrunner

Today was our last day in the snow country, and as a result, unfortunately, it began early – 7am Ed and Dave hit the road to pick up the cars from the long-term car park – while the rest of us bumbled along collecting gear and readying ourselves for one final day on the slopes. Pip and Sally were the first to actually hit the slopes, as Sally, Mike and Jayne were hitting the road for home much earlier than the rest of us – 10am to be precise. The house was packed, cleared and checked by 10am – quite an effort considering the amount of stuff we had with us – and most of us hit the slopes while Nat and Tess took up camp in the Chill Cafe at Hotham Central. The weather was perfect today, with blue skies as far as the eye could see, temperatures hovering just below zero, and no wind at all.

We tried our best to cover as much terrain as we could, and ventured to both Imagine and the Cornice which had opened for the first time this week. Luckily this meant the crowds were a little more spread across the mountain, although the bottlenecks at the base of the mountain still meant a few minutes waiting before each ride back up. We only lasted until about 11am before we stopped at Snake Gully Hut for a hot chocolate/coffee to keep us going before lunch. Both Emma and Bronte had certainly improved in leaps and bounds since last season, and were proving to be hard to keep up with on the slopes – a challenge that is only set to get harder and harder in years to come.

Michelle on Snake Gully

We skied a few more runs before Ed and I stopped for lunch, with Pip, Emma, Bronte, Michelle and David not too long behind. A small incident at the base of the Summit involving a trainee liftee, Bronte, and the Summit chair meant that they were a little longer than expected, but luckily there were no injuries as a result. Lunch, for the first time this week, was at the Chill Cafe – only due to the fact the our accommodation was no longer ours. The food was nice but was, of course, at mountain prices. The change of scenery was enjoyed by all, although unlike our previous lunch spot (the house), it wasn’t quite set up for such a big group to sit together. We didn’t spend too long inside, and soon hit the slopes for one last ski for the 2010 Australian Season.

The snow had certainly started to soften by mid-afternoon, but the conditions were still better than we’d skied all week so nobody was doing any complaining. We skied most of the afternoon at Heavenly Valley, then decided to call it a day just before 3:30pm. Ed and Pip had stopped skiing a few runs earlier, and had begun reorganising the car to fit in skis, boots and other items that had been in use throughout the day. Before we hit the road, we stopped briefly past Michelle, David, Emma and Bronte’s new home for the next week (they were staying a week longer than the rest of us), then started down the mountain. We also left Nat and Tess behind, as they were catching the Snowball Express (but that wasn’t leaving until 5pm).

Sun through the clouds

The drive was uneventful, although we did pass one ute that had taken a corner a little too quickly and ploughed straight into the snowy embankment on one side (luckily not the other side, otherwise they may have stopped 500m lower than the level of the road). We arrived at the Bright on Track around 5pm, and relaxed for an hour or so before heading to the Star Hotel for dinner. We met up with Nat and Tess, who had stopped here on the bus for dinner, and enjoyed the pub-style meals that were always on offer. As everyone was tired (and Nat and Tess on a time schedule), dinner didn’t last a particularly long time, and Ed, Pip and I had an easy night in preparation for the long drive home tomorrow.

We’ve certainly had a mix of weather this week, with rain, snow, wind, and perfect sunshine, but all-in-all, it has been an enjoyable time away (and we did get to ski, which is always good!). Have a look at today’s photo gallery here, as there are some great images!

Michelle, Bronte and Emma on Wendix

Today we woke to find (as reported) 24cm of new snow on the ground, meaning everything had a nice white covering that had been sorely missed over the last few days. Again, the keenest of skiers were out as soon as the lifts opened (8:30am because of the lack of snow), while the remaining members of the household (including myself) took a little longer to get moving. It was still snowing lightly periodically, and was set to continue for most of the morning. According to the reports, however, the new snow hadn’t lead to any new runs or lifts being opened, it really just made skiing on those already open a whole deal better.

Luckily today the wind was at an absolute minimum, so the falling snow was nice and light – unlike previous days where it had been a relatively painful affair. By the time the majority were out on the slopes it was mid-morning, but the conditions were the best we’d seen all week, with all runs covered by a nice few centimetres of fresh snow. We explored all of the open mountain yet again, but were happy to get up both the Roadrunner and Summit chairs that had been closed for most of the week. Although we had been pretty good with sticking to the open runs only until this point (for fear of breaking a leg, for example, on a huge exposed rock), today we decided to ski Wendix, a run we had seen from the Roadrunner which appeared to be covered in a particularly deep layer of powder.

The Summit

The run itself was good, although the thick snow was challenging for some, however at the end of the run we encountered a significant multi-metre drop which was (potentially) one of the reasons the run was closed in the first place. Michelle, David, Ed, Emma and Bronte all removed their skis and slid down the embankment, however I decided to take a more adventurous route down and leaped off on to the trail below. Everyone survived with no injuries, although some were keen to avoid skiing this run again during the remainder of the day!

Lunch was back at the house (after we’d skied a few more runs around Heavenly Valley), however due to the favourable conditions outside, we spent the shortest amount of time indoors today. We hit the slopes again to make the most of the good (well, considerably better) snow and good weather, and spent more time skiing those runs we had already skied today (with the exception of Wendix). Ed and I ventured on to The Cornice, which was closed, but it proved to be enjoyable skiing nonetheless. We stayed out until Ski Patrol began closing off runs (it was 4:30pm), then made our way back to the house.

The view from lunch. Nice!

Tonight’s entertainment involved some shopping, a quick drink at Zirky’s, a screening of Alice in Wonderland for the kids, some Trivial Pursuit, some assorted TV viewing, and a little suitcase packing. Tomorrow is our last day here in the snow, and we head back down the mountain tomorrow afternoon. It’s crazy that the week has come to an end so fast, that the snow has been so variable, and that we all have to head back to work next week (where there’s no snow)…

Take a look at today’s photos here – there are some great ones from our little adventure down Wendix!

Cold beer anyone?

The rain from yesterday finally stopped at 1:30am (according to the weather station – nobody was awake to witness this first hand, of course) and we woke to a nice new covering of snow; albeit only 5cm (or so). The blizzard which was predicted had come, but was set to continue all day and well in to Thursday (so it hadn’t all come at once). Regardless, this was enough of a motive for some keen skiers to hit the slopes at the break of dawn (or near-enough too) and see what damage the 40mm of rain had done to the snow cover.

Pip decided this morning was the day for pancakes, so those a little slower off the mark were treated to a more exciting breakfast than normal. Although it was snowing consistently, the wind was as strong as it had been in previous days, and the combination of these two was making for “interesting” skiing conditions out and about. Regardless, most potential skiers did hit the slopes for a period of time to find some nice new powder (a few cms) covering the relatively well-destroyed base cover which had turned to a slick cover due to the rain, followed by freezing temperatures.

Most sections of the mountain (which were open) allowed for access to one run in each area, meaning that the school holiday crowds were funneled into a few key areas. The only way up from the base of the valley, for example, was showcasing a 20 minute wait, making skiing anywhere that lead here rather unattractive. A few runs later and majority stopped for lunch – again, back at the house (as it seemed we had brought far too much food to even consider eating out for lunch or dinner). The warmth of the fire and escape from the gale force winds made it hard to get back out of the house after we’d devoured the home-cooked pizzas, but we did make it there in the end!

A short line-up at the Village Chair

A few more runs braving the weather (although the constant snow had made the conditions even better) and we called it a day. Luckily the crowds at the base of the hill had thinned out completely, and the snow was falling even heavier than before (which we hoped would continue for the whole night). Michelle, Emma and Bronte paid a visit to the Harry The Snowdragon Show at the Big D, but soon returned from the snow storm outside (goodie bags in hand, of course!). The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful – another home-cooked dinner, a movie and then bed; for most. Pip and Sally decided to have a night of Apres Ski activities, and headed to The General for an evening of “Darts and Disco”.

We’re all hoping that the snow continues all night (it certainly has up until now), which should mean a good day ahead on the slopes tomorrow!

Although today’s weather wasn’t perfect for photos, have a look at the few we did snap in today’s gallery!

A murky-looking day

Today was a slack day for most – the snow conditions certainly hadn’t improved since yesterday, and the (lack of) visibility and strong winds were making things relatively uncomfortable outside. Regardless, some did choose to brave the conditions and hit the slopes as early as they could, but the remaining few of us spent the day inside – observing the poor weather from the comfort of the living room.

Those who did go skiing did so up until lunch (although both Michelle and David stayed out on the slopes during the quiet lunch period), and after lunch, even fewer returned. Although I didn’t make it out there myself, I’m told the conditions were actually better than yesterday due to the fact that all of the ice (which covered much of the open terrain yesterday) had softened. Ed kept saying that he would stay on the slopes until the moment that the rain started, and in the end, he was right (although managed to get wet between the top of the chairlift and the accommodation). Luckily it had held off as long as it did, but by 3:30pm it was well and truly coming down.

Snow warriors preparing for battle

At 2C (and climbing), the water falling from the sky was staying exactly as that – water – and unfortunately it was beginning to take much of the white cover with it. The latest forecasts predicted that this would continue until about 12am, then it would turn to a blizzard of 20cm (or more). Rather than sitting inside and watching the rain fall, Ed, Mike, Sally, Michelle, Emma, Bronte and myself headed to Hotham Central for a wine tasting night, with bottles provided by the King River Estate winery (a local winery). Unfortunately, the winemaker had a bit of an attitude – perhaps it was because we knew less about the wine than we should have (but isn’t that the point of the wine tasting?!) – but it didn’t sit well with many of the group. The wines were “interesting” – some nice, some a little less nice – but the attitude was enough to send us off looking for the Heineken Happy Hour that Mike had read about not long after 5pm.

Swindlers was our venue of choice on this occasion, but unfortunately, not only was this not the location of the Heineken Happy Hour, but they had also run out of Heineken too. Regardless, Ed, Sally, Mike and I stayed here for a (very much) full-priced beer (or soft drink in at least one case – perhaps the altitude and wine tasting had made me feel a little less than perfect) while the rain continued outside. Michelle, Emma and Bronte headed to the Hotham Bingo competition, where I should report, Michelle won first prize in round two, and Bronte collected a few additional prizes along the way too.

As the rain starts to fall...

Making the dash back from Hotham Central to the accommodation resulted in all involved getting saturated – from head to toe – as a result of the now-even-heavier rain outside. Dinner was again home-cooked, and the rest of the night was spent playing board games, watching television, and using as many laptops as physically possible in such a confined space (unintentionally, of course).

As of 8:30pm, 29mm of rain had fallen since it began at 3:30pm – and at 4C, the snow looks a long way off. If things don’t improve, tomorrow’s photos are going to be very brown, and activities may involve hiking, sleeping and general Adelaide-style winter activities. Fingers crossed we don’t get to that point!

Have a quick look at today’s gallery, although I will admit, there isn’t much to look at. Hope the heavy rain back home hasn’t caused too much chaos for too many!

Today was our first official day on the slopes, after most of the adventurers decided not to venture out into the wild yesterday on our arrival. The house we were staying in, while nice to be made of timber, certainly had a few disadvantages in that any footsteps upstairs were well and truly well-heard below in the bedrooms. This meant that most of us were awake not too long after 7:30am. I decided to try and stay in bed as long as was physically possible, but by 8:30am decided it was time to stop fighting the noise and embrace the sunshine outside.

A nice day on the slopes

Lifts officially open at 8:30am, and a few keen skiers were out on the slopes not too long after this (of course, this was after forking out plenty of dollars for a lift ticket), but reports back from these people were not overly positive. Excluding the Big D, there were six runs open – one of these being Mother Johnson’s Return (a simple track). Not much to look forward to in anyone’s opinion really. Conditions, however, were reasonable, all things considered, and the nice weather certainly helped to forget some of the other issues that were plaguing the mountain. I was the last to leave the house not long after 10am and joined the others on the slopes. We tried our best to avoid the crowds, but this was relatively difficult considering the three chairlifts operating on the main area of the mountain. In the end, we found ourselves skiing Snake Gully – normally a blue run, but today, it had been reclassified black.

During the course of the morning, Pip managed to be completely collected by an out-of-control skier (perhaps lucky he wasn’t a snowboarder), threw her ski pole as a javelin (towards the man responsible), and exchanged some heated words – but apparently it could have been much worse if he’d been skiing a little faster.

Imagine, looking a little worse for wear

Those who had started earlier stopped for lunch first, while Dave and I skied a few more on the Snake Gully ice – however, we too, soon, gave up and headed back to the village for some lunch. Today we had lunch back in the house; all 10 of us. We still had no dining table (which we had been promised the day before), but the couches were proving to be more than suitable for a midday relax. Emma made the quote of the day during lunch, after Pip let slip a word perhaps not so suitable for young ears, she responded: “I thought you would have used all those words on the skier today!” The warm sun (the thermometer said 8C – yikes!) was enjoyable enough that I didn’t hit the slopes again after lunch – most of the crew did, but it was for a very limited period.

Pip, Emma, Bronte and I ended the day with a coffee at the Chill Bar, Hotham Central, and just after 3pm Nat and Tess arrived from Melbourne. Mike had his first ski lesson in the dying hours of the day, and to the surprise of some, came back fully-functional (including the use of both legs). Not long before he and Sally returned, we received a make-shift dining table – we were half expecting it to come with an allen key. Chairs were an optional extra that were not included…

We ate dinner in tonight – a quality Butter Chicken crafted by Dave – and spent remainder of the night reading books, watching TV or playing card games.

Tomorrow is set to be a similar day to today, particularly warm, ending with a huge amount of rain. All reports seem to say, however, that after the rain has destroyed anything white that might remain on the ground a big dump of snow is expected to come from early Wednesday morning. We’re certainly hoping that this is the case, and even that the rain tomorrow is nothing more than a bad dream – but again, only time will tell here.

Have a look at today’s images here!

Looking up the valley

Last night brought floods of rain to the mountain, and after a quick check of the conditions, we soon decided that it wasn’t quite as urgent to get up and moving as perhaps had been encouraged in the past. Luckily the morning wasn’t quite as chilli as may have been the case at the Bogong View on previous occasions (it probably helped that it was 10C outside as well!). We didn’t hang around long, however, before picking up the freshly waxed skis and grabbing some breakfast in Bright. Some of the Bright locals advised against heading up the mountain, saying “there’s nothing but grass and rocks up there”, (but what you could do in Bright for a week is beyond me).

The drive up the hill was uneventful, although we did see some scrapings of snow much lower than we expected – however, this seemed to be a bit of an anomaly as most of it disappeared as we went higher. The reports had said the natural snowdepth was back to 12cm – hardly enough to even give the ground a white cover – while the man-made level was reported at 69cm (of course, last measured nearly a week ago…). We were a little depressed with the outlook, and as the accommodation wasn’t ready, we decided to head 10km down the other side of the mountain to Dinner Plain (we would regularly hit the slopes as soon as we arrived, but the conditions/weather were just not that appealing – it was quite a “washout”). Although we would normally avoid Dinner Plain for lack of skiing, excitement, and general things to do, today we had only a few other choices. A quick stop past the only Dinner Plain ski run, then we made our way to Rundells Restaurant for a warm place to sit, relax, eat some lunch and watch the minutes slip by. Luckily for us, it had started snowing a few minutes earlier, and so we ate lunch praying that it would continue all night.

A nice fireplace at Rundells

Probably the most interesting comment from the entire time we spent at Rundells was made by Ed, who stated that the people working there should just “blow up Bright” in response to the locals trying to convince everyone not to go up the mountain. Let’s just say the waiter was a little surprised by that suggestion. After almost convincing a number of people to hand over $1,000 cash for him to check them in to their accommodation (he had offered them “The Penthouse”), we decided that it was time to head back to Hotham – luckily our accommodation was ready on our return. I had spent most of the afternoon searching for any ‘Hotham Snoweoke’ events this week, but had so far failed to find anything of the sort. Shame really.

Michelle, Emma, David and Bronte had decided to brave the conditions and hit the slopes, but the rest of us spent the next hour unloading the cars and settling in to the place we’d call home for the next week. Although it was a little smaller than normal, and missing a few essential items (like a dining table), there weren’t any major issues so we spent the remaining hours of daylight watching the snow fall (off and on) outside.

Some snow falling

Dinner tonight was cooked by Nat who, strangely, was back in South Australia. An impressive effort I’d suggest. The remainder of the evening was spent, between the 10 of us now in the house, checking as many snow predictions as possible to try and work out the plan for the rest of the week. Nobody got any closer to knowing what was going to happen – other than perhaps a large amount of rain on Tuesday, and potentially a big snow dump on Wednesday. The truth to those predictions remains to be seen.

Hope the wild weather has settled down a little back home – but if there’s more rain on the horizon, make sure you send it this way with a few less degrees of warmth!

To see a few more images from today (including one of the Dinner Plain ski run in all its glory), take a look at the gallery here!

The first day of any ski adventure seems to start early. Really early. Today was no exception – with a 3:30am alarm call to make a 4:30am rendezvous. We were glad to be gone of the wild weather hanging around Adelaide, but it didn’t let us get away without some hairy driving first – including sections of the freeway being subject to complete darkness (where they would otherwise be lit), and rain heavy enough to make seeing anything very hard.

Snow-bearing clouds, perhaps?

Regardless, we soon escaped most of the wild weather (although the rain continued for some time), and headed towards the Victorian border. For the first time in a number of years, our traditional “convoy” was a convoy of one – just us. Others were making their own ways and times, however as we were to soon confirm, if we were planning on being at the destination at a similar time, and departing at a similar time too, we were bound to cross paths along the way!

We stopped at the Ouyen Bakery for breakfast, and here bumped into the second car of travellers: Michelle, David, Emma and Bronte. As part of our breakfast conversation, I happened to ask Bronte what her choice for song to sing while on the chairlift was for this year (expecting perhaps a Justine Clarke, “we like to sing”). The answer? “Love Generation”. That’ll teach me to ask the hard questions. (Lucky the chorus is easy, I guess…)

The journey continued uneventfully, and mostly spattered with rain, until we reached Echuca where we stopped for lunch at the regular “Beechworth Bakery” (the best bakery in Australia, apparently). This fine establishment was packed to the brim of customers, and we were lucky to find a table and plant ourselves there for a few minutes while we ate. We did cross paths with Car 2 again here, although they pushed on relatively quickly to spend some time looking at the (painted) cows in Shepparton.

Showtunes were the musical accompaniment for the majority of the day, and whether this had any impact on our near-record early arrival time (4pm) is a question that remains unanswered. Upon arriving in Bright (which was also being subjected to heavy downpours), we made a quick chain hire/ski service stop, did some grocery shopping, and made our way to the place we’d call home for the night – “Bright on Track”. This choice was one applauded by all as a major improvement over the regular “Bogong View” (Bogan View as some preferred). Some notable improvements include: instant hot water, warmer bathrooms, space, light etc etc.

Bronte, Scott and Emma at dinner

We didn’t rest long before heading out for dinner – a new restaurant to start the trip off; The Il Centro Pizza House. I’m not going to bore you with little intricate details here (I do that enough already), but the upshot of dinner was that while the food was excellent, the service was a little less than excellent. This resulted in food being left for long periods before being served, sauces and toppings coming separately (both physically and in time) to the main dish, and so on. My recommendation? Take-away.

Everyone (the now 10-strong party) headed for bed relatively early ahead of a somewhat early start tomorrow morning to make our way up the mountain. Unfortunately, none of us are really looking forward to what we might find up there. As a teaser, here are some current conditions:

- Temperature: +1.3C
- Rain (since about 6pm): 20.2mm (and that’s rain. Not snow)
- Windchill: -17.5C
- Windspeed: 82km/h, gusts of 102km/h

Yikes? I guess only time will tell… but looking at that, we might be better buying wetsuits and going snorkelling tomorrow at the top of the hill. Perhaps I should have invested in a set of grass skis?

To have a look at the (limited) photos from today, click here to go straight to the gallery!

Our final day on the slopes started at a similar time to all other skiing days so far – earlier for Ed, but about outside by about 11am for Pip and I. While we were slowed by a CSI:Las Vegas marathon this morning, we were actually more interested in the new feature of the photo software Picasa where it recognises people’s faces (automatically) and allows you to name them. As stupid as this sounds, it’s particularly addictive to get every face named… except when you realise that you’ve got 4,000 or so faces to do!

Looking down the Men's Downhill

When we finally hit the slopes we realised that there had, yet again, been no new snow overnight and that the sun was shining clearly through the perfect blue sky in all directions – not a great mix for snow conditions. We headed up our usual route and went to the very top of the mountain to assess the conditions. While the snow was generally good on the main runs, as soon as you ventured too far it was a certainty that you would encounter large patches of brown, rocks and grass… not the nicest thing to come across for new (or any) skis. We skied a few runs before I decided to head back to the Men’s Downhill – which I had done a few days earlier – but this time Ed decided to tag along.

The run, surprisingly, was in good condition, but that didn’t stop Ed making comment that it “scared the living hell” out of him (or something along those lines). This particular run was steep (ok, very steep) in some parts, but great fun all the same. Although I did take some pictures the other day when I last skied it, there are a few additional ones today because I forgot how good the view was. Unfortunately the sky had developed a slight cloud covering – not enough to bring any snow – but just enough to ruin an otherwise perfect weather day.

Some great weather!

We skied a few more runs after this (including another visit, or two, to Redtail) before heading to the Spruce Saddle for one last lunch break here at Beaver Creek. We spent a bit of time inside, but not nearly as much as some other days. I guess it was probably the guilty feeling of “oh, it’s the last day… I guess we better ski some more”. After lunch we headed back out and explored a few new runs, including Harrier – which was great for the first part, then the last half turned very bumpy and rather rugged.

From here we returned to the Men’s Downhill, but both Ed and Pip decided to take Redtail instead of the slightly-more-challenging run that was the Downhill. We headed up Grouse Mountain one last time to see if the conditions had changed and found practically nobody on this part of the slope. We only skied one run here, however, as it was a little slick in parts and other runs had been more interesting for all involved. By this stage in the day, it was about 3pm and so we made our final run choices. Another quick spin down Harrier (although skipping the lower part) before heading to the top of the mountain one last time was the choice, and by the time we finished all of this is was nearly 4pm.

It only took 12 days to get #1!

We packed up our skis one final time, and returned to the room to begin packing our bags. An NCIS marathon slowed progress (as always), but by about 7pm we were heading back to the village to get some dinner. We returned to the Hyatt, as we had done once before a few nights ago, and had a very enjoyable meal. A little more shopping finished off the night, but before we returned to the hotel we stopped to get icecream – as crazy as it is eating icecream when the temperature outside is well below zero.

Our walk home was rather quick, balancing some shopping and icecreams, and upon returning we packed our skis and boots into their bags and finalised the packing of our other gear. Tomorrow we are travelling all day and so may be hard to contact (unless there is some free wifi to be had). In once sense we’re lucky not to be staying longer, as the snow conditions worsen everyday the sun shines with no new snow falling overnight; but on the other hand, it is sad to be leaving the snow country for another year.

Hope everyone is well back home, and we look forward to seeing you all very soon!

Today we decided to hit the slopes again – but not before catching our dose of yet another TV marathon; this time it was Law & Order: SVU. Although we woke up at the same time as every other day, we didn’t hit the slopes until 11am again because of the back-to-back episodes in nearly every room of the condo. Although Ed had hit the slopes a little earlier, Pip and I finally made our way outside into the yet again perfect weather.

Ed on the slopes

We headed up the Centennial, as was our usual starting ride (probably because it was the first lift we came across that took us anywhere useful), and then headed to the very top of the mountain. Unfortunately we didn’t explore any new territory, but instead revisited some old favourites which we had come to know over the past few days here at this resort. We skied a few more runs, messing around with the helmet cam, before calling it quits for lunch. Because we had been making it out relatively late onto the slopes, lunch seemed to come far too quickly.

The Spruce Saddle was the lunch choice again, and we indulged on hot dogs, pizza and cheeseburgers (I’ll let you guess who had what) – healthy, as always, I know. We spent a little time indoors, studying the map to work out if we could get to the mountains of powder we could see over a certain ridge, before heading back out towards the Stawberry Park area – somewhere we had been before but not yet spent a whole lot of time. We did a few runs here, but found it very icy – in fact, the whole mountain was starting to get a little bald, in desperate need of new snow – so we soon headed towards the Bachelor Gulch area.

Pip good to go

As the day was getting late, we didn’t stay around Bachelor Gulch very long, but it was long enough to do a few runs and try our a bit of new terrain – unfortunately, as above, big sections were closed as they had turned brown. At 3pm we began our 5km+ journey back towards the village via the Larkspur area, and instead of skiing straight back to the hotel as we had done every other day, we stopped to pick up a baguette to have with dinner (we were eating in tonight). While picking up the baguette itself wasn’t a particularly funny thing, the task of getting it home was a little more humorous.

I had the task of carrying the bread stick home, and couldn’t decide whether to stick it inside my jacket or just carry it down with me – by down of course I mean after we had been up the Buckaroo Gondola (a first for that too). We made the relatively short run back to the hotel with no issues, and relaxed for a while before heading to the hot tub. Ed stayed to watch the stock market, and when we returned he was still in the same position as we had left him.

Which way did we come?

At 7:30pm we began cooking dinner – pasta was the meal of choice tonight – and once prepared, was enjoyed by all. By the time we had cleared up dinner, it was well and truly time for more relaxing; Pip decided to do this by starting to pack her bags, just slightly early, while I watched some TV and Ed yodelled down the Skype line. We eventually switched back to the Law & Order:SVU marathon that had begun the day, and watched until we fell asleep.

Day after day the weather has been perfect here at Beaver Creek, but unfortunately this is certainly taking its toll on the snow conditions. While we love the blue skies, all we can hope for is a little snow overnight (much better than during the day) – but so close to the end of our adventure, it probably isn’t going to make a world of difference.

Looking forward to seeing everyone back home! Hope the heat wave has disappeared in preparation of our arrival in a few days time!

Check out the photos from today here, or have a look at the photo mash-up below instead!

Today we did nothing. No honestly, we really did nothing at all – well, that’s true for 2/3rds of us. Ed hit the slopes at the regular time, but Pip and I had decided that today would be another rest day – only our second such day since we’d arrived here at Beaver Creek.

Although I can’t report on what Ed skied during the day, Pip and I watched yet another marathon on TV – this time it was Law & Order: Criminal Intent (we’ve almost exhausted all of the shows we ever watch now). We watched until 12pm, slightly later than our normal time that we would regularly get ready to head out, but today we headed to the shops. We hadn’t had much luck on the shopping front to date (except for a few missed opportunities back in Vegas), but largely so far we’d been looking for specific things. Today we were shopping for some souvenirs and gifts, with mixed success. If anything, we’d certainly bought a few things that would certainly take the airport luggage weight check-in game to a new level.

At about 1:30pm we returned to the hotel to find Ed having lunch down at the base of the mountain, a similar thing to what we were planning. The refrigerator in the room has a terrible tendency to freeze everything. Absolutely everything. Unfortunately that meant that the food we had bought back in Avon a few days ago was largely frozen over – including carrots, ham and so on. We salvaged what we could and whipped up a plate (by “we” I mean Pip) of food, and enjoyed it – yep you guessed it – in front of the TV. (If the sugar-loaded food of the USA wasn’t enough, the TV watching certainly wasn’t helping any waistlines)

The Law & Order marathon of this morning was still going strong, and so we continued our viewing until it finished at 3pm (and switched to an NCIS one). Ed had decided not to return to the slopes, and so joined in the TVathon. Pip caught some shut-eye – obviously there is a limit to the number of episodes that can be watched in a row – before we headed back to the shops at about 5:30pm. A little more shopping, and then another dinner at the Blue Moose finished the action-packed part of our day. After dinner we returned to the hotel – feeling the definite cold of the night – and relaxed, yep, in front of the TV.

As today was so action-packed, there are no real photos (except a couple I took on my phone). Just to keep in the swing of things, I still made a photo mash-up for your enjoyment; check it out if you dare. Tomorrow we are heading back to the slopes, so we should have a few more stories and photos to share then!