For The First Time in 20 yrs...

...the ski fields at Thredbo were closed...The weather was atrocious...and, of course, it had to happen when I was there!

This is a tale of the weather going downhill fast!

(sorry about the dreadful pun, my head is still frozen!)

Day 1: Just glorious.

Blue skies...

 We arrived the day after there had been snow falls for the previous 3 or so days...

 Snow covered picnic tables...

 Looking out over Friday Flat...

Day 2: Started out sunny, but got a little windier as the afternoon wore on...those clouds are actually the wind whipping up the soft surface snow...

 Later in the afternoon...see how much windier it is up the top...

Still there were plenty of sun, smiles, lovely top cover and picturesque snow covered trees...

 ...and loads of soft, knee-deep snow for chucking at each other at the top of Merrits...

Day 3: We arrived at the Thredbo at 8.45am...to blizzard conditions and everything was "on hold". The quad chair at Friday Flat was eventually opened and the Merrits chair lift as well. The Skiers had their 2 hr lesson (although much to Miss Bee's delight (below), their instructor gave her group "an early mark"!! (The white streaks in the photo is snow blowing sideways!!!)

Long queues for the quad chair...huge wind gusts...horizontal snow flying at you...feels just like having your face scraped with sandpaper...

...I'm all for getting out of here!!

And we did. We left at 12.30pm instead of our planned 3pm.
Just as well.
We later heard that the ski fields had been closed and extra buses were being called in to help move people off the mountain. 2 buses got snowed in at a nearby ski field and at Perisher (across the valley), almost 100 cars were damaged and windows broken,  when the wind whipped up gravel in the car park.

And what crafting did I get done, you ask?: one very sad, floppy, embarrasing pom-pom for Meet me at Mikes pom pom make-a-thon.

I will have to get my pom-pom technique right if I'm going to get any done by the August deadline!

thanks for taking a peek over the fence...