SNovember and Its time to go further up!

Sunday 01 Nov

Day 14 on the hill today. Left the kids at home and shared the ride and gas money with Gareth. Fine bluebird day but a cool wind on the chairs.

The Giant chair was operating due to the excess walk up crowd which was great because it allowed me to warm up thru the Why Not and Boneyard before my virgin assult on the upper mountain. It was a little bit crusty but not super icey with some patches of softer snow to be found.

After 4 or 5 runs up and down the giant I met up with CS and OS at the giant cafe and they followed me down the 'giant' run and declared me ready to move up. They were even talking about throwing me down a black run so I was alittle nervous but trusting of my alpine guides :)

So up the High Noon we went, and what an awesome chair that is. 6 seater detachable chair with padded sets and a foot rest. First run was down vertigo which definitly had a steeper pitch to it than either the Boneyard or The Why Nots but it was a bit choppy and cut up. Still I survived it no worries and then we were off up the High Noon again and across the high traverse track to the Branch Line Advance run. This was steeper again but nice and smooth with the snow just starting to release. Now this run was exceptional. Very fast and steep with tight carves the order of the day to scrub off the excess speed. We then headed off trail thru this wonderfall run that didn't have the slope of the Branch Line but the snow was superb as I opened up and carved down to the cat track which then required a small hike back to The Boneyard. The it was back up the Giant, down through yahoo and back up the High Noon for another run through the Branch Line and the lovely off piste run.

Back at the Giant cafe I waited for Gareth to work his way back up so we could complete the day with a couple of runs down to the Giant chair. He was moving alittle quicker but still painfully slow so I just mucked around searching out some smooth snow to turn on while he worked his way down to the chair. The lower half was now getting a little mushy and sticky which wasn't nearly as much fun as the fast snow further up.

2 more runs then back through Clarrys and we were heading home. In less than 3 months I have moved from the nursery slopes to my first advance run. The next thing is a decent pair of boots and a slighly longer board. But with only one weekend left I'll leave that for a few months.