Slushy Sunshine

Returning to Sunshine Village after Lake Louise, and the Ski School prizegiving party, I of course had a nice lie-in then did my laundry. Little did I know that all the time I was doing this, the snow of Sunshine Village was gradually melting into slush... However, at 2:00 when I donned my skis and went for a blast, I didn't notice this and still wore my coat...

After one run, I was boiling from the hard work of the slush as well as the glaring heat of the sun. Going faster meant the wind cooled you, but you worked harder! I took myself down to the Goat's Eye mid-station and resolved that it was about time I changed my clothes... I emerged from my accommodation with the same ski-pants, but other than those and my boots I was just wearing a T-shirt, shades and an earband (and sunscreen too, Mum). It felt gorgeous.

A couple of runs up Standish, Angel and Divide amused me before I made my way to Goat's Eye. The weather here was perfect, and taking a favourite route down a steep run with slush flying in all directions at every turn, I was doing a lap every 10 minutes. It encorporated slush-moguls, slush-steeps, slush carving but worse of all, slush-schussing where venturing into patches of super-heater snow almost ground your skis to a halt while your body lurched forwards, no matter what wax was used... Unfortunately, 5 laps later the lift was closed for the day, and my fun was over :(

But the sunburn cancelled out the windburn very well, and I enjoyed my slushy sortie. And you'll be pleased to hear, that since I skied last Saturday we've had another 20cm (give or take) of fresh snow, and temperatures have not got above about -4 so the snow is now as good as ever.

I learnt one thing, however- once you see slush for the first time in the season, it's the only thing you look for. Around every corner, you fear there might be a hidden slush-pocket missed by the colder weather (?!), just waiting to slow you down and get you wet. Faith in normal snow has now all but disappeared...