Snow in September

Snow. Snow. Glorious Snow.

7 inches of snow fell on Monday. (That's about 18cm)

No one expected it to be this heavy this mid Spring. Actually when we got to Hotham on Sunday - the snow levels were not so good. You could see the metal roofs of the houses, and plenty of patches of dead grass and barren ground. A lot of the snow was brown and yucky looking, tainted with dirt and dust.

I prayed that we would get snow that night.

Then on Monday, at about noon time - the snow clouds came storming in. First it rained, then ice flakes fell, and the winds blew it into our faces like glass.

(Hail or no, I'm just pleased that something happened. Its not everyday you experience this sort of thing - in Singapore or Melbourne).

Then it snowed. White fluffy soft white stuff. The wind carried them like cherry blossom petals, blowing them any which way. Initially, they melted straight away when it touched ground. Then as the temperature dropped to 2 then zero then subzero -1, -3, -5, colder and colder... and the land once again turned pure white with snow.

It just kept on snowing all through the day and night. Unfortunately, the blizzard closed down the lifts for the rest of the afternoon and we ended up in our apartment making hot bah kuh teh with Italian spaghetti noodles - fusion food.

And it kept on snowing.... in the morning we went skiing. Beautiful, this feeling of stepping onto soft white snow powder. The ground whispers sensually as you glide along it with your skis.

I got a bit crazy and went onto the snow ramps. Massive big ramps - packed snow the size of bungalows. I giggled like a school kid the first few times I went on them. It was like a roller coaster ride - except I was the ride. I took off into the air a few times. Nothing dramatic. But still a gut lifting feeling. After the 4th or 5th, it seemed quite easy. But i dared not go too fast as I haven't been trained at all in this skill. I think I watch too many horror skiing accidents videos.

Going home was a bummer, not the least because our cars were half-buried in snow. The cold temperatures also made it absolutely horrible trying to fit the snow chains onto the car tyres. Thankfully, the Mount Hotham staff were very helpful and friendly and helped to put our chains on. - you have to salute them for it - trying to untie frozen greasy metal chains with your cold bare fingers is not a happy experience.

I'll post up more photos of the trip in my photo blog later... gotta sleep now!