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Day 6 started at a similar time to Day 5 – early. Unfortunately, the weather was not good at all compared to the day before, and it wasn’t long before I had peered through the window and made the decision to go back to sleep rather than suiting up to go out in the cold. This early alarm woke Kim, Max and Pip up, but most were able to get back to sleep. There were some keen skiers, however, even if I wasn’t as die hard as I had been the day before, and Ed, John, Michelle and David went out into the thick fog soon after 7:30am.

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For those of us who didn’t make the early boat, by the time we were up eating breakfast the “first tracks party“ had already returned. The weather didn’t look particularly inviting – fog, wind, and a bit of snow falling – and so it took us a bit of time to actually get motivated and hit the slopes. Unfortunately, the cool weather overnight had completely frozen the fresh powder from Wednesday, and rather than pushing through it without resistance, we simply bounced over the top of it – making it very hard to turn or stop anywhere but on the groomed runs.

In the valleys the weather was fine – apart from the fog – as the wind seemed to be strongest only at the top of ridges and while on the lifts. Max, Ed, Nick and I hit the Playground first up, and then headed for Heavenly Valley, although Nick was struggling to breathe due to asthma issues as on previous days. As a result, Ed and Nick soon returned to the Village for a breather while Max and I continued around the Heavenly Valley area. The top ridge of Heavenly Valley was ridiculously windy – so strong that it was hard to move forward at all, let alone at enough speed to reach some of the runs. Luckily the weather was really only bad at the very top of each run, and literally metres after the start the wind disappeared. We continued to ski these runs until it felt considerably late enough for us to return to the house for lunch.

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Every one of the 14 person party was at the house for lunch, and we ate while watching the ongoing (but minimal) snowfalls outside the windows. Today’s forecast was only for isolated snowshowers, but there had been more snow than this in the first few hours of the day. We only hoped that it continued through the day, then stopped for a perfect sunny day tomorrow. Unfortunately we had still been hoping that Keogh’s/Orchard would open before the end of the week, but so far only the Gotcha lift had done so. Luckily today nobody had made the walk to the Hotham Medical Centre, and generally most were feeling just a little bit better. Astrid spent a fair amount of time in bed, however, complaining about various smells, but she picked up later in the afternoon.

After lunch we returned to the snow and skied a few runs on the Road Runner, where the now iced ”powder“ had started to soften up again. We didn’t last too long here and soon were skiing Heavenly Valley again. There was a considerable crowd at the bottom of this lift, and so getting back up took a number of minutes even to get onto the chair. By the time we had skied a few runs here, it was 4:00pm. Max had returned to the village for a coffee with Kim, but John and I were still out seeking the last tracks we could find. We managed to get another run up the Road Runner, and then back to the very base of the mountain which was a good run to end the day.

We returned to the house and met up with all of the other parties who had been skiing or relaxing in different locations. Dinner was home cooked again, and we spent time reliving humorous stories from earlier in the day. Of particular note, Michelle told a story about skiing Gun Barrel with Emma and Bronte. At one point, where Emma had raced off down the hill, Bronte took a turn slightly too high and managed to lose a ski. Not only did the ski disappear down the hill, but so did Bronte’s boot – leaving her sitting in the snow with only a sock. Although I won’t go into detail here, the story ends with a woman helping to carry Bronte down the hill, a man stopping Bronte’s ski at the bottom of the slope, and the ski patrol stopping past to check that everything was OK.

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After dinner, Nick attempted yet again to light the fire in the living room – but had little success due to the lack of kindling available to assist with the process. I soon took over and spent the next hour burning newspaper, used cardboard boxes and anything else flammable in an attempt to get the fire lit. By the time I was finished, most had gone to bed, and there were more windows open than closed due to the excessive amount of smoke filling the kitchen and living area. I’m also sad to report that after all this effort, the fire didn’t actually start either.

Soon after than, everyone except John and I hit the sack in the hope of getting some good sleep before tomorrow’s early start to load and move cars from the long-term carpark. Unfortunately, tomorrow is our last day here on the slopes and the time has come to an end far too quickly as always. We are hoping for some nice weather to see the week out, and there is word that Keogh’s/Orchard will be opening tomorrow also. Provided all falls into place, and the rather solid snow softens up, tomorrow could be the perfect final day of skiing for us during the Australian 2009 season.

While today certainly wasn’t great photo weather, there are some (OK… very few) photos up in the gallery. Check out yesterday’s if you missed them, as there are some great shots!

Here’s today’s (slightly less than) 30 second wrap (visit OnSno.com if you cannot see it):