White

White is the colour I expected to see on the ground, and occasionally in the sky, but when you see it everywhere in every direction, you know it's not going to be a good day :)

Woke up and visibility was about 10-30 meters, with a real loss of definition of the snow on the ground. Loss of definition means that you can't easily tell what the ground looks like, the snow all looks a slightly blurry white (or blue, without glasses or goggles) and you can't see if it's ice, snow, powder, groomed, even, bumpy, slushy, etc. So you essentially ski by feel, adjusting your skiing style for the terrain based on when your skis hit it. When you're skiing down an access trail at 5km/h is relatively easy, but skiing down a 60 degree slope at 40km/h is very tricky indeed :)

So discretion being the better part of valour, I stayed in the lodge. Nobody else agreed, but when visibility dropped to about 2 meters later on, the clatter of people returning to the lodge seemed to validate my decision :)

Their tales of disorientation and almost being lost and nearly going off the edge of the trails, filled me with the self-righteous joy I deserved ;)

This brings me on to Scooter's Snow Rant number 1: Clothing and colour choice.
Why on earth would you choose to wear a white or cream coloured clothing in an environment where getting lost can kill you and where people travel at high speed with sharpened edges. I guarantee that more people will die or be injured in white and cream then in blue, yellow, red and brown. Although, the one thing better than that was the trend a few years ago for snowboarders to wear Arctic Tundra camouflage jackets. A disruptive pattern material especially designed to make it hard to see you in a snow covered tree/bush landscape. I remember standing at the bottom of Slalom Gully at Hotham, in a light snow fall, and these guys were literally slipping in and out of visibility at a range of 20 meters, while the people around them were completely visible. This was the same year that some snowboarders died after wandering off the patrolled area, and I remember distinctly thinking that they were probably wearing the latest fashion trend and it would have helped kill them.
This of course brings us to my favourite concept: Evolution in action - stupid people die early. And it would be perfect if they didn't keep taking smarted people with them :)

Anyway, that's the rant for today ;)