Brighton
Monday 26 January 2009

Weather

Conditions

Story of the Day

For day 2 of our 2009 trip, Chris and I chose Brighton. The weather was bitterly cold when we started. We applied the same ground rule number 1 as yesterday .. no walking uphill, so there was only 1 option for our first lift. Only Majestic can be reached by skiing downhill from the day lodge.

09:35 Near the base	09:38 Majestic lift
09:38 Crest Express lift from Majestic

On every trip to Brighton, I seem to start with a series of runs from Crest and virtually every time it is cold, either because like this day there is no sub, or because so much of the lift is in the shade.

Chris and I stuck with tradition and loosened up our legs with 4 runs before deciding it was time to go back to meet Sue for coffee and get warm.

The first run took us down Pacific Highway.

09:54 The top of Crest Express

The second down Snow Drift. The photos show the amount of recent snow on the trees and the ski school warming hut.

10:02 Chris on Crest Express	10:03 Doyle's Castle
10:03 Doyle's Castle

The third run took us down Tantamount and Scout and for the fourth, we returned to Snow Drift but kept left to get back to lodge.

After the break we decided to move across to the other side of the resort. Until recently this was only served by two very slow lifts. Now there is an express quad that makes the slopes much more accessible. We took Majestic to gain enough height to ski across Milly Access to the bottom on Milly Express.

Trail marking leaves a lot to be desired. Our plan was to ski down Backbone on top of the ridge and then take an easy cruise to the bottom. It didn't quite work out that way. We missed the turn off Backbone and found ourselves pushed further and further to the left into steeper terrain. Eventually we found ourselves in the steep gladed area of Spaghetti and the far from easy Evergreen along the resort boundary back to the lift. Much tougher stuff than we intended.

11:29 Chris	11:29 More difficult powder
11:29 Trees heavy with snow	11:31 Choice of runs
11:31 Chris

Back to the top of  and what must be the steepest green run I have ever seen, Backdoor. We found an easier way down, Christy Bowl, but still not a groomed run. Not so steep but still moguls.

One more ride on Milly Express. This time we kept right to find Majestic Access, the trail back across to the other side of the resort. We ended up below the level of the lodge, so took Crest to allow us to ski down to lunch.

After lunch we had a few runs left in our legs, so we headed towards the area of the resort we haven't skied yet. In line with Ground Rule number 1, we took Majestic to gain enough height to get across to the bottom of Great Western. We skied down to Snake Creek lift and took two runs to complete the day.

The first was one of my favourite runs at Brighton, Thunderhead, which includes a large hump with a variety of not too difficult tracks across and around it.

We finished around 2pm, slightly later that the previous day.

14:19 Mount Millicent from the car park	14:20 Our rental car
14:20 Snow in the car park	14:20 Car park
14:30 Looking uphill from the Lodge	14:30 Looking down from the Lodge terrace
14:30 Watery sun on Majestic lift	14:47 Chris
14:47 Near the base area	14:48 Heavy trees with a hint of sun
14:48 Snowy sign near the base	14:48 Brighton Center (lower of the two buildings)

Runs

Last updated: 10/03/2010