Another pleasant full day at Sunshine on Saturday with Joel, Kristy & Anya.  There was no fresh snow, but the base is still getting bigger – apparently it’s spring, but the snow just keeps coming.  We had the morning up the top, before a leisurely lunch (I had a burger with pineapple & beetroot in it – it’s been a long time, GBK in London springs to mind), a few more runs at the top before heading down for a lot of runs off Goat’s Eye.  At one stage we lost Anya off Standish (this happens when four people take four different runs down) for a little while.  But then she turned up with one of these, much to our surprise.

It’s a little hard to see, but apparently it’s a vole – “a mouse with no ears”.  We definitely don’t have these in NZ; it was scurrying across the snow so Anya picked it up so it wouldn’t be hit by somebody/a snowboarder.  Hopefully it’s doing well around Trappers.

Earlier in the week, Steve had found the rotisserie & was keen to hurry summer along a bit, so Saturday night dinner was at our place for a change.  With seven people, Steve got two roasts (we had plenty of leftovers) – the beef was good & the pork fantastic.  Once again, the whole beets done on the barbecue were just brilliant.

After quite a few bottles of wine, there was still the ice-wine to go with dessert – Kristy whipped up a divine cheesecake (I love cheesecake).

Sunday morning was suitably lazy, finally.  I still woke up with the ever-earlier daylight, but quite happily finished the latest Jack Reacher novel & then jailbroke my Kindle so I could put screensavers of my choice on it.  After texts being delayed somewhere in the ether, a group of us (Joel, Kristy, Steve, Alex, Megan & Finn) eventually headed out in the afternoon for a nice little jaunt ski-touring to Boom Lake.  As we arrived at the parking lot, light snow began to fall (it did so for the rest of our trip).  Although some of snow is melting in places, there was still plenty on the five kilometre trail up to the lake.  A bit on this bridge too.

It took us almost ninety minutes to reach the lake, but it wasn’t too strenuous.  There were some nice off-camber bits for Finn & the Chariot to be potentially lost to the woods, but he survived.  It was even warm enough to just be in a single layer of Icebreaker & a light fleece with no toque/beanie.  As we sat on the edge of Boom Lake, we heard a couple of booms & saw one avalanche come off the opposite Boom Mountain.

It was only about sixty minutes back to the car, but as most of the trail at the lake end was flattish the skins didn’t come off until quite close to the end.

Back to the title story – when I went out to drive to work this morning, as I sat down on the driver’s seat I heard an almighty crack.  The front left spring had sheared in two & then managed to insert itself through the tyre.  So most of my morning was spent arranging a tow-truck & getting my rather sad looking car to a workshop.  Unfortunately, both sides of the front suspension have to be replaced (I don’t really want a lopsided car) with springs, struts, plates & bearings – $1400, ouch (oh & another tyre).  Quite an unusual failure, & a complete pain in the butt – I’m glad it didn’t happen when I was on the highway (complete tyre shredding would have ensued I reckon) or parked in some obscure lot in the back of the beyond.

Still, I need a car for the upcoming roadtrip – so I have little choice but to cough up the money.  On a brighter note, I got my rear bike wheel back from the shop today – the freewheel/freehub is so much better with new pawls in it & the whole drivetrain just sounds great (as in, it doesn’t sound).  Alex & I went for a little reconnoitre on the sunny side of the valley to see how much snow had gone from the trails.  We didn’t get near the trails as there was still too much snow on the walking paths – still, it was a pleasant leg stretch & not too cold.