Doesn't look too friendly at the moment. This one near Adelaide is pretty nasty. 12 homes gone, 20 more in danger, lots of stock loss, but fortunately, no human casualties (some minor injuries). We have some friends not very far from it - keeping an eye on it. They've got a break in the weather till Wednesday and are hoping to contain it by then but they don't seem to be very confident. The fire is in a park and is not very accessible.

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This area mostly, and most of Tassie

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I'm going skiing in August at Perisher Valley (a couple of hours south of Canberra - Azzy's digs).

I need to buy some new gear (clothing mostly) before I go, anyone know some cheap online stores that'll ship to Oz?

Don't think the human centipede type thing works for FMT

just layer up with REI and/or patagonia base layer garments. two or three layers of that and a shell, you are good to go.

Short vid from the NYD drive. It's mostly silent, since I was in a silent car. :)
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That's a good plan and we rarely need to layer up much as the min day time temps are not very low, -5C max.

I still need to find a cheap (discounted) source and I don't care if it's last season stuff or older, it's real expensive over here. :(

Nice vid Dave, looked like fun.

check out www.spadout.com. Its a place you can search for deals and closeouts all across the usual gear retailers....

If you go skiing Jeff i'd recommend some.........pants.

First time I went skiing I only wore pants while skiing. Then it was just waterproofed jeans.

It was with a group from the restaurant I work at in college. 6 waitresses and 3 cooks rented a 3 bed condo. The other two cooks were changing girlfriends on the trip so I ended up with 4 girls in my room with the king bed. It was warm and toasty. Me and the two other cooks drove up together with their "New" girlfriends. The other 4 girls came up later due to finals. When the other girls arrived they had been drinking beer and reading playgirl magazines the whole drive. When the two other girls found their guys in bed with the new girls I ended up with all four drunk horny women in my bed.

At one point I went out and laid in the snow to cool off. Heard one of the girls say. "just pick a spot and molest it." Would say no rusty instruments but the first morning we woke up to one of the girls exclaiming "Aright, who chit in my mouth." Another answered, "That wasn't chit." Then another said, "That wasn't her mouth."

There was a moose head on the wall. There were a lot of polaroids going around with a naked moose and none with me and the moose in them at the same time. Since there were two other Richards at the restaurant I went by my middle name Kent. They started calling me Clark Kent and the moose, Supermoose.

Rode the lift up solo from the girls once and they guy I rode up the mountain with was telling me all these wild stories about a couple guys in a condo with a bunch of grils. Told him it sounded like fun.

After the first morning I was the first one awake and would start coffee and bacon. Everyone liked it so much I didn't have to worry about any the other cooking or cleaning chores the whole week. And the restaraunt donated plenty of food and beers too. One of the cooks was also the manager.

Ain't college fun!

Didn't your upper body get cold wearing only pants?

Much like Joe's blind date, I have to say I'd be completely clueless in that situation. First surprised, then confused, then scared. :D

That bicycle chick engineer joke totally applies to me. :)

Jeff, make sure you get good pants! If you get wet, it's no fun! I like Columbia for a more value line. My jackets are mountain hardwear, more pricy but good! Also check out Marmot. The north face is good, but sometimes more fashion than serious gear these days.

as i am not in OZ, i have no idea where you can buy the stuff for a reasonable price, outside of ebay. because of where i live, i bought nearly all my good cold weather layers for cheap at the local thrift stores.

Spyder is a good company. My current stretch ski pants (racing) are Spyder.

Oh!!! 40 years of skiing next month!!!

Another thought, but all your stuff and ship it to one of us, and we can forward it on. Maybe save on shipping?

Maybe you could get one of these for you silent car. Got one on my first bike when the training wheels came off...

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Seem to remember first ski week on the slopes was waterproofed jeans, turtleneck and a wool sweater, also had wick away sock liners with wool knee socks, and a knit ear cover head band under a cap, and goggles and wool mittens. Luckiliy it didn't actually snow during the day that first trip, bud it did at night.

Later just those warm waterproof snowproof skin tight ski pants, t-shirt, sweater and a gortex wind breaker, and hand and head accessories. Gortex wind breaker had a drawsting hood and was really just for riding the open lifts if there was any wind.

One trip was late in the season and was supposed to be warm on the mountain all day so wore my courdoroys and a wool sweater. Blizzard came in when I was on the top of Steamboat...It was before I started balding and I had my beard, was totally snow covered except for my goggles. Looked like the abominable snow man. But I was actually warm. I was the only one that took both my sunglasses and goggles (goggles were straped to my belt till it started snowing.) and they all teased me about it until the blizzard and their sunglasses all iced up, then I had to lead everyone down. Looked like a ski skool we had to stay so close to see each other. Sweater was black and downhill was into the wind or they wouldn't have been able to see me at all.

I think It was me I heard say, "just pick a spot and molest it." Funny how alcohol and cute girls can turn regular college guy into Supermoose. The picture I wish I had gotten a hold of was the one with the moose all suds up in the small shower with all the girls beers in hand saving hot water, classic. The girls liked the moose with them under the sheets pictures.