It was the lockdown lift we needed.
Tristan Reid turned heads and brightened hearts in Blackheath this morning as he skied in the village's memorial park following one of the heaviest snowfalls in years.
Mr Reid took to the Blackheath 'slopes' about 7.30am after waking to discover that snow had settled heavily on the ground overnight. He estimates it was 5-10cm deep in the park.
"Skiing in Blackheath was a bucket list thing for me," he said. "It doesn't happen every year, and sometimes it's a little too thin on the ground, but every few years there's just enough snow to make something of it."
The 32-year-old certainly did that. He did four laps of Blackheath Memorial Park before venturing to side streets on his skis. His partner Jessica Alexander joined in the fun and captured photographs.
Previous visits to the park during winter snowfalls turned out to be the perfect preparation for Mr Reid's lockdown snow adventure.
"We've been to the park before when there's been patchy snow on the ground which pre-determined where I thought would be the best spots to ski. I tried to go down the steepest parts and this drainage area, which is like a mini-gully. It was perfect," he said.
An adventure tourism guide with the Australian School of Mountaineering in Katoomba, Mr Reid said the snow diversion seemed to lift the spirits of Blackheath residents stuck in lockdown.
"I saw a lot of very happy people out and about," he said. "A lot of people were happy to see me out skiing. It was fun and you totally forgot about what was happening in the normal day-to-day [lockdown environment]."
