Falls Creek/Mt Hotham Ski Report - 21/22 July 2012

A sunny weekend was forecast so it was impossible to resist another trip up to the mountains after a wet and cloudy season starter ski trip earlier this month.

Falls Creek - Rocky Valley Lake from Scott Chair

We based ourselves in pretty little Harrietville again for this trip. Harrietville is far closer to the lifts at Mt Hotham (a 30-minute drive on a good day), but still we managed to visit Falls Creek as well over the two days. The two resorts being on the same lift pass is a convenient bonus.


Falls Creek


Cold nights and frosty mornings made a pleasant change after last weekend's wet and warm trip. Good snowmaking weather, so we looked forward to the promise of sunny days ahead for the weekend.


We chose Falls Creek for Saturday's skiing as it is usually much quieter and Saturday is a notoriously busy day at Mt Hotham.



It was nice to actually be able to see Falls Creek on this visit, and the sun really brings out the best of the resort.

Falls Creek - Village from The Summit

Warm days and cold nights had created a freeze-thaw situation across the mountain. This meant solid, hard snowpack early.


You really need to know where to move around the skifield on spring-like days like this. We headed for a few runs on Towers and Ruined Castle first to take advantage of the overnight snowmaking. Ruined Castle was sweet early for wonderful cruising!



Then we made our way to The Summit, which was holding up pretty well. The Summit warms up first at Falls Creek, making for softening, fast and steep groomed runs like Village, The Slot and Oest Wand.


Its a beautiful spot as well, looking down on the ski-in, ski-out village bowl and with views across to Mt Bogong.

The advanced skiing in The Maze and International were patchy and now need a top-up of snow. There was not much skiing around there and this coming weekend's snowfalls will reopen these areas with a welcome refresh.

Dawn in the Ovens Valley from Harrietville-Hotham Road

Time to head back over to the other side of Falls and find the sunny aspects that soften off-piste as the day gets warmer.

We were amazed to find some untouched snow from the previous weekend's snowfalls in a secret spot. Wow - I can't believe nobody skis over in this area. A great way to finish a great day!

Mt Hotham


The next morning meant a short drive up to Mt Hotham on an even sunnier day (if that is possible)!

The road was a bit frosty so we took care in our new car with all those icy corners!

We already had lift and parking tickets organised so we parked at the largely unknown Loch car park and got straight into some early morning skiing at Heavenly Valley. We thought this would provide the best skiing at Mt Hotham on a spring-like day.

Mt Hotham - Heavenly Valley

Heavenly Valley was picture perfect on this glorious, sunny mid-winter day.

We headed to the sunny Heavenly Valley runs first, but they took more time to soften compared to Falls the previous day.


Skiing was challenging early on solid groomed runs. Twilight Zone and Imagine provided some shaky moments with the solid snowpack from the overnight freeze underneath.


The day was looking like it may be a little disappointing compared to the fun at Falls Creek on Saturday, despite there being some good runs on softened snow in The Canyon and Wendix.


We headed over to The Orchard knowing it would be icy underneath on the blue runs there and not expecting too much really.

The Orchard from Keogh's

A run down Bushwacker's in The Orchard confirmed our fears.

However, the local knowledge we have developed at Falls, we are developing at Mt Hotham. You just need to go where the warming sun is doing its work on days like these.

And on Sunday, there was lots of fun to be had at Keogh's. Fun in the sun! The whole face there had softened beautifully making for some nice turns down a steep, black run.

For a bit of variety we mixed it up through the trees on either side. No queues like at Heavenly Valley.

Having done laps in the sun, the day was getting far too warm - especially with all the effort - and it was time to leave early after our early morning start!

The approaching storm will dump lots of new snow at Falls Creek and Mt Hotham during the next week's wintry conditions. Good timing I think, and here's hoping for not just a top-up but some serious snowfalls!

Snow Report 18 July 2012 - Australia & New Zealand

AUSTRALIA

This past week saw snowsports enthusiasts waiting (im)patiently for the rain across Australia to turn to snow. Wow, how the temperatures hovered tantalisingly (but ultimately disappointingly) around 0c or above - the colder air took longer than expected to arrive. Thankfully most of the Australian resorts had some fresh snow on Sunday and Monday after a wet week. This coming weekend  is looking fine with some sun, so a perfect time to learn or improve skills. Unfortunately, there's not much snow in the forecast for another few weeks which is a shame as continued storms would boost the ski season for a really good year rather than just maintaining the snow cover.

Mt Hotham
Snow Depth: 75-107cms
We skied Hotham on Friday 13th - our first day of the season for 2012! Perhaps because of this we managed to put up with the generally crappy, warm and wet conditions with the occasional lightning strike. However, I would say that the skiing in Heavenly Valley early in the day was pretty good. Soft snow meant that everywhere was skiable at Heavenly. The Twilight Zone run was very enjoyable, and perfect for Friday 13th! The Orchard was fairly patchy on Friday, but the 10cms or so on Sunday and Monday would have kept it open and brought Hotham out even after the rainy days.

Powder Day at Falls [Source: Falls Creek Facebook page]

Falls Creek
Snow Depth: 73-107cms
Falls Creek was pretty unpleasant on Saturday 14th, with pellets of frozen rain in the face when skiing and while on the lifts (free skincare treatment?). The visibilty was rubbish also, and lifts had to close focusing the people who did brave the weather on the Towers and Wombat's Ramble area. It began to snow on Saturday afternoon and by Sunday morning Falls claimed 20cms of fresh. The conditions were brilliant for skiing and boarding on Sunday morning with better visibility opening up the off-piste powder across Sun Valley and Ruined Castle. Lots of slightly heavy powder to be had for those in the know and we were all hooning around Quartz Ridge getting lots of powder goodness. No pics I'm afraid - far too busy skiing! The Maze still needs more snow, but cover is pretty much complete across the resort.


Mt Buller
Snow Depth: 12-71cms
Buller had another horror wet week, recovering with a little snowfall on Saturday/Sunday that was oh so desparately needed. Conditions are therefore pretty much the same, if maybe a little worse on the ground. Snowmaking areas like Bourke Street, Summit and Wombat will provide the best skiing for the foreseeable future.

NEW ZEALAND


Blimey ... from dry as a bone to soaking wet in one week! The warm tropical moisture that gave Australia problems late last week steamed across the Tasman drenching both islands over the weekend. The north of the South Island which, ironically had been doing the best this season, copped the worst of it but nowhere escaped entirely. A bit of snow at the end of the system provided some relief and some positivity, but some skifields are still to recover. New Zealand skifield marketing - from the commercial skifields at least - has been fairly crap in truthfully reporting snow conditions over the past week.

Porters [Source: Porters Website]

North Canterbury & Nelson


Rainbow (10-55cms) is now closed as the rain washed away part of their access road; while Hanmer Springs (5-100cms) lost too much cover at the bottom to be able to run its ski lifts for the timebeing. Mt Lyford (40-100cms) had a good enough cover to survive a tough weekend.




Canterbury




Porters (30-70cms) looks a bit patchy and skiing is limited to the groomed runs alongside the T-bars. Mt Hutt (75-80cms) also lost a good deal of snow, which has appeared to close the International area and the Triple Chair. Temple Basin, Craigieburn and Mt Olympus had to close and are waiting for new snowfalls.

The Mackenzie


Ohau (60-80cms) has little cover going by the webcams with limited off-trail skiing.

Coronet Peak [Source: Coronet Peak website]

Wanaka


Treble Cone (40-60cms) got some rain but then scored a nice 10cm top-up at the end. Most of this was in the Saddle Basin and the lower part of the Home Basin looks like it has little snow. Cardrona (50-55cms) doesn't need much snow to open a lot of runs, which is fortunate ... as it doesn't have much at all. The skifield nearly lost the wonderful Captains area in the rain, but has now reopened it. Valley View was not so lucky and remains closed.




Queenstown


Skiing is mostly limited to snowmaking runs at Coronet Peak (50-80cms). The Remarkables has a snow depth of 35-55cms.

Snow Report 11 July 2012 - Australia & New Zealand

AUSTRALIA


The forecasted rain arrived early this week and fortunately didn't do too much damage to the slopes. Falls Creek and Mt Hotham came out about even, and Mt Buller lost little cover. There is another day or so of marginal temperatures before it gets colder for the weekend and any precipitation will fall as snow. A little concern about the winds on the weekend, but hopefully not enough to halt lift operations.


Mt Hotham
Snow Depth: 82-102cms

The wonderful Orchard area has been open for more than a week now in this 2012 season, which is promising after missing out on skiing it altogether last year. I'm still optimistic and hopeful that Blue Ribbon will open in a week or two with the current snow forecast. That would see the whole of Mt Hotham ski area open in July.

This is what we like to see at Falls Creek [Source: Falls Creek Facebook Page]

Falls Creek

Snow Depth: 68-94cms

Over this past weekend Falls Creek opened Lakeside Poma, meaning every lift was running across the mountain. A magnificent effort! There must be some patchy areas in The Maze, but the Summit looks to have good cover that has not been much affected by the rain.

Mt Buller

Snow Depth: 26-72cms

What can I say? Buller has been really unlucky so far this year but still manages to get a good deal of lifts and runs open. I'd like to see Bull Run, Southside and Grimus lifts running before I made the trip up ... but there is some fine skiing boosted by some good snowmaking.


NEW ZEALAND


Wow ... the long, dry continues in New Zealand with little snow to mention since the last update. Worse news is that this weekend the forecast is rain for almost every skifield. And if it could get any worse, the extended forecast is for the rain to be followed by another dry and sunny high pressure system. New Zealand sometimes has these years where snow is hard to come by, but thankfully history shows that the systems eventually break down bringing some snow storms. The best skiing and snow cover has been in the north of the South Island to date.


Mt Lyford
Snow Depth: 60-120cms
You still need to fit chains on your car if driving up the brilliant road to Lyford, so that gives an idea about how this part of the South Island has been faring. Nearby Hanmer Springs is doing well also, and Rainbow up in the Nelson Lakes has had some fine early season skiing.

Mt Lyford gets some snow [Mt Lyford Facebook page]

Porters

Snow Depth: 40-70cms

Mt Hutt

Snow Depth: 95-100cms

Mt Hutt may be lucky this weekend as it is a little protected from the direction of the warm, rainy weather system.

Ohau

Snow Depth: 70-100cms

Treble Cone
Snow Depth: 40-50cms
A bit worried about Treble Cone this weekend in the forecast rain. Hopefully its colder than anticipated and there is some heavy snow in the Saddle Basin.


Cardrona
Snow Depth: 50-60cms


Coronet Peak
Snow Depth: 50-80cms

The Remarkables
Snow Depth: 50-60cms

Snow Report 4 July 2012 - Australia & New Zealand

AUSTRALIA

Another good weekend of snowfalls followed by some persistent cold weather to encourage lots of snowmaking on the groomed runs has seen Australian skifields in the great position of being able to open most of their terrain at the beginning of July. There is just a little concern about a possible rain event next week, however.

Mt Hotham
Snow Depth: 84-101cms

Mt Hotham on Tuesday opened a big swathe of terrain after touching on 1m snowdepth. The Keoghs, Gotcha and Orchard lifts began turning for the first time, doubling the resort's skiable area in one go. Another good snowfall could see the fantastic Blue Ribbon area open, resulting in a fully open resort for three months.

International @ Falls Creek [Source: Falls Creek Facebook page]

Falls Creek

Snow Depth: 75-82cms

Beautiful Falls Creek now has everything across the ski area open except for Lakeside Poma (and you can still ski around there if you want). The Summit opened early in the weekend, with The Maze following on Tuesday. Almost the whole of the ski resort is open, although the advanced areas of The Maze and Summit could do with a bit more to make them truly skiing well.

Mt Buller

Snow Depth: 24-75cms

Still a little to do at Buller with more snow needed to get more than half the skifield's terrain open. For intermediates, Wombat, Summit and Howqua are the go. Good snowmaking is making up for the lack of natural snow so far this year.

NEW ZEALAND

The skifields in the South Island of New Zealand got a little snow last week, but have since then basked under a big high pressure system which has delivered clear, crisp and sunny days, but not a lot of new snow. Not a great deal on the horizon either, so a slower start for New Zealand particularly in the Southern Lakes, although Canterbury has done better early and will get a little extra snow this week.

Mt Lyford
Snow Depth: 85cms
Some extra snow for Mt Lyford this week and most of the ski area open.

Looking down at Ohau [Source: Ohau Facebook page]

Porters

Snow Depth: 40-70cms

Snowing also at Porters midweek, but the legendary Big Mama is not quite ready.

Mt Hutt

Snow Depth: 95-100cms

Some fine skiing at Mt Hutt all the way down to the Triple Chair.

Ohau

Snow Depth: 70-100cms

Ohau continues to have a good start.

Treble Cone
Snow Depth: 40-50cms
Treble Cone has lost some snow in the sunny, dry spell down south but has kept its fantastic groomed runs open with snowmaking cannons. I'm not sure about TC's Facebook marketing spin about skiing "manmade pow" on Wednesday!

Cardrona
Snow Depth: 50-60cms
Cardrona has now opened the Valley View chairlift (which I am yet to ski but itching to get a go at this year!). It doesn't take much to get most of this fun mountain open.

Coronet Peak
Snow Depth: 50-80cms
Lots of manmade snowmaking has given Coronet Peak an edge in Queenstown. All of the main runs are groomed and open

The Remarkables
Snow Depth: 55-65cms
Fairly limited skiing at Remarks.