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.