Snow Report 8 August 2012 - Australia & New Zealand

AUSTRALIA

Mt Hotham 7th August [Source: Mt Hotham Facebook page]

Now we're talking! The forecasted storm system has arrived today (as people in Melbourne would have noticed!) and will continue to bring snow to the Victorian ski resorts over the next couple of days ...even Mt Buller!

It is looking very promising for great skiing and boarding throughout the rest of August 2012 and enough snow has fallen in recent weeks to keep the ski resorts open throughout September.

Mt Hotham
Natural Snow Depth: 116-121cms
Mt Hotham has been skiing well in recent days and sustained snowfalls have opened up more of The Orchard area - an area so important to the resort. The runs skier's right of the skilift are now fully open and the creek back to the lift is properly filled in. The Davenport access trail has reopened and another good dump (or even a sustained snowfall in the next 48 hours) would get the wonderful Blue Ribbon area open. Here's hoping!

Falls Creek 8th August [Source: Falls Creek Facebook page]

Falls Creek
Natural Snow Depth: 95-104cms
With the best snow of the season to date on the ground this week, Falls Creek is having a great year with all its lifts open and much better cover over some of the advanced areas around International and The Maze. You can imagine much more of The Maze will be open now, particularly this weekend so we should be going to check it out next weekend.

Mt Buller
Natural Snow Depth: 43cms
Finally some breaks for Mt Buller. This storm should enable the ski resort to progressively open more terrain and lifts. Southside is already turning, and you'd imagine other areas could come online with some sustained snowfalls.

NEW ZEALAND

Finally, New Zealand gets some regular snowfalls! And when it snows in New Zealand ... it snowswell! Many skifields across the country have doubled their snow depths over the last week or so. The season is saved and some excellent skiing across the South Island can now be found.

As forecast last week, the Canterbury and the Mackenzie fields have done best out of these storms with it still snowing across the northern part of the South Island.

North Canterbury and Nelson

Sadly Rainbow (25-65cms) had to close again after some warm weather, but the current snowfalls will; fix that quickly. Mt Lyford (95-135cms) is continuing to get pelted and is having a fantastic season to date.

Canterbury

Ohau 4th August [Source: Ohau Facebook page]

Porters (50-90cms) is now sitting pretty and is experiencing its best conditions of the season. Mt Hutt (110-120cms) is again shut while it waits out another storm - lucky days for the people there when it reopens!

The Mackenzie

Ohau (84-135cms) will have great skiing through August and into September and is one of the places to be at the moment in New Zealand.

Wanaka

Treble Cone (92-100cms) is looking fantastic again, which must be a relief for the marketing people who were so concerned earlier in the season when things weren't quite so rosy! Cardrona (70-80cms) must be close to reopening the Valley View lift.

Queenstown

Coronet Peak (42-82cms) has had to do a lot of work to recover from the warm weather with its lower altitude. The Remarkables is skiing better right now with a snow depth of 66-86cms.