Snow Report 29 August 2013 - Australia & New Zealand

AUSTRALIA

Those of you who have been up at the skifields will know from experience that this has been the best period of 2013 for skiing in Victoria and New South Wales. Continual top-ups of snow during the last week have reinvigorated the ski season. Good times ... with great cover and all areas open!

Things have been warming up considerably: when the five-day forecast in Melbourne is 22-26c you know you're going to be getting some soft, spring skiing up in the mountains. That will mean freeze-thaw conditions with crunchy starts, and some loss of snow cover over the next week.

Not a lot of snow in the upcoming forecast, if any, over the next week. Lots of opportunity for sunny, t-shirt days however. Enjoy the spring skiing, but get up there soon!

Mt Hotham - Natural Snow Depth: 113cms

Falls Creek 29 August 2013 [Source: Falls FB page]

It finally happened! The Orchard opened early last week and has given people luck enough to be up there some great skiing at times when the snow was fresh. The runs over there have suffered a bit from icy conditions, but its been a good week for Hotham with the whole of the resort open.

Falls Creek - Natural Snow Depth: 135cms
Everything is open again at Falls Creek with great conditions over the past week. Falls will ski well into spring and has had a stand-out season with a good period of ski-in, ski-out, despite the unfortunate landslide that closed the road last weekend.

Mt Buller - Natural Snow Depth: 75cms
The storms of the past week have finally delivered Buller some snowy goodness. Lower trails have missed out a bit, but there is plenty of skiing to be had.

Perisher - Natural Snow Depth: Approx 75-175cms
Fantastic conditions across Perisher over the last few weeks. A great follow-up to last year's incredible ski season. The great news is that Perisher will be building a new quad chairlift at Guthega this summer. This lift is something to look forward to next year.

Mt Hutt 29 August 2013 [Source: Mt Hutt FB page]

NEW ZEALAND

Wow! That was a long wait. a few little top-ups over the past week were a teaser for the great snowfalls that arrived yesterday across the South Island. A long time coming! Things looks so much better now everything is refreshed.

Spring skiing is looking promising in NZ with a return to more variable weather systems. Lets hope there are continual systems coming across bringing new snow.

North Canterbury and Nelson

Rainbow (60/40cms) has got a nice new white coat, but Hanmer Springs has now closed for the season. Mt Lyford is looking good for when it reopens after 20cms of new snow fell yesterday.

Ohau 29 August [Source: Ohau FB page]

Canterbury

Wow, Porters (140/30cms) really needed that top-up and is looking so much more wintery after a 15cms snowfall. Mt Hutt (290/240cms) has retained its snowdepth form last week with a 25cms dump yesterday.

The Mackenzie

Ohau (110/55cms) scored the biggest fall of the last day with a whopping 40cms - they say it was the  - "biggest fall since June", while Roundhill (80cms) got 25cms, and Mt Dobson didn't miss out with a 15cms snowfall (100cms).

Treble Cone 29 August 2013 [Source: Treble Cone FB page]

Wanaka

A good little 10-15cms at Treble Cone (312/10cms) and Cardrona looks nice and white again to lower levels (130/55cms). Spring looks like being good in the Wanaka area!

Queenstown

Coronet Peak (85/42cms) and some fresh snow falling down to low levels last night. The Remarkables (115/70cms) is looking pretty good with 15cms powder overnight.