AUSTRALIA
A skiff of snow last weekend that fluttered around the mountains into Monday has made the top peaks of the Great Dividing Range white and has led to a few Australian ski lifts turning for beginners.
The rest of this week has seen mainly fine weather in the mountains, with some colder temperatures arriving. This has allowed for some fairly limited overnight snowmaking across Australia.
All this tinkering about the edges is about to change. Early on Monday a big storm will bring large amounts of snow to all Australian ski areas and the good news is the snow will persist into Wednesday. There are early indications another front will follow up with more snow before next weekend. The result could be close to a metre of snow on the ground and great skiing across the Alps by next weekend.
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| Perisher 18.06.14 [Source: Perisher FB page] |
Perisher has done really well to build on snowfalls last weekend with some super snowmaking. This enabled Australia's biggest ski area to fire up the Front Valley ski lift for skiing and Blue Cow later on in the week.
Thredbo
Thredbo had learners getting their skis on at Merritts early this week and has since made snow across the top sections of the mountain.
This week started warm and wet in Queenstown, and warm, wet and windy in Canterbury. Probably not the best combination if you're a snowsports enthusiast!
On Wednesday, a southerly change cooled things down and a little bit of snow fell. Temperatures improved allowing for overnight snowmaking to keep the pistes open at Mt Hutt and Coronet Peak.
Similar to Australia, next week looks more promising as fronts could bring some snow from Tuesday. Not as much snow as is forecast for Australia right now ... but enough to get all the ski resorts open and the lifts turning.
North Canterbury and Nelson
Rainbow is due to open on the 5th July. Hanmer Springs is aiming for 28th June. Mt Lyford is now looking to open on 23rd June.
Mt Hutt (30/15cms) was completely closed on both Monday and Tuesday as the wild weather played havoc. Poor conditions followed on Wednesday after the rain. But it was great to see the skifield managed to open the Summit Six lift after colder temperatures allowed lots of snowmaking. Porters meanwhile postponed their opening day to the 27th June.
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| Cardrona 18.06.14 [Source: Cardrona webcams] |
Ohau and Roundhill are still due to open on 28th June, while Mt Dobson gets going on 4th July.
Treble Cone plans to open on 26th June, but currently has no snow at the base of the resort, and only a little in the Saddle Basin.
Cardrona got washed out early in the week but bounced back strongly opening on Friday. The skifield debuted with limited lift facilities: only the McDougall’s chairlift was open, but it was open in glorious sunny conditions and looked pretty as a picture.
Queenstown
Coronet Peak (30/25cms) ensured the pistes M1, Million Dollar and Wall Street were all open for skiing despite a lot of rain on Monday. Cooler temperatures during the week helped keep the runs going. The Remarkables had no snow to speak of at the beginning of the week and has postponed its opening one week.
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