Snow Report 11 September 2015 - Australia & New Zealand

Hi everyone. We've just returned from beautiful Wanaka in the New Zealand South Island's Southern Lakes.

Conditions have been fantastic on the ski fields after a run of snow-bearing fronts over the past week or two has refreshed and spruced them up nicely ... and brought a few good powder days.

After the snow of 2 September, a sunny spell delivered some fun spring skiing on softening tracked snow at Coronet Peak:

Coronet Peak 03.09.15

Snow fell again during the night into the 4 September, with about 10cm reported at all the ski fields around Queenstown and Wanaka. The snow stopped and the clouds cleared just as lifts were opening ... making for a great day!

We headed for Coronet Peak again. The powder was smooth, silky and easy over at Rocky Gully, and pretty quiet for powder laps. Everywhere around the mountain was skiable, including some great terrain off Greengates lift and the usual good stuff at Exchange Drop.

Coronet Peak 04,09.15

Another follow-up front brought low-level snow on Saturday 5th September, including 15cm at Remarks, 10cm at Treble Cone and 5cm at Coronet Peak and Cardrona.

Winds caused some problems for the skifields, however and persisted into Sunday with some closures.

Monday was still windy and cold in the southwesterly, but the sun was out and the snow was in great condition. We headed up to Treble Cone:

Treble Cone 07.09.15

The Home Basin has lots of snow for this time of year, but the Saddle was where the action was. Dry winter snow made the whole basin skiable apart from a few groomed runs where the snow had scoured in the wind the day before.

The new coffee hut at Treble Cone was a bit exposed when we were there, so we didn't make use of it.

Two sunny days at Cardrona rounded off the trip. Conditions were brilliant with chalky winter snow on most of the mountain above the bottom of Whitestar.

Great cover across Captain's Basin:

Cardrona 08.09.15

The whole mountain was skiable over the two days, including the off-piste runs on Valley View alongside the creek, the Arcadia Chutes, and off-piste above Captain's.

Cardrona 08.09.15

The skifields around Queenstown and Wanaka are looking good for a good month or so yet, rounding off one of the best seasons I can remember.