Its the first day of Spring! Spring means warmer days on the slopes, melt-freeze conditions and - hopefully - the occasional dump of snow to keep things going through the school holiday periods that are coming up on both sides of the Tasman.
 |
| Hotham 23.08.16 |
AUSTRALIA
The torrential rain on Wednesday morning did a lot of damage to the snow cover at the Australian skifields.
Around 30-50mm came pelting down overnight. Lifts have closed at some mountains in this run of warm weather.
This storm ended a good run of days for those of us lucky enough to be up in the mountains at the end of August.
We arrived a few weeks ago during the previous storm that brought 50cm to the Victorian ski resorts over the weekend of the 19-22 August.
The snow was dry and chalky at the beginning of last week following the dump. Very cold nighttime temperatures kept the snow in fantastic nick during the week, when there were no crowds of course!
 |
| The Orchard, Hotham 23.08.16 |
We used the free afternoon lift access at Falls (with a multi-day pass) to check out what had fallen after all the weekenders had returned home. It was still cloudy and snowing, but there was great winter snow and very nice conditions off-piste.
Hotham was skiing beautifully on Tuesday with dry packed powder all the way down the hill. However, runs at The Orchard and the bottom of Blue Ribbon were still marginal, even after the dump. At the same time, the cover at Heavenly was complete and the snow fantastic with the snowmaking guns still going while we did our early laps.
The days turned glorious as the week went on, with nice, crisp nights and classic sunny days with light winds. But not too warm that the snow condition couldn't keep nice overnight.
 |
| Falls Creek 25.08.16 |
This fantastic run of days lasted right up until the weekend, when it started to get really warm on Saturday, continuing into Monday.
The chalky conditions were replaced by melt-freeze on the weekend, which was just as fun if you knew where to go as the runs softened up through the day.
By Monday this week, the runs were starting to get a little patchy down low, but until then Falls had complete cover save for a few dodgy bits lower down in The Maze. Hotham was struggling to keep The Orchard open even before the rain, and Blue Ribbon was marginal already.
Its amazing how much snow there is on the upper slopes at both mountains, with a marked difference as you go below 1600m. Heavenly Valley at Hotham and the great skiing across all of Falls were definitely a highlight though last week!
Unfortunately it looks like raining again into the weekend, with perhaps a few snow showers following.
Snow conditions:
Mt Baw Baw - Snow depth: 0cm No lifts running
 |
| Hotham 26.08.16 |
Mt Buller - .
Snow depth: 65-83cm All lifts except for Boggy Creek and Federation
Mt Hotham - .
Snow depth: 97-107cm All lifts except for Blue Ribbon, Orchard/Keogh's and Gotcha qhich closed this week.
Falls Creek - .
Snow depth: 104-131cm
Perisher - 42 of 47 lifts running at Perisher, North Perisher and four lifts at Smiggins have closed
Thredbo - all 14 lifts are open but patchy snow on many runs.especially lower down.
Selwyn Snowfields - just the one chairlift open now at Selwyn.
Mt Baw Baw - Closed for season
Wanaka
