30.9.16

Snow Report 29 September 2016 - Australia & New Zealand


The 2016 ski season is rapidly coming to an end, but there are a few options on both sides of the Tasman if you're after a few last turns in Australia or New Zealand.

AUSTRALIA

Snow conditions:

Mt Baw Baw - Closed for season
Mt Buller Closed for season
Mt Hotham - Closed for season

Falls Creek - Still good cover in Sun Valley with lifts open until 2 October 2016.

Perisher - Fresh snow and 20 groomed runs at Perisher Valley only. Smiggins, Blue Cow and Guthega are closed. Closing date - 3 October 2016.

Thredbo - 6 lifts are open and Friday Flat base area is closed. Closing date - 3 October 2016.

Selwyn Snowfields - Closed for season


NEW ZEALAND

Its closing weekend for most South Island skifields. Time for some last turns of the season!

Mt Hutt and Cardrona are going to keep going for another week, subject to snow conditions.

North Canterbury and Nelson

Rainbow - Closed for season
Mt Lyford - Closed for season

Canterbury

Mt Hutt - Closing 9 October 2016
Porters - Closing 2 October 2016

The Mackenzie

Roundhill - Closed for season
Mt Dobson - Closed for season
Ohau - Closing 2 October 2016

Wanaka

Treble Cone - Closing 2 October 2016
Cardrona - Closing 9 October 2016

Queenstown

Coronet Peak -  Closing 2 October 2016
The Remarkables - Closing 2 October 2016

23.9.16

Snow Report 22 September 2016 - Australia & New Zealand


The season is starting to wrap up on both sides of the Tasman, with some of the smaller ski resorts already closed.

AUSTRALIA

After a warm and fine start to the week, a few days of rain/snow mix, but mainly rain sadly.

Snow conditions:

Mt Baw Baw - Closed for season

Mt Buller Snow depth: 13cm, with skiing limited to Bourke Street, Summit, Family Run, Howqua and Little Buller Spur). Closing date - 2 October 2016.

Mt Hotham - Snow depth: 60cm, with the best skiing and riding in Heavenly Valley. Hotham is closing this weekend on Sunday 25 September 2016.

Falls Creek - Snow depth: 75cm, all lifts apart from the pomas are running and Summit and The Maze is closed. Still good cover in Sun Valley with lifts open until 2 October 2016.

Perisher - 19 lifts running at Perisher Valley only. Smiggins, Blue Cow and Guthega are closed. Closing date - 3 October 2016.

Thredbo - 10 lifts are open and Friday Flat base area is closed. Closing date - 3 October 2016.

Mt Hutt webcam
Selwyn Snowfields - Closed for season


NEW ZEALAND

Lots of sun this week and no snow. Things have been rapidly warming up and the snow melting. Skiing is fairly limited now at the main skifields in Canterbury.

Lots of patches now down south, even at Remarks and Cardrona and in the Treble Cone Saddle. However, the runs are holding up well and there should be good skiing into the NZ school holidays.

North Canterbury and Nelson

Rainbow - Open
Mt Lyford - Closed for season

Canterbury

Mt Hutt - Open
Porters - 2 October 2016

The Mackenzie

Roundhill - Closed for season
Mt Dobson - Closed for season
Ohau - Closing 2 October 2016

Wanaka

Treble Cone - Closing 2 October 2016
Cardrona - Closing 9 October 2016

Queenstown

Coronet Peak -  Closing 2 October 2016
The Remarkables - Closing 2 October 2016
Remarkables webcam
Coronet Peak webcam

15.9.16

Snow Report 15 September 2016 - Australia & New Zealand


Snow returned to the Australian ski resorts this week, while New Zealand turned on some sunny days to enjoy the great snow that fell over the last few weeks.

Falls Creek 15.09.16 - Falls Creek webcams
AUSTRALIA

More rain damaged the slopes on Tuesday. Then some very welcome spring snow arrived on Wednesday afternoon, improving conditions immensely, although not enough to reopen areas closed in the previous weeks.

In Victoria, 10cm fell at Buller, 22cm at Hotham and 23cm at Falls Creek.
In NSW, 25cm fell at Perisher and 20cm at Thredbo.

School holidays begin this weekend. Perhaps some more snow to fall on and off into the weekend before the weather clears again.

Snow conditions:

Thredbo 15.09.16 - Thredbo webcams
Mt Baw Baw - Closed for season

Mt Buller - Snow depth: 23-36cm, with most of the skiing on the south side (Bourke Street, Summit, Howqua and Wombat)

Mt Hotham - Snow depth: 80cm, with skiing above the road and in Heavenly Valley

Falls Creek - Snow depth: 93cm, all lifts apart from the pomas are running and The Maze is closed.

Perisher - 23 lifts running at Perisher. Smiggins and now Guthega are closed.

Thredbo - 11 lifts are open.
Mt Hutt 14.09.16 - Mt Hutt webcams

Selwyn Snowfields - Closed for season


NEW ZEALAND

Fine weather dominated this week.

Hopefully it will stay fine this week as it is set to be quite warm.

Webcams should give a good idea about the conditions to be found around the South Island this week:

Cardrona 14.09.16 - Cardrona webcams
North Canterbury and Nelson

Rainbow 65-95cm
Mt Lyford - Closed for season

Canterbury

Mt Hutt 80-144cm
Porters 40-100cm

The Mackenzie

Roundhill Closed for season
Mt Dobson 30-46cm
The Remarkables 14.09.16 - Remarks webcams
Ohau 30-60cm

Wanaka

Treble Cone 20-94cm
Cardrona 65-110cm

Queenstown

Coronet Peak 25-100cm
The Remarkables 80-120cm

8.9.16

Snow Report 8 September 2016 - Australia & New Zealand

A big burst of Spring in the Australian Alps this week, while New Zealand was lucky to get a top-up of snow to freshen up the slopes.

Hotham 08.09.16 - Hotham.com.au
AUSTRALIA

It was another warm week of sunny skies and spring skiing. Temperatures up around 5-8c today and windy!

Looks like rain tomorrow, followed by some snow sometime during or after the weekend.

Snow conditions:

Mt Baw Baw - Snow depth: No snow

Mt Buller - . Snow depth: 40-60cm, with most of the skiing on the south side

Mt Hotham - . Snow depth: 88-93cm, with skiing above the road and in Heavenly Valley

Perisher 08.09.16 - Perisher.com.au
Falls Creek - . Snow depth: 97-134cm, all lifts running

Perisher - 35 lifts (down from 46 last week) running at Perisher.

Thredbo - 13 lifts are open.

Selwyn Snowfields - No snow (closed for season)


NEW ZEALAND

After some lovely weather, there were some good snowfalls this week.

Around Queenstown was the biggest dump. The Remarkables reported 55cm and the road is still to be cleared so the field can open. Coronet Peak - 45cm

Cardrona and Treble Cone, less with 15-20cm from the storm.

Rainbow 08.09.16 - Rainbow Facebook
In North Canterbury, Rainbow reported 15cm and Mt Lyford 10cm, which may at least double by tomorrow. Neither skifield is open today.

Nearer Christchurch, neither Porters (20cm) or Hutt (25cm) are open due to winds.

Dobson, Roundhill and Ohau got about 10cm each, maybe more.

The weather should clear tomorrow or Saturday for some fine days returning.

Snow conditions:

North Canterbury and Nelson

Rainbow 55-85cm
Mt Lyford 105cm

Canterbury

Mt Hutt 60-120cm
Porters 40-100cm

The Remarkables 08.09.16 - Remarks Facebook
The Mackenzie

Roundhill 60cm
Mt Dobson 40-60cm
Ohau 40-100cm

Wanaka

Treble Cone 20-111cm
Cardrona 65-110cm

Queenstown

Coronet Peak 60-150cm
The Remarkables 50-110cm

1.9.16

Snow Report 1 September 2016 - Australia & New Zealand


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.