It’s been an awesome two weeks up here since the last report. Apologies for the break.
Hasn’t been much sunshine in that time and while there hasn’t been a dump of snow that stands out there has been a nice steady stream of small to moderate falls that have kept things looking really good and riding very well.
Very happy that this August hasn’t turned out the same as last year with the heat wave!
No doubt Richo is going to enjoy the conditions over here when he comes to town shortly.
There wasn’t any point taking pics up high today, couldn’t see anything. Here’s some from down low.
After last weekend’s bluebird bonanza at Buller it was refreshing to see some forecasts rolling in. It seems that the resorts have received a bit of a mixed bag of weather, Buller announced 13cm of rain affected snow on Monday morning and a further 5cm this morning. I’m sure it’s all adding up, and the big daddy is yet to come.
I selectedd a winner for our Viddy competition held over the last week – it was a pretty easy choice in the end – the theme was ‘grom action’ but in this case it seems like the coach filming bore the brunt of it. Thanks to Volkl Australia for a cool prize pack and keep your eye out for more comps before the season ends.
Word all weekend was that the end of this week was going to bring snow, and the forecasts are yet to disappoint. Jane’s Weather is calling for the following:
20 to 35 cm today to Saturday morning (5 to 10 cm today/overnight, 15 to 25 cm Friday into Saturday morning).
Notes: This system brings persistent snow from now through to Saturday afternoon. We have light snow today, increasing overnight with the risk of thunderstorms, as the cold front moves through. Then we have the wrap around from the low, tomorrow into Saturday.
Weatherzone is in-line with this, as is The Frog though Mountainwatch’s Grasshopper has highlighted a small low forming that could disrupt the progress of the front. It is apparently slightly at risk of passing too far north. His full discussion is here. Even further into the future there is the chance of another system for next weekend.
(c) Mountainwatch / The Grasshopper
The evergreen aussieskier.com post ‘How to track a Snow Storm‘ gives all the tools to monitor its progress through tomorrow.
As for me, it will be business as usual at Buller for the weekend – keep an eye out for the Volkl Demo tent tomorrow and Saturday.
But on Sunday night some mates and I head in the Harrietville direction for a ski touring trip to Feathertop. The plan is to spend 2-3 days camping and skiing at Feathertop, followed by a couple of days of slackcountry touring around Hotham and then our AST 1 Avalanche course at Hotham for the weekend.
Very excited as this will be my first real taste of the Australian BC. I’m also stoked to have Ford Australia on board, who are providing one of their new Ranger Wildtraks for the week – hoping to put it through its paces in the mud & snow, and keep an eye out for a review once I’m back.
Ford Ranger Wildtrak
A massive thanks to the ski.com.au forum members that have helped me out with the camping equipment:
Camping Gear
This is the destination: (Pic copyright ‘Boodwah’, ski.com.au forums)
Feathertop (c) ‘Boodwah’ – ski.com.au forums
So, a massive ten days ahead, currently packing and charging and getting all the gear together – naturally I’ll be posting all the details once I’m back to civilisation!
Be sure to ‘Like’ us on Facebook as I will be uploading some pics & other details as mobile reception permits through the week.
Couldn’t believe my eyes when I woke up to blue skies.
Rushed out the door, there were clouds around the area so I thought it would be short lived but it stayed blue all day.
With Standard open the start of the ski day is far more palatable as I now no longer need to ride Holden – which I managed to avoid all day along with BB1 and Wombat. To not have to ride those lifts is a blessing.
The warmer, wet temperatures late yesterday softened the snow which then froze solid overnight, so off-piste on the South Side wasn’t an option, so we skied Standard to Men’s Downhill which were both firm and then headed to the Summit area.
The Bluff from Bull Run ChairBloody Hell from SouthsideLower Yurredla from Southside ChairFed Bluff & Upper Yurredla from Southside Chair
Grimus hadn’t opened first thing and we were lucky enough to be near the top of Summit Chair when Patrol pulled the Closed signs and were in the first dozen to ski Summit Slide for the year. The first three runs down there were sublime, so much fun. Then the crowds found it and the queue built to enormous proportions so we decided to give it a miss until lated in the day when SCV Hut Run would have softened.
Grimus! Yeah!SCV Hut Run from Grimus ChairLower SCV Hut Run from Grimus Chair
A number of ski & board companies had demo equipment available at Koflers, we concentrated on the Salomon and Atomic range for today, skied some fantastic skis which I will put reviews of during the week on aussieskier.com/gear
Summit / Fast OneMcLaughlin’s Shoulder from Grimus Load
SCV Hut Run softened and the crowds had gone elsewhere – this was clearly the best run of the day for us. We did a number of fast laps in the soft crud & had an absolute ball.
SCV Hut Run
Due to this being the first weekend of the season with any decent terrain I was bracing for big crowds but it didn’t look like they eventuated. I waited in one large line at Grimus but skied almost straight on to every lift. That said we didn’t ride Wombat at all today.
Last run of the day was Wombat run to Whiskey Creek Trail and Federation Chair – it’s always nice to head down there and see the snowpack on runs like Rough Cut & Bloody Hell
Rough Cut from Fed ChairBloody Hell from Fed ChairLower FederationYurredla from Fed ChairYurredla from Fed Chair
All in all it was a fantastic day, we had an absolute ball mainly in the Summit area and also enjoyed skiing the Salomon & Atomic Demo skis. We’re just hoping that tomorrow dawns blue and we can do it all again!
Starting to get some entries from the TBR groms in our Viddy competition – head to aussieskier.com/social and click on the Viddy Icon to check them out!
There were almost 50 Instagrams tagged with #aussieskier uploaded today, be sure to check them out on aussieskier.com/social and you can ‘Like’ our Facebook Page to have them sent direct to your News Feed.
The bulk of the snow fell prior to 10pm last night, when I left the lodge this morning my footprints from midnight were still visible.
I got up early but when I looked out the window Bull Run was not yet turning at 8:30 so I decided not to take the risk and walked up to Holden. Holden was slightly delayed opening but I was the first public skier on the chair at about 8:45 this morning.
First in line at HoldenFirst Chair on Holden
At this stage Wombat was the only upper lift running so I had a warm up on LBS – deserted and nice groomed packed powder. As you can see from the pics Robin’s and Powder Keg are still a way off opening but I did hear Outer Edge opened which I will check out this arvo.
Wombat ChairRobin’s Run
I sidled over to Southside and was informed that it would still be quite some time until it opened but Bull Run had opened by this stage so I checked out Standard. Similar to LBS – nice groomed packed powder. The sight I saw looking up the Bull Run bowl was not quite what I expected – I never thought that Sun Valley or Hog’s Back would be close but the shrubs on Wood Run surprised me, I thought it would be closer to opening but unfortunately not.
Sun Valley from StandardStandardLooking up Bull Run BowlWood Run/Funnel
A couple of laps of Standard then a quick one on Shakey Knees and Southside had finally opened. Easily the best skiing I found – pockets of nice fresh snow in the trees around Yurredla and nice packed powder on Men’s Downhill. Southside is one of my favourite areas and I was stoked to be skiing there again:
Southside ChairYurredla from SouthsideMen’s DownhillSouthside Chair
Then it was one more on Shakey and back to the lodge to warm up & take some more drugs for my knee:
Tyrol run from Shakey Chair
It certainly isn’t the pow extravaganza that Perisher was having yesterday – as I mentioned in my blog yesterday I feared that the wind would affect things and this is definitely the case. Also Wednesday night’s rain has now hardened the snow so the conditions are probably best described as ‘wind drifts of dust on crust’ but there were some lovely pockets of snow in Yurredla, I had a great morning & glad I came up, and will head back out for the arvo shortly.
The weather is cold, windy & cloudy with the occasional snow flurry.
Don’t forget to Like our Facebook Page for updates through the day and also to see the Instagrams tagged with #aussieskier that are being published by users from all the mountains.
It’s rare that the drive to Buller warrants a Trip Report on it’s own, but today was an exception.
Watching the weather over the last couple of days, it became truly apparent that it was time to drop everything and head up to Buller. This season has failed to excite in any way but we all know things can change, and change quickly. Late starting seasons like 1992, 2003 and 2010 all turned around in late July or early August and this could do the same.
So plans were made and I decided to ‘Chuck a Snowie’ and head up this arvo. I heard rumours of snow to Mirimbah and slippery conditions in the village so I planned to leave early so I would arrive in daylight, which I am very glad about. From Chirnside Park to almost Yea it was the most torrential rain and hail I have ever encountered in my many dozens of drives to Buller:
From outisde Yea to Bonnie Doon the drive was pleasant enough, but all I could see was a wall of black cloud around The Paps, and due to the sun setting in the west behind me, a stunning rainbow:
Bonnie Doon Double Rainbow
After Merrijig you could see snow on the hills to low levels, including this one on Timbertop:
Snow on Timbertop
Snow was thick on the road at White Bridge:
Snow at White BridgeSnowy Road
Hard to say how much snow in total due to the wind but I would guess 10-20cm:
Snow in the Village
With more coming:
New lifts expected to open are Bull Run (which actually opened today), Grimus and Federation. Federation will only be to service Whiskey Creek Trail which will bring much needed respite to the Wombat Chair, Grimus for Summit Slide, and Bull Run for Standard. I will find out tomorrow if the storm delivers enough to open the interesting terrain serviced by those lifts.
While I am excited about what the morning may bring, I am cautioning myself slightly for two reasons. First is the wind – it is currently howling and this may play havoc with the lifts, however if this is the case I will bust out the skins and earn my turns which I am 100% OK with.
The second reason is, well, Buller. As we know this year things have been rather askew. There’s a lot of bad feeling and pessimism up here at the moment, some caused by Mother Nature disproportionately favouring the rest of the resorts, and also some other reasons more under human control. Every storm that has lined up this year has let me down, so until I actually get out there tomorrow in the fresh stuff I am going to temper my enthusiasm. I’m waiting for that day when I can proudly proclaim ‘Buller’s Better’ however this year it has quite frankly been a long way behind the pack.
There are a lot of people who have been holding off from skiing this season, but this could well be the storm that is the catalyst to get them up here & have some fun on some more of the terrain that we enjoy.
Well, for a start it’s bloody cold, -5C as I type this. Keep an eye on the AWS Temperatures & also wind strengths. Second, the Radar Image is showing southerly moisture heading straight in the direction of the Alps, and the Satellite Animation shows plenty of speckled cloud headed our way. The various snow forecasts such as Jane’s Weather, The Frog & Weatherzone are calling for snow to moderate through tomorrow, become clear on Saturday and the chance of some sun on Sunday.
Keep an eye on the aussieskier.com Facebook Page tomorrow as I will update that during the course of the day and write a more comprehensive report on the blog tomorrow night. Be sure to ‘Like’ the page to get all the user-submitted Instagrams hashtagged with #aussieskier that have been so popular this season – if the snow is great tomorrow I would expect the total to crack the 800 mark which is truly incredible.
Here’s your chance to WIN an a prize pack from our friends at Volkl Australia
They have generously donated a Dalbello Hoodie, Marker Beanies, Volkl Cap and some Volkl/Marker stickers.
NOTE: Both the Hoodie and Cap are Small so this one is for the Groms.
Volkl / Dalbello / Marker Prize Pack
How do I win?
This week’s theme is ‘Grom Action’
All you need to do is Shoot a video of some hot kids skiing or snowboarding in your iPhone, Tag it with #aussieskier and Share it on Viddy.
The competition opens NOW and runs through to midnight on Sunday August 12th. Early next week we will check out all the submissions and choose a winner – the winner will be notified by a comment on their video by me – aussieskier. Once I have your details I will mail out the prize pack.
Oakley Australia and K2/Line Skis Australia are currently organising prize packs so this competition will continue for the next few weeks – or longer if I can secure more prizes from our friends in the industry. We will use different themes each time so everyone can have a go!
UPDATE: Douchebags have been updated & are now available for sale in our Gear Store:
[product id=”7100″]
Douchebag. Bet that got your attention!
Reinvention of the ski bag has been a concept thrust upon me for the last few years. It used to be easy. When I was working as an instructor and travelling between the Aus & US snow fields life was simple. I literally lived out of my ski bag, and thanks to the generous 2x32kg allowances offered for those years on Qantas & United I never had to worry.
I bought an enormous K2 ski bag back in 1998, back when men were men & skis were long. It could comfortably carry the 198cm GS skis that I was on at the time, plus another pair, and pretty much all of my gear. It had separate compartments for the skis, was extremely well padded and rolled well. I would stuff it with as much gear as I could to protect the skis, my clothing and other items would go in a large suitcase and I would be on my way, comfortably living on quite a few less kilos than the 64 I was allowed. That bag has done almost 20 overseas ski trips and served me extremely well.
Chamonix Arrival. Saggy Bag.
The world has changed in two ways since then. Firstly skis tend to be quite a bit shorter – as anyone will tell you who has had short skis in a long wheelie bag, you end up with a saggy, baggy, draggy bag. Secondly due to skyrocketing fuel prices baggage allowances have dropped. This has been further compounded on my recent trips to Europe and Japan which have traditionally had lower allowances than US sectors anyway.
I was fortunate enough to spend much of the first part of this year skiing, however on each trip we moved multiple times, 5 beds in three weeks in Japan, and 6 beds in 4 weeks in Europe. Doing the maths there shows that there was much lugging, unpacking and repacking of ski gear. For the bulk of this time my once-loved K2 mega-bag was as much a hindrance as a help. I was also dealing with 23kg luggage allowances, but cheered when I finally hit Silver on Etihad which gave me a much needed extra 10kg.
So when Simon from Bent Square who is the Australian importer of the new Douchebags contacted me and asked if I was interested in doing a review of their product I couldn’t reply fast enough. My ski bag situation was no longer working so I was a perfect candidate to evaluate a potential solution.
Here’s a short video with its features being demonstrated by Jon Olsson, possibly the coolest skier on the planet:
The Douchebag is the result of a collaboration between pro skier Jon Olsson and two Norweigan entrepeneurs, and was developed in conjunction with a Norweigan University and 150 local skiers for testing. It is designed to address the sag issues with variable ski lengths, reducing weight while maintaining adequate protection, hands-free rolling for long walks with your skis, and also compresses to a very compact volume for storage while not being used.
I can confidently report that it addresses all of those factors in a most clever and ingenious way.
Length / Compression:
The key to the concept is a pair of strips along the top & bottom of the bag sewn in 7-8cm intervals. These strips facilitate the handle component, which has a group of four hooks which attach top/bottom, left/right and can be tightened for compression.
Douchebag Ski Bag
So when a pair (or pairs) of skis is placed in the bag, the excess length is simply rolled up, and then held in place by the hooks/handle, and you have a rigid bag. You can also attach the shoulder strap to the handle for handsfree rolling.
Douchebag Ski BagDouchebag Ski Bag
When not in use the bag can be completely rolled up for compact storage either at home or in your ski lodge/hotel room.
Douchebag Ski BagDouchebag Ski Bag
Weight/Protection
The Douchebag is lightly padded on the bottom and sides, but instead of using heavy padding to protect your beloved equipment which adds much unwanted weight, there are a series of plastic ribs sewn in to the construction of the bag to provide impact protection and cut down on weight.
This is clearly shown in this photo – you can see the striped stitching – in every second section a plastic rib is contained. The alternate sections are empty, but with light padding, and this facilitates the rolling:
Douchebag Ski Bag
The net result of this arrangement is a bag with adequate protection that tips the scales at a meagre 3kg. A full featured, padded double wheelie ski bag is usually in the 5-7kg range. I hate to think what my K2 sarcophagus weighs.
Capacity:
As you can see here it comfortably fits two pairs of skis with much room for other bits & pieces, Mrs Aussieskier and I tend to put our climbing skins, harnesses, crampons, shovels & probes in our ski bags and I can’t see why we wouldn’t be able to do the same with this bag.
Douchebag Ski Bag
Additionally there is a small zipped compartment on the end of the top flap for storing loose items or the supplied shoulder strap:
Douchebag Ski Bag
Other Views:
On the top of the bag you can see the two padded handles – these are perfectly placed for balance & easy lifting of the bag in & out of cars etc:
Douchebag Ski BagDouchebag Ski Bag
There is also a handle on the side, and attachment loops for the included shoulder strap.
The wheels are large which should prevent pesky pebbles jamming and dragging in front of a wheel:
The Douchebag has rethought the ski bag concept, and in my opinion has won. It has clearly been conceived by people who travel a lot with skis and understand the various pitfalls of this pursuit. I have used it on one snow trip and also some city driving to pick up/drop off skis for review. This hasn’t allowed me to test how well it is for lugging on long distances via the shoulder strap, and also of course I can’t yet comment on its long term durability.
But what I do know is that I wish I had one in January, one shouldn’t complain about ski travel when you have a lot of fun awaiting you at the other end, but I did a huge amount this year and while the skiing was great my trips were structured that I moved around a lot, and I can think of dozens of occasions where I would have been far better off with a Douchebag.
I’m looking forward to this being part of my equipment arsenal for many years to come.
Any questions? Ask below in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Got a Douchebag? Let us know below what you think.
(Review Disclosure: The Douchebag was supplied at no cost for review purposes by the Australian Importer Bent Square)
A strange thing happened at Mt Buller on Saturday.
The drive up on Friday night was eerily quiet, we left at the same time as always, and for the first weekend in August you would expect to catch the ‘conga line’ just out of Yea and follow the tail-lights all the way to Buller, but in this case there wasn’t a soul on the road and we made excellent time. Unfortunately we were greeted with frozen pipes in the lodge so we had to melt some snow to cook our dinner!
Melting Pot……
We left the lodge in the morning in good spirits with snowflakes flying and a few cm on the ground in anticipation of a good day. However in a fashion that can only sum up the fortunes of Mt Buller in this bizarre 2012 winter, by the time we were at the top of the Holden chair it was a deluge of rain and we made a beeline for the safe haven of Koflers.
Koflers in the Rain
We weren’t alone & it was packed. The mood was the same as the previous saturday morning – glum faces due to the weather outside and text messages/Facebook/Instagram updates from elsewhere reporting OK conditions. I was bummed – K2 and Line Skis had a demo tent set up at Koflers and my main mission for the day was to test out a number of skis for the fast growing Gear section on aussieskier.com.
Mmmmm…..Bacon!
After we had lingered for a while we noticed that the people walking in didn’t look quite as saturated as earlier so we thought we would head out for a look. It had stopped raining and there were some flashes of clear sky amongst the clouds. So I slid around to the demo tent, grabbed some skis and got to work.
Each run though the middle hours of the day got better & better. Due to the demos being in the Koflers area we stuck to the Summit/Koflers/Howqua triangle and proceeded to have an absolute ball.
It was the first session this whole winter where I actually felt like I’ve been skiing. Yes I know groomers on snowmaking have been open all year, but if you reckon that constitutes skiing then this blog is probably not for you.
However the incremental snow gains over the last week have definitely added to the base and there was a nice cover of soft snow on Fast One and you could ski it hard & fast from top to bottom with only a few rocks & the odd shrub to look out for. There was a nice bump line down towards the Howqua chair where the APSI examiners were holding the Level 4 resit exam – it was great to catch up with my old colleagues & see them put the candidates through their paces. The examiners were stoked with what was available for the Bumps & Free Run component and it looked like a good & fair test of their abilities. It also reminded myself that it was now 10 years ago that I passed that particular exam.
As the day wore on the temperatures got colder and the chilly SW wind dried the snow out, which meant softer more powdery textures on top but the wetter base had formed up into more firm conditions.
We did Lap after Lap in this area, changing skis from the K2 & Line ranges, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We also managed to avoid the Wombat chair for an entire weekend, hoping this can be the first of many.
Mt Buller / Fast One Aug 4 2012Mt Buller / Fast One Aug 4 2012Mt Buller / Fast One Aug 4 2012Mt Buller / Fast One Aug 4 2012
We followed it up with some drinks at Apres and then headed to the Whitt for a good friend’s surprise 50th birthday party. A good time was had by all and this continued until the wee hours at Grimus. Unfortunately somebody managed to take home my Black North Face down jacket, and left behind their own. Mine is a Large but the jacket left behind was an XL. So if your black North Face puffy feels a little squeezy, head to the reception at Grimus to make the swap.
Sunday morning consisted of a sore head, and when we heard of the windhold it made the decision to keep sleeping an easy one. We headed up after lunchtime and after a thorough session of microdermabrasion we did a couple of runs, had a hangover cure at Koflers with a bunch of the patrollers and headed back to Melbourne.
During that chat with the patrollers they mentioned that Southside was not far off opening, which proved to be true with its opening today. We are expecting a decent storm on Thursday which has the potential to add to the cover and hopefully open further terrain.
I will report back on the prospects of this storm tomorrow.
Thanks to everyone who continues to add Instagram photos tagged with #aussieskier – check them out on aussieskier.com/social and on our Facebook page. We have now received over 700 photos this season from all resorts and it continues to grow.
I am just about to launch a competition for Videos submitted with Viddy with the #aussieskier tag, I have a prize pack from Volkl/Dalbello and am working with Oakley and K2/Line skis for further prizes, so keep an eye on the blog and our Facebook Page for more details.
Nothing much has really changed since the last check in. A few nice days, a bit of snow here and there but nothing of any real note that sticks in your head as a great day out or missed.
Been some days where it was pretty firm but yesterday was fantastic on the groomers. Particularly out in the orchard. It was bloody freezing in the wind and the weather has closed in this morning but can only see a trace of new snow so far.
We are crying out for a good dump, the extreme zone is closed because the track out is not user friendly at the moment. Real shame as the top looks great.
Here are some pics from yesterday arvo:
Hotham Snow Report 3rd Aug 2012Hotham Snow Report 3rd Aug 2012Hotham Snow Report 3rd Aug 2012Hotham Snow Report 3rd Aug 2012Hotham Snow Report 3rd Aug 2012
Thanks to everyone submitting their Instagrams with the #aussieskier hashtag – you can view them on aussieskier.com/social or our Facebook Page.
At the start of the season we launched our social sharing feature using the hashtag #aussieskier to display your Instagram Pics and Viddy Videos on aussieskier.com/social and also our Facebook page.
The simple ‘Shoot, Tag, Share’ instructions have been an absolute hit – at this halfway mark of the season over 600 pictures have been uploaded, and I can’t remember the last day where somebody didn’t upload a picture. Furthermore pics have been rolling in from all the major resorts and from extended members of the community – of course it was with the help of my mates that this concept was kickstarted but now on top of that we have dozens of aussieskier readers with whom I have no affiliation who are making amazing contributions.
So to all I have one message: THANK YOU!!!!!
Through this community effort thousands of readers are able to see the best of the conditions each day of the season at all the resorts – aussieskier.com is a ‘one man band’ and there is only so much I can cover on my own, though I am assisted with a blogger at Hotham, but it’s through these efforts by readers across the Vic & NSW resorts that we all benefit. I myself now feel more informed about the conditions elsewhere due to the pictures coming in, so I can only assume that all readers feel a similar way.
The 100 or so most recent pictures are available for viewing on aussieskier.com/social or through the Photo Albums on our Facebook Page, however if you would like to scroll through the entire history of #aussieskier photos you can do so here: https://hashgr.am/aussieskier. You can also search for the Hashtag #aussieskier within the Instagram app on your phone, and on the Facebook Albums there is an instagr.am URL to each photo so you can start following your favourite users. The more you follow and like the pictures, the more incentive there is for people to continue!
HV & Feathertop from Instagram user @gbeyer
There’s no doubt that Instagram is a hit, and this was validated by Facebook recently purchasing it for a cool $1 billion. But when I was working on this feature I also thought ahead about Video. Skiing & snowboarding are action sports and video is the best medium to convey this. I looked around for what was the video equivalent of Instagram and the answer was Viddy. This may sound stupid but out of its competitors, the reason I chose Viddy was because Justin Beiber was using it. Yes that sounds totally lame but he is a ‘tour de force’ of social media and has the horsepower to ‘make’ a service.
Things have been a little slow on the Viddy side, which I anticipated as the service is newer and still growing, but I think it has a lot to offer the community. Unfortunately like Instagram it was first developed for iPhone with an Android version yet to be released, and it’s API is still in beta so I’m not able to integrate it as closely as I have with the pictures, but this will all improve with time.
Naturally the best way to kickstart this is with a competition. I’m currently working on a prize pack with a couple of the companies I have affiliations with, I will announce it in the next couple of weeks. So download the Viddy app & learn how it works!
Let me know in the comments below what you think of the concept so far? Do you mind so many photos appearing in your Facebook feed? Any other feedback?
