Been dumping hard since about 10ish. No pics from out on the mountain but here are some from around Central.
There wasn’t much in front of cars this morning. Can pretty much say this is all from today.
Hotham Snow Report, Sun 7 Aug
A welcome return to winter today. The overnight drop in temps was very welcome re-setting the snow pack nicely from the rotten stuff it had become.
Not saying that it was the best skiing of the season but it’s a lot better than it’s been recently.
The snow has come down off and on throughout today. Seeing some accumulation which is good as you can see from the highly scientific roof shot from tonight in the carpark.
Pics from today:
Buller Snow Report – Sat 6 Aug
UPDATE: Sun 7th 2pm:
After a slow start this morning I finally got out around 11am – the view out the window wasn’t terribly appealing when my alarm went off so I decided a few more hours sleep was on the cards.
The skiing wasn’t at all inspiring, but the good news was that it started snowing heavily at about 1pm. We have received 2-3cm in the last hour and the radar looks particularly promising.
Jane’s Weather is showing the potential in the next few days, however due to the complex nature of this low the outcomes are difficult to predict.
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Sat 6th 4pm: There’s no way to sugar coat this – the weather has not been kind to the snow this week. Extremely warm temperatures and winds have had the ‘hair dryer’ effect and melted a huge amount of snow. Much of the natural snow is now gone and we are almost back to snowmaking areas. Fast One is pretty much the only run open on 100% natural snow. Crazy considering last week I was skiing Powder Keg, Sun Valley, Cow Camp and Hog’s Back.
To add insult to injury it rained for much of the drive up last night and was very wet when we arrived on the mountain. However it turned to sleet and then snow around 9:30pm. I went to bed slightly hopeful but with little faith – it was snowing again when I woke up but looked to have remained dry for most of the night.
So with the heavy snow falling I went out relatively optimistic. It was obvious that a huge amount of snow had melted but a few centimetres of fresh on top was heartening. However halfway down Little Buller Spur on my first run the little hope I had was literally dampened when it turned to rain. It was only snowing on the top half which made for a very wet lift ride. 2 runs there and that was enough, headed into Koflers which was a Zoo. Did a few more runs around Fast One, Family, Wombat & Shakey Knees. It was the same story everywhere – fresh wet snow up high but rain affected snow down below.
It’s still snowing now at the village but I doubt very much whether it will be snowing down to the base of the lifts. The temperature has been hovering around freezing since 9pm last night.
Jane’s Weather is confident of a lowering snow line tonight into tomorrow and Monday, with a moderately optimistic amount of snow forecast.
Seasoned Aussie skiers will know that it always gets worse before it gets better, so hopefully this is the lowest ebb before we head back into positive territory. I can think of years like 2002 and 2009 where the season didn’t improve during August, but I can think of many more that did, so hopefully things will turn around, but of course we never really know.
Hotham Snow Pictures – Sat 6 Aug
Got sent a few pics from Hotham this morning by a mate – no commentary however:
Hotham Snow Report, Thu 4 Aug
Apologies for the lack of updates lately. It’s just been a bit of whatever for the past while. Figured winter has gone on holiday so I would to.
This warm weather is literally eating the snow. It is disturbing to see. The cover is still generally ok however it is as you would expect very soft. There are some patches starting to appear but if you are coming up soon you won’t miss out just may not get the full package.
Really hoping that it cools down soon and it gets snowing again as it should look like this in a month not now.
Some pics from today:
2011 – Mid-season Report Card
Give or take a few days, we are smack bang in the middle of the season.
June & July down, with August, September, and hopefully a week of October to go.
Despite the marketing guff you see around the traps, it hasn’t exactly been a bumper season, but it has been far from a shocker either. Until the last 10 days there has been a fairly consistent procession of weather systems since before the June Long Weekend – many of them bringing snow, but a few key systems did not set up in a manner that has favoured Buller, and has brought rain, and freezing rain, even when the temperatures were below zero. Quite a few storms have been what I like to call a ‘shit sandwich’ – rain followed by snow followed by rain, for little or no nett gain. Here are some charts published on the ski.com.au forums by member ‘skidown’ that illustrate our progress so far, and compare it to the 3 previous seasons:
As you will see we got off to a good start, which was turbocharged during the first week of July, but we have recently dipped due to some unseasonally warm temperatures, which has led the prophets of snow doom to proclaim the season over. I always find that quite amusing. Just because the bottom of Cow Camp is history doesn’t mean that we won’t have 8-10 good weeks of skiing up high & on the South Side of the mountain. I’m always happy if we can ski down to there for about 4 weekends of the season and make the most of it while it’s open.
The main drag of Federation was only skiable for a few short days, and the better skiing in the Bull Run bowl has been tantalisingly close for the past 3-4 weeks, only needing a further 20-30cm of snow. It has arrived a couple of times in fact, but was washed away. There seems to be a lot of snow in the Fast One area however.
I had a particularly fun day on Sunday:
However what comes next is pretty pivotal to the outcome of the season. As you will see from the graph, 2009 had a pretty ordinary August, which led to a dismal September. In recent memory I can think of 2002 which got off to a strong start but faded in August, however I can think of many more years where August had a good gain in snow depth. I am particularly hoping for this as September is by far the best month to ski, but due to the warm Spring temperatures you need to kick the month off with a decent base if you are going to make it through to October.
The good news is that it looks like there is a little snow on the way. Naturally it will start as rain on Saturday, but Jane’s Weather has predicted it to turn to snow by Saturday evening, continuing through the weekend and into the week.
Junior Nationals Moguls Champs – Mt Buller July 30-31 2011
Thanks to TBR Parent Matt Fitton for this report:
100 of Australia’s top junior mogul skiers gathered on Mt Buller’s Chamois run last Friday/ Sat / Sunday for the 2011jNats (Junior National Moguls Championships). TBR and Mt Buller did a fantastic job creating a 160m long, 3 line course, which was in magnificent shape for training on Friday under sunny skies.
The field boasted Vancouver Olympian, Britt Cox as well as OWI World Cup skier Matt Graham, Mt Buller’s own 10/11 World Cup debutante, Brodie Summers and a host of Australian Development team members and young promising skiers, eager to press their claim for a spot on the Sub Development team for this year’s forthcoming NH winter season.
Saturday’s singles comp was held under ideal conditions with mostly sunny skies and light winds on the protected Chamois run. All competitors had one qualifying run and 12 skiers qualified for the final in each of the division – Junior Men & Women ( born 1992 – 1997 ) and Youth Men and Women ( born 1998 or later)
The quality of skiing was very high, showcasing the depth of Australian freestyle skiing with world class performances in both the Men’s and Women’s categories. As expected AIS / OWI athletes Britt Cox and Matt Graham held on for tight wins in the Junior category under enormous pressure from their NSWIS team mates. In the Youth Division, Mt Buller TBR locals, Jakara Anthony and Max Bernard both held off stiff competition to take out the titles, with both completing high quality runs and inverted aerials that belied their young age.
Unfortunately we awoke for Sunday’s Dual Mogul comp to typical Mt. Buller pea soup fog and due to safety concerns the comp had to be cancelled late in the morning, much to the disappointment of organisers and competitors alike.
A huge thank you to Patto, Pete McNeil and the whole team of TBR coaches for putting on a fantastic comp yet again.
Full results can be found on the jNats website
The jNats / TBR Photo Gallery can be found on the jNats Facebook page
Buller Snow Report – Sat 30 Jul
UPDATE Sun Jul 31 2pm:
The rain did arrive, but it was at about 9pm last night. Not sure how much it rained, but it had cleared by morning and didn’t seem to have done much damage which is good.
Skiing today was foggy up high – visibility was pretty tricky but clear down low. Soft snow was actually quite welcome as the off-piste was not really skiable yesterday. We had some good runs on Yurredla, Powder Keg, Men’s Downhill, Cow Camp & Burnt Hut to Cattlemen’s trail is nice when the run is deserted.
Bottom of Tirol will do well to last through the week with the warm temperatures forecast and the chance of rain. It is meant to get colder towards the end of the week which will hopefully be accompanied with some more snow, which will be needed by then.
No photos due to the fog.
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I can’t say I was terribly excited about getting up and going skiing this morning.
The last snow was last Sunday, though much of it was rain, the conditions midweek had been stunning – bluebird with nobody around but rain was naturally forecast for the weekend, and next week is also looking like warm & rain. My bedroom window here faces North so I heard the wind howling all night, so when I woke up the motivation was lacking.
Each ski season has a lull, and for me I’m in it at the moment – this year it snowed early and we skied on Queens Birthday which was great, but ever since even though the conditions have been improving the storms that have promised a lot have not delivered, and in many cases they have gone rain-snow-rain for little to no nett gain. There have been multiple days of freezing rain even when the temperature has been -4c. For the last 3 or 4 weeks we have just needed an extra 30cm of snow to get everything up and going and it just hasn’t happened. Actually I lie, it’s happened twice but was followed up with rain. As a reader of this blog you have probably noticed that my posting rate has also slowed with my malaise. However my new MacBook Air arrived this week so I will have a much better time posting than with my iPad – I will still persist with the iPhone app for updates from the slopes, but honestly I’d prefer to use Twitter for that so please follow me there and I will do more substantial updates from the lodge.
So with all that in my head I headed out for a ski this morning hopeful that I’d find something fun. Thankfully I did!!!!
A quick run of Standard with my nephew before Ski School, and followed this up with a great run on Men’s Downhill, an OK one on Summit, about half a dozen rippers on Summit Slide plus good turns on Slalom Gully, SCV Hut Run and even Burnt Hut to Cattlemens Trail. Chalet Creek was a little thin but still fun.
The weather was the typical high cloud and wind that usually precedes a storm, but the sun started to come out at about 11am and I actually found myself overdressed. So it’s time for a quick lunch and to head back out there. I can see grey skies to the west so the party will be over soon enough.
Due to the high cloud the photos aren’t the best, but here are a couple:
Buller Snow Report Sun Jul 24
Yesterday was a wonderful blue sky day, I wrote a long post with pictures and my iPad crashed and I lost the lot.
Fortunately I have one of the new MacBook Airs in transit which will make life much easier.
Blue skies and fast snow was great yesterday, and about 10cm of fresh overnight. We didn’t get out early as it has been a week of long nights watching Le Tour, so I will do a more substantial update tonight.
Hotham Snow Report, Sat 23 Jul
After a week of ugly weather today is bluebird.
The warm, wet weather had corrupted the snow pack pretty badly. It was bloody cold last night so it has totally reset and firmed up.
Some pics from earlier today:
