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Weekend Wrap Up / The Week Ahead

Richard Ross
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UPDATE 6pm Monday: Buller has confirmed on their Facebook page that LBS will open on Wednesday

Webcams are showing the snowmaking going hammer & tongs, which is hardly a surprise. Over the next few days I will get a handle on what terrain can be expected for the weekend after LBS is open.

Sunday 10pm:

Conditions today were much like Saturday. No photos today as there wasn’t much point.

Snowmaking overnight allowed the opening of Baldy, which was a pretty tenuous move, as was maintaining Shakey’s status as an open run. The lower section was about 2m wide and littered with rocks.

The day was cold and snowmaking was continuing for much of the day, but unfortunately the wind direction did not allow snowmaking on Shakey.

Riding Holden chair you could see significant snowmaking on the trail to Little Buller Spur. According to people I spoke to in both Operations and Patrol it is estimated this will open on Wednesday. Apparently it has been painfully close to being able to open since Queen’s Birthday but the conditions didn’t conspire to get the lower section skiable.

Jane’s Weather, plus BOM, Weatherzone, Snowatch are all predicting snow on Tuesday/Wednesday, I don’t think it’s going to be an enormous amount, perhaps 15-20cm, however it will be welcomed and combined with a very cold week and lots of Snowmaking I would predict LBS, Summit, Family Run, and perhaps Skyline for next weekend.

As the weather rolls in midweek I’ll keep this page updated with up to the minute conditions and other news.

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Photos from Mt Buller 26/6/10

Richard Ross
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Buller Snow Report/Conditions – 27-8/6 UPDATE: 2pm Saturday

Richard Ross
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UPDATE 2pm Saturday:

Pretty decent size flakes falling.

Pics of Shakey Knees. Hmmmm…….

UPDATE 11:30am Saturday:

5cm of snow overnight and blue skies. Snowmakers have been playing connect the dots on Baldy and Shakey Knees, Skakey has just opened for the day, report to come.

UPDATE: 9am Saturday:

It snowed, thank god. Looks to be about 5cm, Baw Baw seems to have had the best of it. Will update when I get out and about.

UPDATE: 11:50pm Friday:

Rain has turned to Sleet at Buller. And not a moment too soon. Arrived in the dark so couldn’t see too much but the word is that there would be no lifts unless something happens tonight. So lets hope it keeps happening!

Unfortunately not a whole lot more moisture on the way according to the Radar but we may well see some snow in the next couple of hours. Cold temps will of course get the guns going too. Given that we knew it would rain first then turn cold sometime between now and Saturday arvo, this isn’t so bad.

Will update again from the morning and get some pics up if possible.

UPDATE: 5:30pm Friday:

Nothing to see here. I’ll spam from the heavens when it starts to snow. But not before.

UPDATE: 8:30am Friday: Today is not a day to watch the weather or the snow cams, for at least the next 24 hours or so. In true Australian fashion, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. If I hear things from the hill I may or may not post them as they’re unlikely to be good.

Jane’s Weather paints the picture.

Thursday:

Thursday is a good day for a snow report.

Mainly because people are deciding to go for the weekend or not, also the snow reports are on the mainstream media on a Thursday, and snow people are thinking about it. Last Thursday the traffic to my site was enormous. So I think I’ll make a point of starting a ‘Weekend Conditions’ post each Thursday, that I will continually update over the weekend.

The problem is, this week, Thursday is a day too early. It rained for most of last weekend, and the weather has done SFA since. It hasn’t snowed, they haven’t made much snow, nor has it rained either. A real nothing week. The fun starts tomorrow.

I got on the phone this afternoon to a friend who has been there all week and there was nothing much to report. Baldy is closed, Shakey Knees is open but getting very thin, and Bourke St is OK. No revelations, but there it is.

As I’ve been posting about here, there’s some significant weather on the way. It will start wet, and end up cold. That much is clear. However the timing of the coldness, and whether this will coincide with any wetness is a whole other story.

So that’s about all I have for now, I’ll update this post continually as I get tidbits throughout the day, and then when I arrive on the hill tomorrow night. Meanwhile keep an eye on the Village Square Cam as this will give you the best idea of whether the precipitation is clear or white.

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NZ Getting Pounded

Richard Ross
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0

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Mt Hutt is reporting 52cm new snow and a base of 120cm – not bad for June!

While I’m not particularly interested in Mt Hutt itself, there are a couple of places over the back that are no doubt revelling in similar conditions.

Broken River & Craigieburn are not open as yet, but some juicy tweets from them are getting me excited. This comment just popped up from a BR member:

Just heard from the horse’s mouth, 40-50cms fresh around the base lodges at Broken River in the last few days. Still 10 days until opening day.

30 days until we leave!

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Weather For The Weekend 27-28 – Updated 12pm Thurs

Richard Ross
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0

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UPDATE: Thursday 10am

It doesn’t seem to be in much doubt that the weather will start wet tomorrow, and turn cold on Saturday, but the Jury’s out as to how much it will rain/snow, and when the transition will come.

A FANTASTIC update on Jane’s Weather today with great details on what we can expect, all backed up with the relevant charts. She’s not too confident about the weekend, but thinks that cold air will linger until next week’s more promising systems, which is also good for snowmaking.

BOM isn’t overly optimistic, Weatherzone is a little happier with the situation (snow levels look grat for next week), as is The Frog.

So it really looks like it’s a question of the timing of the cold air, how much rain will precede it, and how much snow will follow it. Late Saturday and Sunday look like they will be favourable for snowmaking however.

Later today I’ll get on the phone to the hill and report on how things are looking, and I usually arrive up there at about 8pm on a Friday so will report myself on the progress of the cold front & of course the skiing conditions.

An Observations Thread has also been started so that will be another good place to look to see how the weather is progressing.

UPDATE: Wednesday 7:30pm:

The Weather Nerds are getting particularly excited by the squiggles on charts like this:

168hr Chart

The Frog is bullish on the amount of snow we will get on Saturday, and also sees more around Tues/Wed next week.

Fingers crossed that everything eventuates nicely and kicks the season off with a bang.

UPDATE: Wednesday 11:30am:

Jane’s Weather is continuing to predict wet weather ahead of the front, now looking like hitting on Fri night, and cold temps but little snow afterwards. At least we might be able to make snow for the weekend.

The guys on the Weather forum are getting excited by the system early next week. ‘Season Starter’ has been mentioned.

Buller Village Cam is now back online, the time stamp will be fixed for the weekend. This cam runs 24/7 and is an invaluable resource for watching the weather as the fronts hit. Unfortunately the AWS is still offline.

UPDATE: Tuesday 8:30PM:

I just screen grabbed this off the Mountainwatch Little Buller Spur Cam:

Mountainwatch LBS Cam

Looks better than I expected. We won’t need a huge amount of snow to get this open. Hoping for some good snowmaking too in the next day or so. I fear that it may not be ready for the weekend, but surely it can’t be too far off.

BOM 4 Day Synoptic

There’s currently 1040hpa worth of high pressure parked over SE Australia. A cold, clear night last night, but too cold for snowmaking as is often the case in this kind of weather, as a temperature inversion left the outskirts of Melbourne frosty, but the resorts above zero.

The weather is changing later in the week, with a system due on Thurs Night/Friday, and another on Monday.

BOM says rain Friday, Snow Saturday, which is backed up by the Freezing Levels shown on Weatherzone

Jane’s Weather isn’t too confident about the first front, but sees a good chance for snow early/mid-next week

Snowatch also is predicting that it will start wet but then cool down and snow.

Plenty of commentary on the ski.com.au Predictions thread, and an Observations thread will open up when the system arrives.

Unfortunately the BOM AWS for Mt Buller and the Village Square Cam are both down, which is a shame as these are great tools for tracking the progress of a cold front. I’ll update this post if/when they are fixed.

Meanwhile The Wang went for his first ski at Perisher for the season.

So it doesn’t look overly flash to start with, but hopefully more snow than rain unlike last weekend, and snow continuing in to next week.

I’ll keep this post updated through the week as the weather systems get closer.

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Going Kiwi

Richard Ross
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1

It’s been quite some time since I crossed the ditch for a ski.

1994 in fact. Year 10 and Year 12 school trips to Mt Hutt, specifically.

I remember the 1992 trip well. New Zealand played beautifully to the stereotypes – within 100m of the airport exit we saw a paddock full of sheep, and soon after that evening while ordering fast food it was near-impossible to suppress the sniggers when we heard the 150kg All Black lookalike behind the counter talk about ‘Fush’ and ‘Chups’ and charging us ‘Suxty Sunts’. We were in juvenile teen schoolboy heaven.

Bus rides with Nirvana’s Nevermind blaring, my bright yellow Quiksilver suit, Oakley Frogskins and equally garish K2 Extremes, of Glen Plake fame. I was the shit – you can imagine the excitement and validation when the Frogskins and Extremes were re-released over the last couple of years.

Fast forward to 1994 – The yellow Quiksilver had become a Lime Green Spyder, the Frogskins upgraded to M-Frames and my beloved Extremes did not survive the non-season of 1993 at Buller so were replaced by some K2 TNCs. The memory of this trip however is a little hazy due to some cool teachers turning a blind eye to the duty free booze that made it into our bags…..

Since those fun times my Southern Hemisphere skiing was confined to the Oz resorts – as an APSI candidate and then employee I was fortunate enough to get around to all the resorts for various courses and exams, but NZ was never really an option for work reasons.

I’ve never really been taken by the concept of NZ resort skiing either, to be honest. I coached for a number of years alongside a well-travelled Kiwi native who didn’t really think much of his home resorts, and preferred life at Mt Buller. I’m not sure if his motives were 100% explained but I took it on board.

Regardless of whether it’s the USA, NZ, Europe or wherever, I’m drifting further and further from traditional resort skiing anyway. Buller each weekend serves its purpose to keep the legs moving and keep the skills up for overseas adventures, but it’s been the places such as Snowbird, Jackson, and recently Chamonix that have caught my eye. Large, wild ski areas, huge lifts to the top, and minimal human intervention on the way down.

So with that in mind, the NZ Club Fields entered the equation. No chairlifts, no grooming, no problems. Nutcracker lifts, open terrain, powder and steeps. Perfect.

Back in the ’90’s, when we all wore fluoro and Glen Plake was ‘da man’ I remember reading that he loved skiing in Craigieburn. That tidbit stuck fast in my mind, and remained tucked away for over 15 years. Fast forward to 2009, when well-plied at a wedding, a group of us were discussing what the next ski adventure should be, and in a moment of self-proclaimed brilliance I declared “NZ Club Field & Heli Trip. Stealth group of 4, no chairlifts, no skis under 100mm allowed”. It was sealed then and there.

The next few months were spent researching and planning, we’ll fly over during the last week in July, we’ve got a house rented at Castle Hill Village which is below the famed Craigieburn and Broken River Club Fields, and Kevin from Methven Heliski has been most helpful in suggesting an itinerary.

Extremes and bright suits have made way for Gotamas and Avvie Beacons – we can’t wait. We’ll need a little luck from the weather gods, but we’ve an open itinerary so each morning will present itself and hopefully we make the correct decision. The prospect of nutcrackers is daunting and exciting at the same time – god bless Youtube for showing us how.

I’ll continue to post about our trip, and depending on if we have decent broadband at our lodging I will put up some pics while we’re away.

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Don’t Mention The War

Richard Ross
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3

Not much to blog about this weekend. It rained, and the Bombers lost. 🙁

Had a few phone calls / SMSs from the hills that have not been particularly complimentary, nothing really worth publishing.

My good friend Lorraine Lock from snow-blind feels the same way – if you can’t talk about skiing, talk about shopping!

Shopping has been a large part of the agenda for the weekend – Nic and I have been like squirrels hoarding nuts for the winter, this could well be the last day until September that I see the outside of my house in daylight, and the state of my courtyard on Grand Final Day usually attests to this. We’ve been to the Supermarket, Sth Melbourne Market, Dan Murphy’s & Costco, our freezer is chock full of great food and we’re ready to stock the lodge.

The cam that is the litmus test for me at the moment is the Mountainwatch Little Buller Spur Cam – at the moment it’s showing that lower LBS is a little thin, but hasn’t completely been washed away.

So I’m looking forward to the week ahead, there’s a few clear days coming up which are hopefully good for cold clear nights and snowmaking, followed by some weather coming in later in the week.

The gurus on the ski.com.au Weather forum will no doubt be discussing it this week, keep an eye out for the Predictions and Observations threads, also Jane’s Weather and of course aussieskier.com. I’ll be keeping an eye on things and summarising the parts I feel most important right here.

For a blog that has only been going for a little over a week the response has been overwhelming, I only got Google Analytics up and running on Tuesday, since then I’ve had 2,700 visits and 5,500 page views – Thursday was a monster, which is no surprise as this is the day people make plans for the weekend and Snow Reports are usually featured on the evening news etc. Tools like Google will show me which items are popular/unpopular and where to concentrate my efforts.

Also a shout out to Miss Snow It All for her mention of aussieskier.com in her Fairfax blog this week. We obviously feel the same way on the topic of snow reporting.

So thanks for all the support, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and most of all please leave lots of feedback and tell me what it is YOU want from this blog over Winter 2010!

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Buller Weekend Conditions

Richard Ross
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So instead of Mt Buller I’m writing this from the luxury of the Frank Grey Smith Bar at the MCG, getting ready to watch the Bombers beat the Hawks for the 4th time in a row. No matter, I’ve lined up a few people to keep me posted on how things look up on the hill and will update this post as the news arrives.

First up, snow-blind on how things are looking.

Also if you’re on the hill please leave a comment telling us about the conditions.

SMS Update 9pm Fri: It’s raining 🙁

Update 11pm Fri: Village Square Cam now back online, looks like a bit of a wet mix.

Update Sat 5pm: Just got off the phone to my someone up there, they said it was drizzly this morning but fined up in the afternoon. They were skiing with their kids on Bourke St in the morning but got out on Shakey Knees later in the day. Said it was getting thin but the skiing was still OK, was pretty cut up by the time they got over there in the arvo.

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Latest from Buller

Richard Ross
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1

So I just got off the phone to a friend up on the hill to get the latest on the conditions. Not too pretty I’m afraid.

Torrential rain from about 2am, but I think we knew that. It washed away a decent proportion of the natural snow.

Skiing was reduced to BB1 and the Carpet, Holden and Emirates were not open. Unfortunately looking at the Mountainwatch cam this morning you could see that there was visibly less snow on Lower LBS, so it will take a pretty decent natural fall and/or snowmaking to open the run, which I would imagine is particularly unlikely for the weekend.

Regrettably the rain also undermined the base on Bourke St and footsteps were breaking through to the grass.

At about 11am a hail/thunderstorm came in, and the snow properly started at 12:30pm. It snowed heavily for an hour, then eased, then came back in at about 3pm. At this stage the village looks white and there are a few cm on the ground, but it is still a nett loss.

Looking at the Forecast/Charts I can’t see a huge amount more falling, so fingers crossed for cold temperatures so the snowmakers can start to rebuild.

So unfortunately I think that solves my issue of whether to head up on the weekend, looks like I will be cheering on the Mighty Bombers at the G tomorrow night over a beer or 10. See you in the Frank Grey Smith! Pity, I’d far prefer to be at Grimus and skiing LBS on Saturday morning. Oh well.

I’ll update this if I hear more from the hill.

UPDATE:

Just got this message from a local @ 9:20pm:

It has been snowin pretty solid for the last 45min or so. Still would be at a net loss, but the grass we could see around our lodge is def gone and there is about 5-10cm on the steps of the lodge. I can’t hear snow makers though, so must be a bit wet. The report this morning was over night we lost baldy.

Wish last night didn’t happen, but at least it’s heading back in the right direction.

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Weather for the Weekend – Updated Thu 1pm

Richard Ross
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Well it’s warm and rainy in Melbourne. Not what I was hoping.

At the start of the week I was about 50/50 on heading up to Buller on the weekend. The Bombers are playing on Friday night, I have a dinner that I should go to on Saturday, so it was going to be a bit of a stretch to get there, but I was definitely going to try.

However the current forecasts don’t fill me with joy. Here’s another couple of local bloggers’ take on things:

Windy, windy, windy … and snow

The Wang isn’t particularly optimistic either.

Humph.

If it does snow, and the Bombers lose, I won’t be happy.

What do you read into the weather for the weekend?

UPDATE: Thu 9:30am

Pretty disastrous night for the Vic resorts, 30mm of rain at Buller, 55mm at Hotham, but things are on the up, Hotham has tweeted that it has turned to snow, and this is evident on the roof of the Valley View Cam.

Cold air is sweeping across the state, the Mt William AWS in the Grampians has dropped to 0.5C.

Will it be a net gain or net loss? Will I go to Mt Buller or the football?

UPDATE 2: Thu 10:30am

A violent cold front just smashed through Melbourne, it was hilarious watching the smokers cower in a corner outside my work! Melb Airport AWS shows a drop from 13c to 6.7c in just over an hour.

So the cold air is coming, the main question is will it be a nett loss or gain?

Jane’s Weather has a morning update.

Let me know what your plans are and what you use to make your decisions.

UPDATE: Thu 1pm

Lorraine Lock from snow-blind just messaged me to say that it is snowing heavily at Buller.

Also blizzard conditions at Hotham.

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