Just updated on Buller’s Facebook page – Bourke St, Baldy and Shakey Knees will be open.
So I’m assuming the 4 lifts will be BB1, Holden, Emirates and the Magic Carpet.
Tickets $50 for Adults and $25 for Kids.
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Hotham to Open 3 Lifts for the Queen’s Birthday Weekend
Following plentiful natural snowfalls and a good snowmaking run, Hotham Alpine Resort will open three lifts, The Big D, Summit Trainer and Upper Playground this coming Saturday 12 June.
With three operational lifts for the opening weekend, it’s a great start to a season that is forecast to be more than above average.
Hotham’s GM Belinda Trembath says, “We are pleased to offer the opportunity to ski and ride on opening weekend – it’s exciting for our guests visiting to celebrate the season opening.”
Snowmaking has been running continuously since 8pm Monday and more than 40,000 cubic metres of snow has been produced during that time. Temperatures have hovered around minus 4 each day and this has provided optimum snowmaking conditions.
Mother Nature came to the party and has already delivered around 9cm of fresh snow. The temperature is currently -5.4 degrees and more snowfalls are forecast for Friday and Saturday.
Buller and Hotham are sorted, how about Falls?
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Wakey wakey
I’m yet to have a coffee, so I’ll keep this brief, but waking up to images like this is one of the joys of winter.
2 more sleeps.
Thanks to luvthabumps and PolePlant from the ski.com.au forums for providing the camera.
Pants on Fire?
A decade of flame wars on the ski.com.au forums has taught me a couple of things. Firstly, never argue with an idiot. That much should be self evident. Secondly, most arguments have been done to death, but despite this they circulate year after year after year.
There’s the old chestnuts of “Is it going to snow at Perisher at 9am on July 27th” and “OMGWTFBBQ!!!!! The lift ticket has hit $100 ZOMGGGGG!!!!!!! – This is the straw that broke the camels back, the resorts will go broke, I am never skiing in Australia again, you should all go to NZ”, but as the first snows of the year arrive, as they have this week, the perennial favourite of snow reporting will rear it’s ugly head.
We’re living in a world of webcams, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, live streaming cams (yet Channel 7 still won’t show the footy live) and for some reason the resorts still see fit to stretch the truth with snow reporting.
Today it was Mt Buller’s turn. Snow lovers across the state and country were excited. Excited to see the snow falling, and watching the guns pumping out the white stuff. Refresh the webcam, check twitter & facebook, post on the forum, get a few texts from mates on the hill & make plans for the weekend.
All this info is readily available, so Mt Buller decides to do the following (As presented on their website earlier today):
Boggy Creek
Tyrol
Family Run
Machine Made Areas 30cm
Average Snow Depth: 30cm
Now, I wasn’t the best at Maths, but it would seem to me that the average snow depth should be 0 + 0 + 0 + 30 / 4 = 7.5cm
Predictably, and thankfully, there was a mini online rebellion. Buller was called on this, which elicited a half baked excuse. I can understand her excitement, but it still doesn’t address the fundamentals. So a bit of a Facebook bash here and a Twitter flame there, it seems that they have decided to meet us half way, and quote an Average of 15cm (Totals are still 0,0,0 & 30 – go figure!)
So why the big deal you may say? What’s up with the semantics? Be happy that there’s snow!?!?!?!?!
I don’t think I need to remind anyone that snow reports are the ski world’s version of used car sales, Herald Sun political columns and BP Press Releases all rolled into one. Credibility is not their strong suit.
In the information age it’s much easier for the average punter to make an informed decision, and when they add up the numbers they’ll head to alternative means of gathering their information. Hopefully I can help out.
UPDATE:
Seems I am not alone in this opinion: http://blogs.theage.com.au/travel/archives/2010/06/why_ski_resorts_cant_lie_anymore.html
Hello world!
Well here it is.
After a decade of posting behind an alias on the ski.com.au forums, it’s time to break out and go it alone.
I like to write about things to do with the snow, I’ve done it informally for years, but now I think it’s time I had my own home.
Please excuse my modest beginnings, all journeys must commence with a single step. The spartan appearance of this site will no doubt appall my wife who is a professional web designer, but so be it.
I’m not too sure where this will head, that’s half the fun, but I’ve always liked to rabbit on about Travel, Equipment, Gadgets and Mt Buller, and over the journey I seem to have taken some reasonable photos of my Travels, so I don’t think I’ll have any trouble coming up with topics.
I’d like this to be a community experience so please feel free to participate through the comments and also on Twitter and (soon) Facebook. Feedback, solicited and otherwise is always welcome!
On top of this I ski at Mt Buller each weekend so I’ll be reporting live from the hill.
So if you’ve made your way to this page, thanks for coming, please bookmark, RSS and add me to your Twitter, and I look forward to an exciting ski season in 2010!
