Australia is receiving more and more fresh snow. The severe, chilly weather at one of the country’s leading resorts, Falls Creek is the outcome of the coldest front of the winter. A classic late winter pattern- a series of cold fronts crossing south eastern Australia. The mercury dipped to -5C (the lowest overnight temperature this month) and it was still well under zero at midday with a wind chill temperature of -12.1C.
About 20cm (eight inches) of fresh powder blanketed the resort at the weekend, taking the snow depth to well over 1.5metres (over five feet) in the resort’s Village Bowl.
This is probably the first time we’ve put out a severe weather warning for this sort of thing,”
said Weather bureau senior forecaster Scott Williams. Very cold air behind the second cold front dropped the snow level to around 600m almost 25km below Falls Creek.
Francis Jackson Falls Creek’s Snowsport School Director said,
This is the longest period of consistently dry, soft snow I’ve seen. We’ve had a month of perfect snow quality normally found overseas. The skiing and boarding is unreal. If there was ever a time to come and experience how much fun it is - its now!”
Falls Creek has now exceeded its 20 year average snowfall and the forecast is for more snow for the remainder of this week.
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Australian ski area Perisher Blue ran a marketing campaign , “Six Good Reasons to Get out of the City and Head to the Snow.”
Top of the list is escaping from the Pope’s visit to Sydney, “If you are not taking in the activities and festivities then it could be the perfect chance to get out of town. Transport could become a nightmare for a start, what a good excuse to leave town and hit the snow!” is Perisher’s advice.
Continue reading ‘Perisher tells people to skip Pope’s visit and find true Love’
The first week of July has seen the ‘real’ start of winter at many Australian resorts after poor natural snowfall in June. Mount Hotham has reported 29cm (12 inches) of snow in the past week, with an additional 13cm (seven inches) in the past 24hrs, enough to open Heavenly Valley for skiing and riding tomorrow, Wednesday 9th July, for the first time this season. An additional 60cm (two feet fell last weekend.
The opening of the Heavenly Valley Chair will provide access to some of Hotham’s signature terrain such as Imagine, Milky Way, Black Snake, Brockhoff and Purgatory Spur. The resort’s new snowmaking expansion into Heavenly Valley has played a critical role in topping up the natural snowfall in the area
Mount Hotham and neighbouring Dinner Plain Alpine Village will be hosting the third annual Mountain Fresh Festival from July 18th to 23rd. The six-day winter festival of delicious regional food and cool climate wines from the Alpine Valleys will incorporate a diverse program of individual events held at venues that will strongly feature food and wine from the Alpine Valleys Wine Region. From wine tastings and master classes, to foodie films, pampering sessions and much more, there will be something for everyone at the festival.
www.mountainfresh.com.au
Click here to see ski package specials with Ski Rebel Magazine’s official winter getaway supplier
Although conditions remain “challenging” at Australia’s ski areas, the Blue Cow ski area of Perisher Blue opened, Wednesday June 25th, for the first time this season.
Revelers of all levels of ability are reported to have enjoyed schussing around the slopes.
At Blue Cow two lifts are in operation including the Early Starter Double Chair and the Pony Ride Rope Tow.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology forecast for the Snowy Mountains is looking good. A cold front is expected to hit tomorrow with snow falling to 1500 metres.
To check out available ski packages see Ski Rebel Magazine’s official tour supplier by clicking here.
The long awaited snowfalls have finally arrived in Australia and hopes are buoying snow lovers. As at 10.30am this morning, Perisher Blue has received 15cm (six inches) of fresh snow since 2.30pm Monday 30th June, blanketing the runs and leaving the resort looking wintry and white.
Coupled with 77 snowmaking guns, which fired up across parts of Perisher Valley, Blue Cow and Smiggin Holes, the snow cover is looking good. Further snowfalls, down to 1200 metres, are expected over the next couple of days.
At present Perisher Blue has 11 lifts operating across parts of Perisher Valley and Blue Cow Mountain. Riders of all abilities will enjoy the extra 15cm of natural snow on the slopes when putting in their turns. In addition there are two mini Fusion Parks open in the resort, on Front Valley and in Smiggin Holes.
Mt Hotham is reporting a 25cm snowfall over the past 24hrs with snow continuing to fall. A further 7-15cm (three – six inches) is predicted during the rest of today, 5-10cm (two – four inches) for Wednesday, and a final 1-3cm (inxh) on Thursday.
Chile’s ski areas are hoping to that a record 800,000 visitors by the time the season ends in October and according to reports from the Santiago Times they are off to a good start with around a metre of snow (40 inches) on the slopes.
Termas de Chillán, the most southerly of the country’s major areas, along with Valle Nevado, one of the closest to capital Santiago, both opened last weekend.
Termas de Chillan has several new lifts and new mountain restaurants this winter as part of an investment program aiming to boost skier numbers to an average of 4,000 a day. The resort’s main 400-bed Gran hotel was fully booked for opening weekend.
The picture is currently less inspiring for Australia and New Zealand. Australian resorts opened on time but have been struggling with limited snow to open runs, although there have been recent accumulations of the natural stuff and temperatures low enough to top up with snow making. More snow is forecast for the end of the week. In New Zealand good snowfall at the start of the season has been lost in some cases due to unseasonably warm weather, also too warm for snow making, and several areas have postponed opening. But it’s a mixed picture with Mounts Hutt and Ruapehu opening and reporting good early season conditions, the latter saying their opening is the earliest for 15 years.
Dave Wilson, Mt Hutt Ski Area Manager said the ski area has had a great run up to the start of the season.
Early snowfalls and ideal temperatures for snowmaking means we now have a 50cm snow base which is very good cover for this early in the season,”
he said.
It’s coming but our friends at biteandchew.com, who produced a SaveOurSnow fund raising T Shirt, are now developing a unique ‘Melt Map’.
This will combine brief summaries of scientific reports published over the past few years by reputable organizations all around the world (UN, EC, universities…) in to how much less snow, on average, individual areas have compared to 20, 30 or 50 years ago and other reports projecting how much less snow there’ll be in the future.
Continue reading ‘What’s new on Save Our Snow’
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