Guyra just over the QLD/NSW border got quite the dump. About a foot by the looks.
Alta eat your heart out.
Alta eat your heart out.
Oz/NZ 2025
- Thread starter Sbooker
- Start date
And Stanthorpe in QLD got some.
www.theguardian.com
Snow falls in Queensland as NSW SES report 100 vehicles stuck in heavily blanketed northern tablelands
Footage shows snow falling at Dalveen, between Stanthorpe and Warwick in south east Queensland, about 4pm on Saturday
www.theguardian.com
EMSC
Well-known member
Meh,
Try +21c at 2pm followed by -26c by 5am the next morning without ever travelling any distance at all (a few trees died from that one).
Or +23C at noon followed by snow and -5c by 3pm (and absolutely howling winds bringing the cold front in).
I even have a screen shot somewhere showing weather stations having temps in the mid 40F's on half the screen and temps ~10F on the other half (distance of probably ~20 miles/32km). No altitude differences, just a cold front along the front range. Temps dropped that much over ~15minutes. It had been in the 50's that day and I think ended in the mid single digits over night. So not as big a change as the other ones outlined above, but it was impressive for a 15 minute delta.
Denver can have some pretty extreme weather.
But lets be honest Patrick. Having both participated and coached at such races, they aren't much of a race at that temp. One run to inspect, race (with half the field or more not even bothering to strip down to a speed suit), 2nd run inspection and 2nd race run. Lots of lodge time and listening to coach radios on when to head up for those short race runs. The kids don't even bother to do warm-up laps or any free-skiing at that temp unless they are approaching high FIS/World Cup level. Basically the kids 'endure' the race and pretty close to none of them probably cared how they did would be my guess. It's a good fun story about their childhood on how they raced at such temps, but overall those races are not much of an actual focused competition.
The Front Range/western Great Plains are notorious for extreme weather changes in a short period of time.
But here in California we can say, "If you don't like the weather, get in your car and drive for an hour or so."
Patrick
Well-known member
August 8 numbers...
New snow has pretty much of the South island areas listed below. Hutt is at 18cm in the last 24hrs. Top two areas for snow accumulation so far this year, Hutt (341cm) and Hotham (268cm).
Base, season, lift, runs
Hutt : 119-160cm, 341cm, 5/5, na
Ohau : 80-90cm, 83cm?, 3/3, na
Porters : 80-110cm, na, 6/6, na
Treble Cone : 66cm, na, 4/9?, na
Dobson : 55-65cm, na, na, na
Cardrona : 50cm, na, 8/9, na
Remarks : 33-103cm, 97cm, 7/7, na
Roundhill : 30-40cm, na, 5/6, na
Coronet : 15-90cm, 74cm, 8/8, na
Olympus : 15-50cm, 53cm?, 4/5, na
Turua : 55-80cm, na, na, na
Whakapapa : 31-38cm, na, na, na
Perisher : 160cm, na, 45/45. 117/121
Falls Creek : 103cm, 201cm?, 12/15, na
Hotham 111cm, 268cm, na, 89/105
Thredbo : 153cm, 195cm, 15/16. 45/53
Buller : 57-110cm, na,17/19, 33/81
Charlotte Pass : na, na, 4/4, 18/25
Baw Baw : 40cm, na, 2/7, 2/13
Dinner Plain : 3-23cm, na, na, na
Selwyn : na, na, 3/7, na
Ben Lomond : na, na, 3/6, na
New snow has pretty much of the South island areas listed below. Hutt is at 18cm in the last 24hrs. Top two areas for snow accumulation so far this year, Hutt (341cm) and Hotham (268cm).
Base, season, lift, runs
Hutt : 119-160cm, 341cm, 5/5, na
Ohau : 80-90cm, 83cm?, 3/3, na
Porters : 80-110cm, na, 6/6, na
Treble Cone : 66cm, na, 4/9?, na
Dobson : 55-65cm, na, na, na
Cardrona : 50cm, na, 8/9, na
Remarks : 33-103cm, 97cm, 7/7, na
Roundhill : 30-40cm, na, 5/6, na
Coronet : 15-90cm, 74cm, 8/8, na
Olympus : 15-50cm, 53cm?, 4/5, na
Turua : 55-80cm, na, na, na
Whakapapa : 31-38cm, na, na, na
Perisher : 160cm, na, 45/45. 117/121
Falls Creek : 103cm, 201cm?, 12/15, na
Hotham 111cm, 268cm, na, 89/105
Thredbo : 153cm, 195cm, 15/16. 45/53
Buller : 57-110cm, na,17/19, 33/81
Charlotte Pass : na, na, 4/4, 18/25
Baw Baw : 40cm, na, 2/7, 2/13
Dinner Plain : 3-23cm, na, na, na
Selwyn : na, na, 3/7, na
Ben Lomond : na, na, 3/6, na
Patrick
Well-known member
Hutt and Hotham seems to be the place to be right now. Overall big Oz areas with the exception of Mt Buller look good. Hotham has mentioned best snow in one decade.
NZ Conditions vary greater between parts of the country even in the South. North island is poor. Hutt looks like the most decent. Clubfields, not open or thin.
Anyhow, Christchurch is definitely the best destination in southern hemisphere; very low tide in most of the Andes.
Potentially leaving next Saturday evening on Air Canada. Strike/lockout starting in a few minutes. I have a layover in Sydney and I could modify my plane ticket, but opted against.
Looking at the snow and the fact that I’ve been to Oz twice since 2018, I’ll go for NZ that I’ve wanted to return since that 2016 trip, I’ll keep the course and head to NZ.
There are a few places on the South Island that I didn’t get to see (Abel Tasman Park) or might want to revisit (Milford Sound and West coast glaciers).
Im pleased to confirm that my Ikon pass 2024-25 & new 2025-26 gives me 10 days… I could get also two season worth of days at Buller (10) and Thredbo (10). Buller seemed to be hurting.
Flying thru Brisbane which I’ll try to stay 2 days on my return trip. I spent 1 night coming back from NZ in 2016.
Just reserved the car rental, 2 week Car rental is less than half the amount I paid for 2 days on the Lofoten islands in Norway.
NZ Conditions vary greater between parts of the country even in the South. North island is poor. Hutt looks like the most decent. Clubfields, not open or thin.
Anyhow, Christchurch is definitely the best destination in southern hemisphere; very low tide in most of the Andes.
Potentially leaving next Saturday evening on Air Canada. Strike/lockout starting in a few minutes. I have a layover in Sydney and I could modify my plane ticket, but opted against.
Looking at the snow and the fact that I’ve been to Oz twice since 2018, I’ll go for NZ that I’ve wanted to return since that 2016 trip, I’ll keep the course and head to NZ.
There are a few places on the South Island that I didn’t get to see (Abel Tasman Park) or might want to revisit (Milford Sound and West coast glaciers).
Im pleased to confirm that my Ikon pass 2024-25 & new 2025-26 gives me 10 days… I could get also two season worth of days at Buller (10) and Thredbo (10). Buller seemed to be hurting.
Flying thru Brisbane which I’ll try to stay 2 days on my return trip. I spent 1 night coming back from NZ in 2016.
Just reserved the car rental, 2 week Car rental is less than half the amount I paid for 2 days on the Lofoten islands in Norway.
A spectacular South East Queensland day today.
A big dat with approx 4000 feet of elevation gain over a short distance. Lots of rock scrambling and hopping and semi technical climbing.
A huge bonus was the wildflowers were already out.
A big dat with approx 4000 feet of elevation gain over a short distance. Lots of rock scrambling and hopping and semi technical climbing.
A huge bonus was the wildflowers were already out.
Attachments
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
that looks like a proper hike!!
ChrisC
Well-known member
Looks like it's finally going to snow significantly in the South Island for the first time after a lackluster, semi-poor season. It's impressive how much terrain the resorts can open with only 40-90 inches of yearly snowfall.
View attachment 47320
View attachment 47320
Good for Patrick, who is flying there this weekend I think.
Saw this a couple days ago. @Tony Crocker, is that figure of 330 inches remotely legit?
New Zealand Ski Resort Has Such Little Snow It Won’t Open This Season | The Inertia
A storm reportedly only brought about eight centimeters of snow to the resort and the upper mountain has just a 60 cm base.The resort averages 838 cm a year.
www.theinertia.com
All the other areas are leeward, so I can believe Temple Basin gets the most snow of South Island lift service. Whether that's 330 inches I can't say.
Even by NZ club standards, Temple Basin is quite rustic. It's a 45 minute walk from parking to lodging and the rope tows. It better get a lot of snow as terrain is fairly rugged and primary exposure is NW (bad in Southern Hemisphere) looking at Google Earth. Black Diamond Safaris, with whom I skied Mt. Olympus and Broken River in 2010, never mentioned Temple Basin to me.
ChrisC
Well-known member
Would you recommend trying a NZ ski club if one went to ski the South Island for a week?
I remember reading about them in 90s/00s publications as a super unique NZ only experience.
However, I'd probably need a guide due to roads, procedures and ski lifts.
In general, yes. They are all out of Christchurch. You are probably in NZ for more than a week if you are doing both Canterbury and the Southern Lakes regions though. The other big caveat is snow conditions with no snowmaking or grooming. Fortunately no one is going to make you commit to a club field in advance unless you want to stay in one of them over a weekend or school holiday.
In 2010 I was only in Canterbury plus 2 days on the West Coast when skiing would have been restricted by bad weather. This was at a non-optimal time of the season due to my being "in the neighborhood" for the July 10 solar eclipse in French Polynesia. I had spent 3/4 of of NZ ski days in 1982, 1997 and 2006 in the Southern Lakes. In 2010 Black Diamond Safaris was interested in some US exposure, so I got a feature assignment here to write up the trip. Black Diamond provided me with airport pickup and dropoff, rental skis, transport, tickets and guiding at the two club fields, and a nutcracker for the rope tows attached to a climbing harness.
Don't even think about doing this without AWD. Even if unguided, I recall Mt. Olympus' road being especially challenging. There was an injury evacuation late in the day and the guide said it's almost routine to request the heli for that.
If on your own, you can get a ticket and they will provide you with a nutcracker and belt for the ropetows. However, if you own a harness for rock climbing or windsurfing, bring it as it will be much more comfortable to attach that to the nutcracker.
As for use of the nutcracker, at Mt Olympus:
I did not comment upon my success rate loading the nutcrackers at Broken River but it was probably around 3/4. Black Diamond wants to be sure clients are competent with nutcrackers before taking them to Craigieburn.
TR's with pics from Mt. Olympus and Broken River. In retrospect I was lucky indeed that those areas were open in mid-July. Cragieburn has rougher terrain so coverage was marginal in July 2010.
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