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winter

End of the ski season. Happy New Year

I don’t know about you, but I’m at my best in mid winter. My brain works better, I feel more cheerful, I want to be out amongst it. I crave altitude, snow, rock, ice, and being above tree line.

I always get a bit sad at the end of winter. One way to deal with the sadness is to embrace it, so I try to make sure I’m at Hotham for closing weekend. There’s something so final about last day of the season. As services wind down, the lifts stop spinning, the bus does its last lap of the village, and Dinner Plain and Hotham empty out, I feel like winter is finally over. I’m ready to move on into the next season. Traditional New Years Eve happens in the middle of summer, just after Christmas madness, with hot weather stretching out for months on either side. I find it hard to feel like the year is over as the land just feels the same, caught in the summer doldrums. Whereas end of winter is a physical event. For me, the day after snow season ends is New Years Day, it marks a clear end of one part of the year, and I feel like I can step fully into spring.

Happy New Year, everyone. Only 234 sleeps til winter!

Continue reading “End of the ski season. Happy New Year” →

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Winter 2017. (Almost) done.

Wow. What a winter. Some forecasters were predicting a ‘slightly better than average’ season, and opening weekend saw skiable snow in the resorts, but then things slowed down for several weeks until we started to get serious snowfalls in July. We had four epic storm fronts during the season, variously called The Blizard of Oz, Snowaggedon 2.0, etc, with the best snowpack in September for 17 years. Most resorts extended their season a week until October 8, and there is still many weeks’ worth of skiing in many parts of the backcountry.

As the season winds down, like most snow addicts I’m already thinking about next year. Personally I had an awesome winter, with a highlight being a road trip from the Snowies to Mt Hotham. But I did a lot of ‘weekend warrior’ drives and now that the snow frenzy is dissipating, I feel like I’ve woken up after a big bender with a hangover and a slight sense of guilt…

Continue reading “Winter 2017. (Almost) done.” →

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Blizzard of Oz 3.0?

Another mass of extremely cold air has hit the Alps, with snowfalls occurring to low levels, and the intense weather is expected to continue for much of the week. MountainWatch has declared it to be ‘the storm of the season’, even better than the ‘Blizzard of Oz’. Apart from lots of fresh, the current storm does bring blizzard conditions, the possibility of lightning in some areas, and the likelihood of increased avalanche risk on steeper slopes.

Continue reading “Blizzard of Oz 3.0?” →

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Is this the big one?

Skiers and snowboarders are the eternal optimists. No matter how bad the snow, how miserable the rain, how strong the winds, there is always hope that it will get better when the next storm arrives. We’re aided in sustaining our hopeful addiction by snow forecasting. But like any relationship based on co-addiction, this has its ups and downs.

Continue reading “Is this the big one?” →

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A perspective on the future of Australian snow

Dave Bain

This piece follows on from a previous article I wrote in 2012 for Protect Our Winters (POW) (Bain 2012). It takes a quick look at what the observed trends have been in Australian snowfalls over the past few decades. Regardless of people’s stance on climate change, these observations are a hard look at the likely future of Australia’s alpine environment, and our winter enjoyment.

Continue reading “A perspective on the future of Australian snow” →

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Time for that Tassie trip?

As some forecasters suggested early in the year, 2017 seems to be turning into a less than average and slightly erratic season. The ephemeral joy of winter snow seems even more fleeting than usual this year, with the lesson that you should get out and enjoy it wherever and however you can when it arrives.

The most recent fronts appear to have brought the most snow to the southern mountains of Tasmania, which also got me thinking about the ephemeral wonder of Tassie’s peaks after heavy snow.

Continue reading “Time for that Tassie trip?” →

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Action now means more snow later

We all know that winter is in trouble. Climate change is already impacting on snowfalls and winters are becoming more erratic.

A recent report commissioned by the Alpine Resorts Co-ordinating Committee (ARCC) confirmed, yet again, the grim prognosis facing the snow industry and snow lovers if we don’t take serious action to radically reduce our contribution to global warming.

Continue reading “Action now means more snow later” →

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It’s here!

OK. So its probably not going to be mind blowing, but at least the long awaited snow is here. Forecasts show snowfalls and snow showers for the next week, but with small figures in terms of depth. At this point Tasmania looks like it will do best from the fronts that are coming through.

Check the forecast for Mt Mawson (southern TAS) here.

Check here for the seven day forecast for all Australian resorts.

Enjoy!

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Here it comes!

The much anticipated front that’s expected to bring decent snow falls is finally on it’s way. After the last system was ‘shunted off’ to the south by blocking High Systems (something that is expected to happen with increasing frequency as a result of climate change) we appear to have a system that’s strong enough to push through and hit the mainland.

It’s not expected to lead to deep falls, but at this point I reckon we will happily take whatever nature can provide. It is expected to cross the VIC Alps on friday night and saturday morning and snow showers could continue until next monday.

The image at the top comes from MountainWatch.

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Where’s that damn snow?

Yes, winter teaches us many things. Including patience (and despair, like when an expected snow storm turns out to be rain). But after those mid May snowfalls I feel like it’s now testing us at a time when we should be getting reacquainted with the joys of fresh snow and early snowpack, and nice lines in the backcountry …

It now seems that the front that was expected to arrive from tomorrow has weakened to the point where even the southern mountains of Victoria will miss out on snow.

Fronts become more likely from Friday 23rd onwards, but there are still no strong indications of a significant snow event. And while the cold clear conditions have been good for making snow in the resorts, most backcountry terrain is looking pretty threadbare.

MountainWatch has snow forecasts for all Australian resorts (available here). Sadly, hitting ‘refresh’ doesn’t seem to make the snow arrive any quicker.

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Snow Without Skiing? A New Alpine Experience.

This is an interesting idea: an alpine experience for people who want to visit the mountains in winter but don’t want to ski or ride. A new business venture, Alpine Nature Experience, is setting up operations at Wire Plain at Mount Hotham this winter.

It’s driven by Jean-Francois Rupp, who grew up in the French Alps.

His aim is to help visitors ‘truly immerse themselves in the remote, pristine Australian alpine environment’.

“I’ve realised that a lot of people don’t go to the snow because they don’t like to ski, so I wanted people to come up to the snow and discover how good it is without having to do that,” Jean-Francois said. “It’s the same as going to the beach, where you don’t have to surf to enjoy being by the ocean, it’s a similar idea and an alternative offer to skiing.”

The Alpine Nature Experience at Mount Hotham starts with an evening snowshoe walk through the majestic snow gums, weaving its way to a hidden ‘eco-village’ and central tipi with a fireplace. Once a the tipi, Jean-Francois will share French cooking tips and guests will preparing a French cheese fondue.

You can sign up for emails or book one of the trips here.

This looks like a good, low impact way to expand what’s on offer within land designated as being part of the alpine resort. Good luck with the venture, hope it goes well, Jean-Francois.

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Early open at resorts

The Alps received some fantastic snow falls in the last couple of days, prompting at least two resorts to announce they will open a week early.

Perisher has announced it will open a week early (Saturday June 3). Queen’s Birthday weekend is the traditional start to the season in the resorts.

Mt Buller has also been promoting its new snow making technology. The resort spent $1.6m on its ‘Snowfactory’, which is already making and stockpiling artificial snow, and is now spreading this to create a base for operations.Mt Buller will start operations from friday night (June 2).

Hotham has also invested $4.4 million in snowmaking over the past two summers, with the new system, covering more terrain, ready to go. Most resorts have started making snow on the back of this recent weather system. There is a nice summary of how the resorts fared in terms of snowfall on Mountain Watch.

The question, of course, is: is this the start of the 2017 snow pack, or the last autumn snow fall?

Snow forecaster The Grasshopper suggests that 2017 will be a ‘slightly worse than average season’ but it now looks like we will skiing/ riding opportunities over the Queen’s Birthday weekend, at least in the resorts. And unless there is some kind of rain event disaster in the next couple of weeks, it looks like this is the beginning of the base for the season.

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