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2019 Ski Season in Australia

marzNC

Angel Diva
I know what you mean about the marketing, they’re always spinning to make it sound better than it is to get more visitors. I think it’s probably because we have such a short season and if they were honest they wouldn’t have visitors half the time. The other thing I think is that the vast majority of people book well ahead to go skiing in Australia, so don’t want to hear how bad it is when they’ve already booked and paid. For those not familiar, some quotes from Hotham’s recent snow reports include ‘improving precipitation’ (it’s raining) and ‘The snow is a little firmer than the last few days due to the warming yesterday and the cooling overnight but it still has enough texture on the surface for some great carving on the groomers’ (it’s icy) or Buller saying ‘A cover of snow which will test your skills’ (it’s patchy cover).
Funny! There used to be a lot of discussion along the same lines in the U.S. southeast. Those are the states south of Washington DC, mostly western VA and NC plus WV. But once live webcams were installed, that changed the situation a bit. Still have the issue that people think there isn't enough snow on the slopes when it's warm in the foothills less than an hour away. Travelers who stay the weekend are usually driving 2+ hours. People from Atlanta drive north 5+ hours for skiing/boarding. The ski resorts are pretty small. Under 125 acres except for Snowshoe. Buller and Hotham have just under 800 acres. Thredbo and Perisher are much larger to any resorts in the southeast or Mid-Atlantic (PA, southern NY).
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Get the impression that the storm predicted for this week in Australia is starting to deliver. :snow:

24-hour snowfall totals are over 10cm, so 4+ inches. In eastern N. America, that would certainly be cause for celebration. Especially with more to come.
 

Belgiangirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thursday was good! I got two hours of skiing in before work, then a couple more after. They gradually opened up more terrain during the day. Most of it was pretty tracked out in the afternoon but hey, natural snow at last! Treated my skis to a decent sized core shot too unfortunately :laughter:

Then it rained on Friday, but started snowing again on Saturday and it's been more or less snowing since then (it's Sunday evening now when I'm posting this). Today was super windy though, they ended up closing the lifts and one of the two access roads to Hotham. Fingers crossed the wind will subside a little bit and then tomorrow should be very promising. I think we've had about 25cms in the last two days by now so that's close to 10 inches!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The latest snowstorm included days of high winds and low visibility at all the Australian ski resorts. But it's pretty clear that it's not "early season" any more. As can happen in the U.S. northeast, once the storm started the hardest part was dealing with snowy 2-lane roads. Some roads were closed completely for a day or two. Lots of talk about the need for chains on the Aussie ski forum.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...d-conditions-set-to-ease-20190714-p52736.html

Most of the measurements in the July 7-15 Observations thread are in the 10-20cm range, meaning 4-10 inches.

https://www.ski.com.au/xf/threads/observations-7th-to-15th-july.85125
 
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marzNC

Angel Diva
Looks like the the storm totals for Perisher and Thredbo over 3-4 days came out 30-40 inches.

Sometimes Perisher has a contest challenging people to ride every lift in one day. Found a video about one group's adventure from 2012 on the 7 peaks in 4 areas: Perisher, Blue Cow, Smiggins and Guthega. There were 47 lifts! That included 21 T-bars. Needless to say the skiing was mostly on groomers. That was before Vail Resorts bought Perisher.

 
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marzNC

Angel Diva
Sounds like it's been a rough few weeks on Australian slopes. More freeze/melt than snow or good snowmaking temps. Supposed to be a snowstorm this week bringing in winter weather.

When spring skiing arrives, Aussies will be able to get Phantom applied using the Cure Station at Rhythm in Coomba. It's been available in 2019 but only for people willing to do the treatment DIY.
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Good luck to Australia!! Across the ditch here in New Zealand it's middling. We've had some fantastic snow dumps lately but at least where I'm located, they've mostly been either rained on/turned to ice or largely blown away. There was some awesome powder to find recently if you know where to look but on the whole the snow condition can be summarised as great on-trail, don't bother with off-trail unless you enjoy very long slides on ice. :smile:

received_1231698720337106.jpegreceived_2362625604063938.jpeg
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
There is a big storm in process at essentially all the Australian ski resorts. Range in the first day or so is 5-35 cm, meaning 2-13 inches. One report of 1.5 in per hour (4cm/hr) snowfall in the Observations thread for Aug. 6-11 on the Aussie ski forum.

The big worry is that there will be too much snow by the weekend when people are planning to drive. The last big storm resulted in closed roads for a day or two. Like the northeast, mid-Atlantic, and southeast in the U.S., very few people are flying to ski. While some people take a 1-week ski vacation during school breaks, most people ski on the weekend or perhaps a long weekend.
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The big worry is that there will be too much snow by the weekend when people are planning to drive.

Exactly my concerns across the ditch in New Zealand coming into this weekend. Looks like we're expecting between 50-100cm of snow but depending on when it hits, it could easily make the mountain inaccessible for the weekend...! The last couple of times we had massive snow dumps we also had a day or so of closure while they did avalanche work, including the access road being closed to both visitors and staff.

Of course, there's a reason the resort's nickname is Mt Shut :rotf:
 

Belgiangirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
There is a big storm in process at essentially all the Australian ski resorts. Range in the first day or so is 5-35 cm, meaning 2-13 inches. One report of 1.5 in per hour (4cm/hr) snowfall in the Observations thread for Aug. 6-11 on the Aussie ski forum.

The big worry is that there will be too much snow by the weekend when people are planning to drive. The last big storm resulted in closed roads for a day or two. Like the northeast, mid-Atlantic, and southeast in the U.S., very few people are flying to ski. While some people take a 1-week ski vacation during school breaks, most people ski on the weekend or perhaps a long weekend.
The goods have arrived indeed! We got +-30cms/1ft in the last 24hrs and there's about the same amount in the forecast for the next 24hrs. Went out for a ski this morning, it was nice :becky: there's some sweet tree runs that don't get tracked out as fast as the rest of the mountain. Hoping to get another hour or so of skiing in after work...

There's definitely a good chance they'll close the access road to Mt Hotham again. Think the other resorts shouldn't have as many troubles as this is an upside down resort with the village on top of the hill instead of down in the valley. Flying isn't a very interesting option, there's an airport nearby but no commercial flights, only charters. Not as expensive as you might imagine, it's 300 aud for a return flight to Melbourne... But then you still need transport to make it to the village :smile:
 

Belgiangirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Exactly my concerns across the ditch in New Zealand coming into this weekend. Looks like we're expecting between 50-100cm of snow but depending on when it hits, it could easily make the mountain inaccessible for the weekend...! The last couple of times we had massive snow dumps we also had a day or so of closure while they did avalanche work, including the access road being closed to both visitors and staff.

Of course, there's a reason the resort's nickname is Mt Shut :rotf:
Haha, we get that a lot back home too! Massive dumps and then they close (almost) everything because of avalanche risk. Fair enough though... There was a (small?) inbounds avalanche here this morning so better safe than sorry.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Wow! Apparently multiple waves of snow over 4 days in the past week. People are talking about skiing light powder that's thigh deep, which I gather is very unusual for Australia.

Snow pics start with this post.
https://www.ski.com.au/xf/threads/august-6-12th.85434/page-18#post-4000262

A complete mess for parking related to Perisher and Thredbo. Jindabyne is a town well away from the actual ski resorts.

UPDATE 1208pm Sunday
If you are a day tripper to the resorts the car parks are full so you won’t get in. Hence why they have closed the roads at Jindabyne there is no parking available at resorts day parking areas
For any weekly bookings best to be patient and wait for advice from your booking agent.

The Alpine Way is a traffic jam as people cannot get into Skitube at bullocks flat .
The cars are banked up going into Skitube turnoff and then along the Alpine Way for kilometres
You may as well wait in Jindabyne for a few hours as you will be going nowhere ....

ATTENTION
If you are arriving today for your week and are still on the Canberra side of Jindabyne take a long lunch in Cooma or Jindabyne.
The Thredbo carpark and Perisher car park and Skitube bullocks flat are all FULL ...

So you will not be going anywhere hence why road is closed
Keep your eye on the live traffic website for updates.

It will sort itself out over the coming hours so be patient.
RMS are checking cars at national park gate on Alpine Way so if you are in that traffic as a day tripper you might be advised to turn around where you can...
 

Daniele

Certified Ski Diva
Wow! Apparently multiple waves of snow over 4 days in the past week. People are talking about skiing light powder that's thigh deep, which I gather is very unusual for Australia.

Snow pics start with this post.
https://www.ski.com.au/xf/threads/august-6-12th.85434/page-18#post-4000262

A complete mess for parking related to Perisher and Thredbo. Jindabyne is a town well away from the actual ski resorts.

Yep, this weekend was pretty good :becky: I spent the weekend at Falls, given the road to Hotham was closed most of the weekend. Over 4 days Falls saw 102cm of snow. It’s not entirely unusual for Australia, but only happens once or twice a season.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Yep, this weekend was pretty good :becky: I spent the weekend at Falls, given the road to Hotham was closed most of the weekend. Over 4 days Falls saw 102cm of snow. It’s not entirely unusual for Australia, but only happens once or twice a season.
My impression is that it was the dryness of the snow that was a bit unusual, more so than the amount of snow coming down in just a few days. In the U.S. northeast, getting "fluffy" powder snowstorm that is more than a foot is unusual as well. Even more unusual for the southeast (south of Washington DC) to get even 4+ inches of powder snow. But has happened a few times in the last decade. Lots of closed roads during those storms. Even closed ski resorts when staff can't get to work if a state's governor tells everyone to stay off the roads.
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
That's amazing! And here in NZ I thought we had a ton of snow, about 40cm on Saturday followed by some soft powder on Sunday :smile:

Posting here because NZ is so close to Aus, we get the same weather patterns (though often Aus gets them first) and we're too small to have our own thread....

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(first one - yes I am wearing two skis, one is just buried! last one - as I was walking back to my skis after double ejecting in choppy pow :P )
 

Daniele

Certified Ski Diva
My impression is that it was the dryness of the snow that was a bit unusual, more so than the amount of snow coming down in just a few days. In the U.S. northeast, getting "fluffy" powder snowstorm that is more than a foot is unusual as well. Even more unusual for the southeast (south of Washington DC) to get even 4+ inches of powder snow. But has happened a few times in the last decade. Lots of closed roads during those storms. Even closed ski resorts when staff can't get to work if a state's governor tells everyone to stay off the roads.
I don’t know about other areas, while it was fairly light and dry, not more than usual for a storm like this. Certainly have experienced better both in Australia and Northern hemisphere.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
A little off topic but wanted to make a note while I was thinking about it . . . discovered that back in 2017 Perisher was thinking about installing a Snow Factory. Buller has two. The advantage of a Snow Factory that makes snow inside a small container (fits on a over-the-road truck trailer) is that snow making can start during early season even if it's a little too warm for standard snow making based on good wet-bulb temp/humity levels.

Looks like the location over at Smiggins would mean a more reliable start for beginners. Hasn't been any news about it after Vail Resorts took over.
 

Skidreamer

Certified Ski Diva
Hi everyone! I finally got in my first skiing of the season at Perisher over the weekend and including yesterday. In most respects yes it's been quite a miserable season for Australian skiing so far but, as said above, the snow really arrived from about Thurs/Fri. My family are still up there for the rest of the week but sadly ski holidays need to be earnt and I had to return to work. It's certainly been the nicest quality of snow I've experienced, ever, and it really aided my confidence, allowing me to improve my technique and confidence without fear of hitting icy conditions or hard lumps of snow. I hope I can hold on to aspects of those learnings once normal Australian snow conditions resume.

Saturday and Sunday were indeed absolute chaos on the roads. All car parks filled up to overflowing and roads were closed with people being turned back. For many it was up to a 2 hour trip from nearby Jindabyne up the mountain if they could even make it up there at all. Strangely though, despite the huge numbers of people around the resort, queues were usually very small, at least almost anywhere we found ourselves. The rest of this week is predicted to be bluebell days with some returns to strongish winds later in the week. Daytime temps will slowly climb and snow may start melting again already. But at least, at present there is A LOT of it.

August is our most reliable month of the season, from Sept snow can fast be turning into slush in Australia. We have a tentative weekend booked again in late Sept though, will keep an eagle eye on the weather to see whether it's worthwhile or not.

I have never seen so many cars off the side of the road as this weekend. Some cars so deeply buried as to have almost disappeared under the snow. The road to Guthega was closed for a little while on Sunday as a snow plough slipped or almost slipped off the road, and needed to be rescued. The local tow rescue company makes jokes about his "best customers" being Subaru vehicles.

Let's hope this late dump signals just the start of a good late season, and that it's not already all melting down again during September. For those of you that haven't yet, get up there while you can!!!
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Anyone going for the Epic Australia Pass? Just announced. Amounts below are Australian dollars. It's possible to upgrade to Epic Australia Pass Plus for unlimited access to the destination resorts in N. America but I can't find a price.

https://www.epicaustraliapass.com.au/epic-australia-pass

The Epic Australia Pass is the best value season pass for Australians and connects Perisher, Falls Creek and Hotham with Whistler Blackcomb, Hakuba Valley and Rusutsu in Japan and the Best of the U.S. Ski and board year-round in four countries, all on one incredible pass.

With your Epic Australia Pass you will enjoy:

  • Unlimited, unrestricted access to Perisher, Falls Creek and Hotham in the 2020 season.
  • Five consecutive days with no blackout dates at both Rusutsu and Hakuba Valley, Japan for the 2020 – 2021 season.
  • Access to Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado; Park City in Utah; Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood in Lake Tahoe, California and Stowe in Vermont in the 2020 - 2021 season (holiday restrictions apply).
  • 10 days combined at Whistler Blackcomb, Vail and Beaver Creek in the 2020 - 2021 season (holiday restrictions apply; days do not have to be consecutive).
  • Unlimited, unrestricted access to Okemo, Mount Sunapee, Crested Butte and Stevens Pass in the 2020 - 2021 season.
  • Lock in your Epic Australia Pass for only $829 for Adults, $469 for Students (up to year 12) and $639 for Seniors (65 years and over). The Epic Australia Pass pays for itself in under 4 days*.
Now's the time to lock in your 2020 Epic Australia Pass with only $49 upfront and the balance payable on 1 May 2020.
 

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