Snow Report Hotham

Superb weather, a warm Sunday combined with very cold Monday morning meant very icy conditions, when 'no fall zone' means 'you fall - you die', stay away from the extreme area, the end of Spargos was an ice sheet, no way to stop if you get unstuck,(easy to end up in the river), experts ONLY !Apart from that, spring skiing surely gets no better!!

The Slushy Report - for Saturday 30th August

The day started, at 7.40am, with blue skies and gentle breezes again, but the wind gradually picked up, and clouds appeared on the horizon. Though temperatures rose above zero by around 9-ish am, cloud cover continued to build, the sky turned grey and the wind increasing. By about just before 4 pm, the first drops of precipitation fell as the cold front approached.

Basically, the conditions of the run followed a similar pattern to the last two days with the exception that it cooled off more rapidly after midday. Runs that were slushy mid-morning firmed up and in some cases became as heavy as wet concrete. Other runs that tended to hold their quality retained it as temperatures dropped.

Without repeating my previous report below, I'll just add my personal highlights of the day:

Out of your Tree - mid morning, the snow was dryish, a tad heavy by some standard but the steepness made up that. A great little run, just a bit short before the inevitable long traverse back to civilisation :-S :-D.

Chisholm's - more sunlit, and consequently softer.

Coles Bowl - a bit cut up but the snow is still dryish. Great steep skiing.

The Chute, steep right side (as you face downhill) - heavy snow, a little hard work. We chose not to divert back through the bottom of Mary's Slide and had to cut a traverse along the other side of the creek to join up with the bottom of Lindsay's.

Last run of the day (and probably my last for the 2008 season at Hotham). DIdn't make it back to the Extreme Zone before ski patrol closed it. As compensation, we (Hoppy and I) rediscovered a run that I haven't skied for a few years, one that started at the back of the Joyce Brockhoff Hut that joins up with the landing at the bottom of Spargo's. Very heavy deep cover (there is a pic of Hoppy's poles plunged up to the handles into the snow) through trees and two narrow but small clearings - just the kind of run that brought out my inner mongrel :-D.

Though the heavens opened up that evening and well into the next morning (we left before midday), the 9 cms of the snow that fell later should help preserve the cover for some good spring skiing. Enjoy, those of you who could go! :-)

Ventured over to Hotham for the first time in a long while.
Blue sky, cool breeze early on but hardly anyone around - weird but good.

East facing slopes were already soft by 9:30, but not churned so they were still fun.
Moved over to Heavenly late morning and it was great. The main groomers were firm but not slick. Especially enjoyed Twilight Zone.
Next stop was Orchard. It was very soft on Initiation and Keogh's Bash on the way over there, but the Orchard runs were still firm. Spargos was in great condition.

All in all a great day of spring conditions.

The Slushy Report - for Saturday 23rd August

Blue Skies! Left the CSIR lodge at around 7.45am was on the slopes by 8am.Village thermometer read a chilly -9 C.

Runs Assessed:
Basin, Gully Cat Walk, Slalom Gully etc - fresh dry snow on compacted surface, great to turn on, and fast.

It was very windy at the top of the Heavenly Chair, so strong that one could almost be blown off. However, once into the gullies and shelter, the wind dropped rapid to almost nothing.

Heaven Valley - Imagine, Twilight Zone, Gunbarrel, Race Gully, Canyon. ~9.15-ish? am. Caught up with a friend, checked out Cornice and Poma Line, and then Snake Gully when the race team opened it to the public.

On-piste - Plenty of corduroy early in the morning providing great skiing. Off piste, the snow was rough but a touch icy, but mostly dry, loose and light, so it was not too bad to ski on. My pick was Peach Bowl and Purgatory Spur. Brockhoff bumps were medium to large, surprisingly not icy (must be the windblown snow).

Lower Playground: a touch icy in patches here and there.Otherwise loose, softish, ungroomed, but still light due to the cold morning temps. More bumps in Pipeline, but not as big as Brockhoff and not icy.

Gotcha & the Extreme Zone: The Keogh & Orchard chairs were on wind hold in the morning, but the Gotcha chair was moving. Initiation as usual was short sharp and sweet. Checked out Lindsays, some nice untracked in the clump of trees up top, but it was bit crusty. The top bit of Lindsays had some very thin breakable crust, but apart from that, the snow was loose and light, great to ski on.

Orchard:
After an early lunch, we went out to Orchard - the wind has been steadily weakening, allowing the Keogh & Orchard chairs to operate around midday. As usual, Keogh's Bash was a great place to enjoy some nice short/medium turns.

We headed for the out of bound areas in search of freshies, but the easy picks were gone. Still, there were some untouched pockets here and there in the trees.

We finished the hiking up Golden Point and taking the second bowl, the one that leads directly down to the Village chair. Some nice untracked snow across the saddle, fun in the trees, and then pay-dirt (snow) - Although already plenty of tracks on it, we still had a great time skiing light soft snow.

Temperatures really shot up after midday, and some of the more sun exposed slopes got a bit slushy. With a clear sky, overnight temps will plummet and there could be some ice around. None the less, apart from the high winds in the morning, a great day of skiing, perfect visibility, blue skies and complete snow cover.

good skking today on heavenly valley