Hutt gets another 100cms and Coronet Peak gets 7cms

Wow!!! Mt Hutt is really getting blasted with another huge dump dropping 1m of snow in 48 hrs so when they get it open the skiing will be awesome up there (there is more snow on the way early next week for Mt hutt too).

Queenstown mostly missed out but we did pick up 7cms at the bottom of Coronet Peak and about 10 at the top so this morning the skiing was great with freshies for all - Coronet Peak is amazing how so little snow really makes it go off. Fog and flat light from about midday on but the snow stayed in good nick.

Get to Canterbury for this weekend as a wee fine break hits before the next storm rolls in or if you can't do that hit Coronet Peak - it is skiing well!

Remember to visit the R&R Sport boys if you need any gear. Make sure you are up to speed with the back country advisory thru www.avalanche.net.nz - make sure you have all the right safety gear and don't go alone. Rip it up and have fun.

While the rest of the country gets blasted.......

Coronet Peak just got foogy this morning and windy later on. Good thing was the snow is in great nick for skiing - no big, fat face shots ... unfortunatly. The last 5 days have delivered wee dustings each day that have made it good chalky and grippy snow. Backbowls is probably worth a ski after tonight as the wind may have transported some fresh into it? We may receive some snow out of this but unlike the rest of the country will mostly miss out. Mt Hutt is going to win again snow wise with the potential of a another 50+ cms! At least we get to ski while Mt Hutt stays shut - don't get me wrong I would mind the snow either but at least we get to be out on what we do have mostly down here. I think the heli ski operators would be keen to get some more and see the systems switch back to the West rather than this E/SE crap.

90 cms snow at Mt Hutt

Nearly 1m of snow at Mt Hutt so after they manage to clear the 3-4m snow drifts from the road and get access to the ski area there should be some pretty amazing skiing. At present Mt Hutt is on hold until midday which I think is optomistic and they will probably not get any skiing facilities open until tomorrow.

A shorter drive than getting to Mt Hutt is going to Ohau where they have picked up 35 fresh and will be skiing pretty well although I would be very wary of hidden obstacles!

Only 1-2 cms of fresh at Coronet Peak yesterday and hard icy base on the lower thrid of the mountain but the top 2/3rds were skiing pretty well.

I didn't get my first tracks because there were some icing issues on the lift! I find it stunning coming from the North Island and working at Whakapapa for 10 years that a tiny sliver of ice stop them opening a lift here. They could do to send some staff to Mt Ruapehu and learn how to deal with real ice, that would sort the problems out!

The heli ski operations will be happy as they have picked up 30 - 40 cms of new snow in the higher and more western terrain so as soon as the get a flying day it will be all on.

Have a great day out there!

Huge dump at Mt Hutt

At Mt Hutt they have got 60cms and still snowing and all closed up while they re-open the road. It wouldn't surprise me if they end up with near on a meter. The skiing at Coronet Peak to day will be good with some fresh overnight maybe 10cms using my imagination but enough to head up early for first tracks and a breakfast laid on by nzski to say thanks to staff over the school holidays. I will come back with a report later today. In the meantime head to Mt Hutt - they will get it open but if its by the weekend the place will be nuts and you would want to be on the Mt Hutt mtn road by no later than 0730 otherwise you might miss out!

Fog and Flat light at Coronet Peak

Today at Coronet Peak the visibility was nil, zero, non-existant - a complete white out and unfortunately not due to blizzard conditions although it did snow for a bit. The forecast is for some snow tonight down to low levels (600m and lowering to 500m tomorrow). It looks like we won't miss out but we wont get too much either - maybe Mt Hutt and the North Island ski fields will be the winners - my bet is if you want some fresh to go skiing on/in and have the flexibility head to Mt Hutt.

There is some possibility of some more decent snow next week for us so keep your fingers crossed that a) I am wrong and we will get absolutely hammered out of this storm and b)the snow gods love Queenstown!

Snow coming

Its my day off and I woke to find rain on the roof and temps cold enough to be snowing at Coronet Peak. Unfortunately it has now stopped raining in the valley so the snow has stopped on the Peaks around Queenstown ---- for now! All the weather forecasts are looking like we should pick up a good amount of snow this week from now thru to Sat. It is coming in Northly first and then should swing to the South late on Wednesday so all the fields in the basin should do well. It snowing at Treble Cone right now. It wil be good for the heli skiing too with this falling on top of a pretty good base - if you are around next week it could be a good time to book a seat on a chopper.

I had a couple of free runs the other morning on the Z10's high speed GS down the hurdle - had a great tune job and was thankful as the snow was hard - my god they loved it for an all mountain ski the made some wicked GS turns.

Heli day in the Southern Lakes

Took a group of 10 for a private charter heli skiing day and worked as the second guide. Give the grey sky to the north we flew southwest from Queenstown to stay in the blue sky and sunshine and went in behind Walter Peak and down towards the Western Eyres. 8 runs with 6 on corn snow and the last 2 found a high true southerly shot which had about 5 fresh light and dry to about 1/2 way down (400 meters vert) before changing into a hard rain crust. All in all given the conditions it was a great day our with this group and they throughly enjoyed their first heli skiing experience in very moderate terrain and of course and excellent lunch with lovely surrounds. The silence out there is deafening - what a nice change!

Given the base out there right now with one more good size fall and then some top ups there will be some great heli skiing this season. C U out there!

Coronet Peak update

Coronet Peak has seen some warmer temps with snow melt happening and then refreezing so its been a bit hard of late first thing in the morning but if you time it right its nice to enjoy the spring snow when it releases a bit. I decided a tune was in order so got that sorted and the Z10's are ripping it up and enjoying the hard snow. On shady southern aspects like exchange it has remained fairly good with chalky snow to ski. It has been a little bit quieter this week with the crowd spreading out around all the mountains in the Southern Lakes but still busy enough. Iwt would be handy now to see some more snow and the later part of weekend and early next week may produce something looking at the weather.

Hard and fast at the Peak

The snow at Coronet Peak in Queenstown, NZ is getting hard and fast now as many thousands of skiers have been over it. Make sure you have clean edges on your skis or board - it will help. To be fair though it is testament to the quality of snow that is being produced by the guns it is still in pretty good shape and skiing well. It ain't boiler plate like I have seen it before with that kind of traffic here.

The Rossignol Z10's love it no matter what they come across - on piste, off piste, crud and powder it all seems a breeze with these skis.

Some weather on the way - keep your fingers crossed - see the met service report below:

Fri Jul 11 Issued at 5:32 pm 10 Jul 2008 NZST
Scattered rain spreading from the west at times, falling as snow above 1300 metres.
Wind at 1000m: Northwest gale in exposed valleys 75 km/h.
Wind at 2000m: Northwest rising to strong gale 90 km/h.
Free air freezing level: 1800 metres.

Sat Jul 12 Issued at 12:42 pm 10 Jul 2008 NZST
Rain about the headwaters, with some heavy falls there until afternoon,and scattered falls further east until late afternoon. Snow above 1200 metres.
Wind at 1000m: Strong northwest tending westerly and becoming light.
Wind at 2000m: Gale northwest tending westerly and easing.
Free air freezing Level: Lowering to 1400 metres.

Sun Jul 13 Issued at 12:42 pm 10 Jul 2008 NZST
Fine apart from areas of morning fog, and showers about the headwaters.Northwesterlies developing at low levels, westerlies about the tops tending northwest and strengthening.

Mon Jul 14 Issued at 12:42 pm 10 Jul 2008 NZST
Fine and cloudy periods, and the odd shower about the headwaters.Northwesterlies dying out at low levels, and tending lighter westerly about the tops.

All systems are go in the snow!

The snow that came thru on the last storm has certainly made a big difference to the skiing. Everybody is up and go - all the mountain ski resorts and heli skiing are underway. To be sure another good drop on snow soon (ish) in the Queenstown area would be great.

Coronet Peak has had some extremely busy days with over 5000 people on the mtn and 1600 odd thru the snow sports. The building has handled it well. Cars have been parked further down on the side of the road than I have ever seen before and there has been mayhem at the end of the day with everybody wanting to get down at the same time. Word of advice if its busy either leave a touch earlier or head to the bar and relax for a bit (make sure you have a sober driver of course.

Maybe the big pull to Coronet Peak is a combination of the snow making system and the new building being far too intoxicating for punters to go elsewhere - I would imagine that after a rough start the CO is feeling much better now. Hint - hire me for a full day private lesson so you can jump the lines all day long!

We have got another storm brewing and likely to hit on Friday/Sat so I am sure there will be more snow at higher elevation fall and with luck Coronet Peak will pick some more up to along with all the other southern ski areas.

Big Dump

Snow, snow and more snow - NZ's getting hit good and hard. Even Queenstown! Yesterday saw snow falling on and off throughout most of the day at the Coronet Peak and the skiing was good with maybe 5 to 8cms of fresh. The big front had slowed down and didn't impact until late during last night and Coronet Peak by morning had picked up another 15cms and the Remarkables hitting 25cms. The odd flurry coming thru since the major front stopped at about 1000 means they have probably picked up some more and will maybe see the odd snowy flurry through out the day.

Cornet Peak, Remarkables, and Cardrona have closed for the day but Treble Cone is open (day 2)as they are further inland and out of the southerly (they got a good wack yesterday while the system was still in the NW phase).

2moro is going to be a a big day with great powder skiing at all the resorts that have been closed today and it is also going to be very busy with every one wanting a sniff of the white stuff!

The Whakatipu basin has also a good coating right down to lake level with about 10cms all over the basin.

The back country has picked up 25cms and the avalanche danger is high (check out www.avalanche.net.nz. If your are going back country keep in touch with that website and make sure you have all the correct equipment, transceiver, shovel and probe -- minimum! If you haven't got it go get it from R&R Sport in Queenstown.

All of the heliski companies will be happy now as they will now have enough snow to offer some good product and as the season continues this will only get better.

C U on the snow!!!

The Amazing Peak

It always amazes me how fast Coronet Peak can change.

We got a 10cm drop of the real stuff last night and wow! On top of all the man made snow that has been produced the conditions went from pretty good on trail skiing to going off trail in many places with yells and woops coming thick and fast. It continued to snow for a few hours this morning before tuning into a mainly fine day.

In behind this small clearance it looks like we are going to get a real snotting tonite and 2moro so if it comes thru (I think it will) Coronet Peak will be ripping!

On another note the first tracks have started now and if you have paid the extra 2hundy on your season pass and get off your arse and hit the slopes at 0800 (1hr before the slopes open to the general public) you get to ski all the fresh lines. This means that you can be having a coffee and admiring your handcrafted signature when the general public get on the lift for there first runs!

Across the valley Remarks looked like it picked up some fresh to but they really need to get pounded out of this system and they have a good chance So with NZ school holidays looming mother nature may just pull one of the bag and comethru with the goodies.

Here is the Metservice forecast for the next several days:

Fri Jul 4 Issued at 1:06 pm 3 Jul 2008 NZST
Becoming cloudy, and outbreaks of rain developing in the morning. Snow lowering to 200 metres in the evening.
Wind at 1000m: Northwest 50 km/h developing in the morning, turning southwest 40 km/h in the afternoon.
Wind at 2000m: Northwest 65 km/h developing in the morning and turnng southwest 60 km/h in the afternoon.
Free air freezing level: Lowering to 400 metres.

Sat Jul 5 Issued at 1:03 pm 3 Jul 2008 NZST
Snow showers clearing during the morning and becoming fine.
Wind at 1000m: Strong southerlies.
Wind at 2000m: Southerlies rising to 80 km/h in exposed places.
Free air freezing Level: Around 400 metres rising to 900 during the day.

Sun Jul 6 Issued at 1:03 pm 3 Jul 2008 NZST
Mainly fine. Southerlies gale force about the tops.

Mon Jul 7 Issued at 1:03 pm 3 Jul 2008 NZST
A few showers in the morning then fine. Winds tending westerly, gale force about the tops.