Ski Season - good or bad this year?

I envy those who got to enjoy ski seasons 🙁

canberracafe.com said :

If there was any evidence of global warming, this would be it.

An unfortunate choice of words given that there is MOUNTAINS of evidence for it, tens of thousands of peer reviewed studies from a range of scientific disciplines.

As for snow fall, IIRC, isn’t snowfall highly correlated with the ENSO? Aren’t the great snow years like 1981 generally also La Ninas? I’m too busy to research this right now, maybe someone else can chime in.

BTW, 1981 was AWESOME – we had to dig our way out of the lodge! There was 3m of snow in Perisher!

What heatwave ?
There usually isn’t anything but man made to ski on on opening weekend. The “official opening” and the reality of the seasons are two entirely different things. If it gets to the end of the month without real snow, then maybe start to worry.

Folks, it’s time you all realised that we live on one of the driest and hottest contents, so snow is not really our forte. The ski resorts in Australia are only just starting to twig that they can make far more money running mountain biking, and it has virtually no reliance on mother nature (other than minimal snowfalls – which is what we see these days). Thredbo has been OK for mountain biking for a few years, but Mt Buller are gearing up to go big this year. So sell off your skis and snowboards while you still can, and buy a mountain bike 😀

Yep, that’s right anything with 2+ links goes into the mod queue. It stops the spammers, especially those that like to go into the old stories and astroturf themselves…

I blame China, and Americans and their SUV’s. The price of oil will save our ski fields. I hope petrol goes up to $5 a litre world wide. Then we will find something else to use like jatropha for fuel.

So… Australia for hiking in the patchy snow, forget skiing, and New Zealand for actually doing anything decent from now on.

What are costs like to go to New Zealand and travelling times required? Okay for a long weekend or really need a week?

Yes, it was. It’s been going downhill steadily. Sometimes we’ll get a good season, but they’re fewer and more isolated. Last really decent season I remember was 2000. In the 50s they got some amazing massive snowfalls. Ditto 60s and 70s. In the 80s it began to get more variable, there were some massive years but also some shockers. 90s were a lottery, and this decade has been un-spectacular.

Some reckon building all those dams up there created heat sinks which have affected the snow, and it does fit.

The snow used to go for longer, there was more of it, and it used to come down a lot further. Our ski club used to have a ski field on Mt franklin, and it was pretty reliable too.

Was it better 10 – 20 years ago? 30 years ago?

Never believe the reports. Use the snowcams (all of them) and read any “punter” reports you can find on forums. I guess we’ve all had those days driving down the mountain, hearing some chicky-babe on the radio resort report breathlessly recounting a day that was plainly at a different resort from that which you were skiing at.

New Zealand it is then.. Looks like a permanent state of affairs 🙁 If there was any evidence of global warming, this would be it.

just had a look at some snow cams… looks bleak to me

Yes, moderation is annoying.

But:
Anything with one of the common swearwords gets moderated.
Anything with more than one external hyperlink in it gets moderated.

OK, it got through. So I’ll bung up the second bit:

This cold SE wind today might help bring temperatures down, in fact it’s cold enough today for it to be snowing up there, if there’s any moisture. Let’s check it out…
http://www.snowcams.com.au/

Looks like Perisher made snow on front valley (quite a lot of it) and it’s turned to frozen chunks of rubble. Thredbo evidently made snow on friday flat, and most of it has gone with the rain. Rest of the pictures tell the story pretty well.

Things could change, but it hasn’t been a good run-up to the winter. The best winters have a long, slow descent into cold right through autumn. We had one brief cold snap, and then it was back into quite a pronounced Indian Summer, right up until this week. And there’s every chance it might return when this coastal system leaves. It’s way too warm and WAY too dry.

I wouldn’t be paying any money up front for June or July.
(ends)

[i]Your comment is awaiting moderation. [/i]

You don’t say.

OK, I give up. By the time my comment gets un-moderated, the discussion will be over. So I’ll do it in chunks. I think having two urls is what’s triggered it.
So, first bit:

2007 was not “the best season ever”, in fact, it was a fairly ordinary one. The ski resorts hype each season and the media helps them. BOM certainly haven’t forecasted a great season either, however the resorts’ paid shill Ken Ring has. As usual. As he does every snow season.

This photo of Twynam (3rd highest peak, on the main range) was taken on Sunday. Ski season opens this weekend.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/EmuBobOz/1-2Jun08006smll.jpg

Smiggins had made a tiny strip of snow, next to their magic carpet.

(let’s see if this gets through).

It’s rather annoying. I’ve stuck in some links to photos and the current snowcams which will answer all questions. Maybe that’s why it’s “awaiting moderation”. Maybe I should just switch to abusing people and using asci swear words, that seems to get through with no problems!

Well if the ski fields keep going this way, hopefully Tiger Airways will start up jatropha fuelled flights direct from Canberra to Christchurch for better and cheaper snow fun!

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23813585-5014090,00.html

OK. Why is the post I made above (that no one can see yet) “awaiting moderation”?

[Ed. (Jazz) we automoderate any post that has hyperlinks in it, just to make sure they’re a) correct, and b) not linking to something we dont want them to]

2007 was not “the best season ever”, in fact, it was a fairly ordinary one. The ski resorts hype each season and the media helps them. BOM certainly haven’t forecasted a great season either, however the resorts’ paid shill Ken Ring has. As usual. As he does every snow season.

This photo of Twynam (3rd highest peak, on the main range) was taken on Sunday. Ski season opens this weekend.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/EmuBobOz/1-2Jun08006smll.jpg

Smiggins had made a tiny strip of snow, next to their magic carpet.

This cold SE wind today might help bring temperatures down, in fact it’s cold enough today for it to be snowing up there, if there’s any moisture. Let’s check it out…
http://www.snowcams.com.au/
Looks like Perisher made snow on front valley (quite a lot of it) and it’s turned to frozen chunks of rubble. Thredbo evidently made snow on friday flat, and most of it has gone with the rain. Rest of the pictures tell the story pretty well.

Things could change, but it hasn’t been a good run-up to the winter. The best winters have a long, slow descent into cold right through autumn. We had one brief cold snap, and then it was back into quite a pronounced Indian Summer, right up until this week. And there’s every chance it might return when this coastal system leaves. It’s way too warm and WAY too dry.

I wouldn’t be paying any money up front for June or July.

not everyone is on RiotACT as often as you thumper 🙂

Wasn’t 2007 one of the best ski seasons on record?
And I thought I saw a report on ABC a few weeks ago saying that they (BOM) are predicting another bumper season this year….
Still, it’s hardly been a cold start to Winter this year, so fair question.
But, given it costs a squillion dollars to go skiing these days, I’ll just be happy if I get to see a bit of snow on the distant mountains to the south of Canberra….