HOTHAM 2010 - Live From the Mountain

Hey Barb, thanks for the updates. How did you like the G-Twin?

“Bloody big hole there”  haha

hehehehe… should turn the sound down!

G-Twin is good - think I need to tweek it a bit more but it ‘feels’ right for me.

Nothing much happening up here over the laste day or two.

Tomorrow the forecast is for rain turning to hopefully snow later in the evening.
let’s hope that it does not do too much damage and turns to snow earlier than predicted.

Of course it will be great to get some more snow for the upcomming school holidays that start this weekend.
The open runs are holding up OK dispite the warmer temps, no snow making and no natural top-ups.

Yesterday I drove down to Omeo.
Started off at 10am where the temp at Dinner Plain was 5 degrees….....got down to Omeo 40 mins later and the temp was 2.5 degrees and vis was poor!
Temp inversion

So…. it’s be p!55ing down all day
Windy and about 3 degrees up top all day.

All the snow at DP has gone (again) - did the same thing late last week and then it snowed last Friday and replensihed the white stuff.
Let’s see if it can happen again over the weekend.

Watched the guy at Hotham Central wax my board, so might give my old one a go some stage over the weekend.

Just checked Snowatch and it looks like that rain is going to turn to snow late tonight. Might be good for some freshies early tomorrow morning. Early next week looks ok too. Hope you get some freshies!

Indeed the rain did turn to snow evry late Friday night.
Woke up to about 5cms to fresh snow covering the ground on Saturday morning.
It has remained cold too - the weekend did not get above zero and yesterday (Sunday) the snowmakers had the guns firing all throughout the day.

There are no new runs open, so the choice is still Summit Trainer, Sun Run and big D. You can also tempt Basin.

Was up and down Sun Run Sunday and with the guns firing all day conditions remained quite good.
It was pretty crowded as you can expect with the start of school hols, weekend crowds and little else open.

All those great systems that were predicted for this week have gone and we are left with fine, sunny but cold conditions for this week - good for snowmaking but not good for any new natural stuff! This is a little frustrating right now, but hopefully the situation changes for the better weather wise soon.

If they can keep the snowmaking up all week we could see Village Loop open for next weekend…..lets see

I was sent this media release today:

Hotham has been the coldest place in the state for a few days now and these freezing temperatures, relentless snowmaking and a 3cm snowfall overnight has seen the Village Chair operating from today. Snow is forecast to fall for the next four days so Mother Nature is at last coming to the party!

Since 4pm Saturday, 80,000 cubic metres of snow (or 8000 truckloads!) has been made so far by the Hotham Snowmaking Team - enough to cover the surface of the MCG in snow to a depth of four metres! The snowguns are still firing hard with current temperatures at -4.7 degrees.

The opening of the Village Chair for 2010 unlocks a larger skiing area to guests, providing more variety of terrain and shorter lift lines at those already running. More terrain is currently being assessed for opening in coming days.

With the rush of school holidays set to peak next week, timing could not have been better. And with more snow on the way this week stay tuned… more of Hotham’s lifts might just get on a roll soon!

Lift passes are still discounted - adults $82, youth $70 and child $41 - so come up and take advantage of the fresh snow and four lifts in operation.

Been snowing lightly all day here at DP - just stopped now.
I estimate about 3cms throughout the day.

Was enjoying soaking in the Onsen whilst the snow was falling around me…..... sooooooooo nice!

DP is getting busier and this weekend will see a further influx.

Will be setting off up to Hotham again on Friday to do a few laps of the Village Loop
Will post some pics and thoughts on the conditions then

Temps are a little milder today.
Bright sunny morning at DP, but it started snowling lightly about an hour ago as I was walking around the village.

here are some pircs form around the beautifu village of Dinner Plain:

Pond freezing over:

Somebody’s fab snowman:

Tobogganing on the DP run whilst the lift is not open:

Weird ice formation on this house:

cute little tree:

As I’m typring this the snow is falling a little heavier

Nice photos Barb! Lake shot is great, you should enter the photography contest.

Just got this media release from Hotham today:

With cold winter conditions favouring an incredible run of snowmaking this week, Hotham has announced the Heavenly Valley chairlift will open for the first time in 2010 on Saturday 3 July.

This is a welcome addition for school holiday guests visiting Hotham as there will be five lifts operating for the coming weekend including Heavenly Valley, Village Chair, Upper Playground, Summit Trainer and the Big D.

The opening of Heavenly Valley at 8.30am on Saturday will provide access to Milky Way and Snake Gully runs, unlocking a larger skiing area and providing a greater variety of terrain for skiing and snowboarding.

Belinda Trembath, Mount Hotham Skiing Company General Manager said “The opening of Heavenly Valley chairlift on Saturday is a great addition for guests visiting Hotham to enjoy some more of our intermediate terrain.”

“We are excited to see another lift open and with a little assistance from Mother Nature, look forward to opening more of Hotham’s signature Heavenly Valley terrain as soon as conditions permit.”

Hotham’s snowguns have been firing relentlessly since 4pm Saturday and at 4pm today we will hit the 120 hour mark for a straight run of snowmaking! Over 8000 truckloads of snow had been made by yesterday and they are still going strong. That’s enough snow to cover the surface of the MCG in snow to the depth of about four metres.

A few pics from last weekend, snowmakers cranking !!!!

The Boardworld message still out from last year and the Tee’s making their first appearance on Mount Hotham.

FRIDAY 2ND JULY:

So I couldn’t get back up the Hill until Friday morning.
Village Chair had opened on the Wednesday and the snowmakers had been going all day every day since Saturday.
Got up early to ensure a spot in the top Car Park - 8:15am saw us grab one of the last spots.
It was pretty cold (about -4) so we headed to Zirkys for some brekkie.
Headed out abot 9am and the snow cover was pretty good, firm but fresh along the trails and soft on Sun Run and Slalom Gully.
About midday Slalom Gully started to get a little mogully so I decided that I’d stock to Sun Run after than, which was holding up very well into the afternoon.

View of the car park:

What’s Open Today:

Top of Village Chair:

Slalom Gully with little to now crowds:

Snake Gully Hut just about to open:

Still Much Cover Needed under Village Chair:

The Park under Swindlers deck was starting to get organised:

Snowmaking still going strong all day:

Had a good morning out and it was good to see the Village Loop open

SATURDAY 3RD JULY:

Nephew and niece are up now for the week, so we have organised Ski School for them.
Got to Big D about 9:15am and it was an overcast, blowy and cold morning (about -3 but felt colder).
Such a lot of organisation goes into getting the kids together each morning - the instructors do a great job.

Ski School line up:

Once they were dropped off I wanted to head straight for Heavenly Valley as I knew it was first day of it opening and I wanted to be one of the first there. Milky Way and Blue Snake/Snake Gully are the only runs open at the moment (even that is a bit of a 50/50 situation in my opinion). It was lucky that not too many were opting to go up the Heavenly Chair - most continued down from Snake Gully Hut to the Village Chair.
Not me….....straight down Basin, Slalom Gully and onto the Heavenly Valley Chair.
As I passed Road Runner Chair the instructors were assessing it for opening….......but Summit higher than the Trainer T-Bar does not have great cover, so I think it may still be some days (and a bit more snow) before it opens.

Heavenly Valley Chair has Bums On it:

On the way up the Chair it was a good opportunity to check out the famous Heavenly Valley runs to see how they were fairing cover wise - as you can see in the upcomming photo there is still a long way to go fo rmost of them that don’t have the snowmaking on them such as Gunbarrel, Race Gully, Canyon etc. maybe Imagine will open next as it has snowmaking.

Cover on the gullies under HV Chair:

This year they have installed toilet facilities at the top of HV Chair:

At the top it was rather chilly and a bit windy (as it usually is), but visibility was quite OK.

Top of HV Chair:

Greenline down to Milky Way was a little icy and patchy in places, especially at the start near the lift, so you needed to be careful and on a board make sure you were secure on your edge.

View toward Orchard:

Milky Way was as good as it usually is - so therefore a bit lumpy and bumpy in the narrow sections with people weaving from side to side to control their decent.
Standing at the top of Blue Snake it looked steeper than I remembered from last year - maybe with more cover it evens itself out.
Many people were struggling down the top of Blue Snake so if you are riding it in the next couple of days please take care.
Even if you are a confident rider there are many going down it that are stretching their abilites to say the least.
Once the top of Snake Gully is reached it smooths out suite a bit more and the going is good.
I’d say that if we don’t get some more snow in teh next fe days and the temps warm up you would want to be doing Snake before 11am.

Only did the one run down the Snakes - think I’ll wait unti after school hols and a bit more snow to tempt it again.

Thought I’d head to Village Chair to head back up the top for some food as it was closing in on noon.
ALAS!!!!! When reaching the load for Village this is what I found:

It certainly was the weekend and School Holidays lol

Food and a couple of more turns down Sun Run and I called it a day at 2pm ish.

Lets hope we get some more snow soon…..and that the temps drop again.

Road Runner opened today
Beautiful day - temps around 0 and sunny with no wind

Where is that snow…............ Frog says starting Monday so lets see…....

Thanks for the awesome updates! You guys need to start posting photos in the photography contest thread.