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! :-)