Shrinking Snow Line

The eagerly awaited snowfall that happened over the last 2 days resulted in rain at the base and only 10-15cm up top. It sure didn’t look like 10cm on the ground and seemed more like 5cm. It’s been a bit of a drought down here in Ohakune with the district only receiving 41% of its normal rainfall and with warm temps. This means that not a lot of snowfall has occured over the last month. Another 2cm is forecast tonight so fingers crossed this happens.

Today I was skiing in sunshine with an inversion layer hiding town. The Mountain was bathed in sun, no wind and fresh snow. It was hard to believe that so few people made the trip up the hill as conditions were the best of the season so far. The HNE opened around 10.30 and the lucky folks that made the decision to ski were rewarded with fresh tracks on some beautiful snow. While not deep and with some crusty patches just underneath all the lovely new snow it sure was a pleasure to ski today.

Boneyard and Clarrys Track are hanging in there and are still skiable. Soft snow conditions on those runs after lunch provided some challenging turns and it’s probably best not to ski those runs with tired legs.

Watch Out

High Cloud