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Snow Report Falls Creek

Public Downhill Report

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Rating key:

Surface

3	Fresh
	Dry
2	Heavy in afternoon
	Icy
1	Heavy all day
	Wet
0	No Snow

Cover
7	Complete: on most runs
6	Extensive: on most runs
5	Moderate: on many runs
4	Marginal: on many runs
3	Machine Made: extensive
2	Machine Made: limited
1	Closed: insufficient cover
0	Closed: no snow

Combined

The surface rating (out of 3) and the cover rating (out of 7) are added together to give a combined overall rating (out of 10) for the resort.

Comments

Showing comments 1 to 10 of 51 | Next | Last

currawong (21) 21 September 2008

It's not over till it's over. Great day of spring skiing today.

By all accounts Saturday was slush city, but the overnight temperature dipped into the negative and we were back in action. Blue sky, cool wind and the extremes of hardpack and soft snow.

Decided to go straight over the back: Scotts was very firm and fast, but just soft enough to get an edge in. Ditto Shadow Ridge and Scotts Race Course. The wind late last week brought in a layer of pink dust. This stuff absorbs more heat than clean snow and melts it away. However today it was our friend. The pink ungroomed snow was starting to soften by 10-ish. Rain pocked and pink, but great corn none-the-less. We chased corn for the next few hours and had a ball.

Moved on to darkside, quartz ridge and rapunzels. Some of these were still frozen crud and not very pleasant, especially where covered with frozen traverse tracks. But there were a few very nice lines.

International and Boardwalk are closed but everything else was still running. Cover over the back is still very good: no rock hopping required. Inter has had it, but you could pick your way down if you wanted to.

Run of the day: vertigo valley

Beginners: looked very good
Drovers: didn't ski
Towers/Lakeside: didn't ski
Northside: didn't ski
Home Trails: good
Ruined Castle/Scotts Area: very good spring conditions
Summit Area: didn't ski but looked ok with a few bare patches and obstacles
International Groomers: poor, didnt ski
The Maze: poor, didn't ski
Off-piste: faces exposed to direct sun were softening by 10-ish, especially the dust effected areas. Some areas, eg dark side were still frozen crud at lunchtime. Lots of nice lines to enjoy.

Last Edit: September 21, 2008, 21:41:10 by currawong

currawong (21) 09 September 2008

Report for Monday
Big freeze, blue sky and cold wind early

Warmed up on village and inter. Very firm on top, but quite soft down low.
Over the back for some hardpack heaven. The groomers were sensational for fast cruising. By mid afternoon there were some scraped patches, but runs around scotts and ruined were still very firm.
Decided to go looking for some smooth corn, preferably north facing. Had some lovely runs with not too much walking involved.
Finished the day with a run towards the Ys, but crossing onto summit and some some nice slush.
Cover is still great everywhere except Maze and some other northfacing bits.

Run of the day: out of bounds corn

Beginners: looked very good
Drovers: didn't ski
Towers/Lakeside: didn't ski
Northside: didn't ski
Home Trails: didn't ski
Ruined Castle/Scotts Area: very good spring conditions
Summit Area: didn't ski but was told it was great in the morning
International Groomers: good-very good, softening early. zipper only fair
The Maze: didn't ski
Off-piste: north facing was great. Otherwise you really wanted a smooth face to make the very firm conditions enjoyable. not much of that left inbounds

currawong (21) 07 September 2008

Partly cloudy, with light varying from brilliant to very flat. Only a weak freeze.

Went straight over back. Groomers were firmish but not hard pack and looked like they would mush up quickly with traffic. Only did a few groomed runs then headed for ungroomed. Really nice: firmish but not rattley on the south facing slopes, soft but not mushy on north facing. Still some corn to be found too, but it was getting cut up a bit.

As for yesterday, the cover over the back is still fantastic. You can see more damage on the front than yesterday. Main home trails still have plenty of cover.

Run of the day: Vertigo valley

Beginners: looked very good
Drovers: didn't ski
Towers/Lakeside: didn't ski
Northside: didn't ski
Home Trails: good
Ruined Castle/Scotts Area: good spring conditions
Summit Area: didn't ski
International Groomers: didn't ski, but inter and grand coeur looked like complete cover. Zipper was looking a bit sad
The Maze: didn't ski.
Off-piste: lots of fun. soft enough to ski early but didn't really get much softer. visibility was a bit of an issue at times

currawong (21) 06 September 2008

Blue sky, light cloud and warm.

Warmed up on apres vous and decided it was soft enough that inter wasn't worth the trouble. The Slot was quite good.
Over the back the groomers were hard and fast and the queues were reasonable, even on ruined castle. Off-piste areas facing into the sun had some lovely corn. Ungroomed sout faces had not melted enough to be corn, and were quite rattley. As the morning wore on they got more foregiving and this was the best place to be.

The cover over the back is still fantastic. The only signs of trouble were a hole starting on the big dipper runout and some thin spots on the turn into powder keg.
Summit still has heaps of cover, but I did spot a few twigs peeking through.

Run of the day: Groomed - South Face, Ungroomed - corn snow such as hill beside big dipper

Beginners: looked very good
Drovers: very good
Towers/Lakeside: excellent spring conditions
Northside: didn't ski
Home Trails: sloppy
Ruined Castle/Scotts Area: excellent spring conditions
Summit Area: only a partial freeze
International Groomers: didn't ski, but inter and grand coeur looked like complete cover. Zipper was looking a bit sad
The Maze: didn't ski. I suspect that you'd have to pick a narrow time window and be prepared to rock hop
Off-piste: everything from dreamy corn to frozen crud. South facing slopes stayed firm till at least early afternoon.

mooka (9) 01 September 2008

Just got my computer back, woohoo. Died a week ago.

Not up there today but rang some friends up there and will post a blog for last week when I have done this. Cover before this was still deep and dry in most places so the the rain, while it has hurt shouldn't be devistating. With fresh snow on top and a freeze the cover was deep and dry enough to absorb the water without too much damage. Only area that may have really been damaged by it is he Maze which had some exposed areas on some runs.

Will upload some photos and video in my blog shortly, just great to have my computer back!

Euan_rulz (1) 29 August 2008

Hey guys, this insnt a suggestion, but a question, how accurate are these forcasts, and what effects will rain (on sunday) have on the snow for the rest of the week? (the next fiday)?? should i be worried about conditions??? how is the drovers and ruined castle parks going?? happy skiing/boarding everyone!!

Benn0 (1) 29 August 2008

Report for 25-27th Aug
Stayed mainly in Sun Valley, the snow was great over all 3 days, held up well in the afternoons, although Monday after lunch was a little heavy. Flat light on Tuesday before lunch made things a little difficult, but after lunch was great. Strong northerlies were around on Tuesday, making sitting on the lifts a little uncomfortable, but they turned Southerly on Wednesday and died down by lunchtime.

Towers were our favourite runs, didn't get up to the summit.

Not many queues, longest wait would have been 2 minutes, although lifts were slow going at times. Home trails were starting to suffer a little by Wednesday. Some fresh stuff should make it all good again.

A great trip!

claude cat (1) 25 August 2008

Report for 18-21st August.
Snow was terrific in all areas for most of the week. Some runs getting a little thin around International (Zipper etc) on Thursday, but Falls got a nice top-up Thursday night.
Pick of the runs was around International and Summit.
No queues except at the International poma.

currawong (21) 24 August 2008

Pretty much a repeat of Saturday only warmer.

North facing slopes softened by late morning. The back stayed dry, at least it was still great early afternoon when I left the area. Groomers wewre great. The solid bits of off-piste were not as solid, but the soft bits were not as soft. Still lots of fun, especially around quartz ridge.
Queue on inter was bad again, so didn't do as many runs there as I would have liked.

Run of the day: Quartz Ridge/Rapunzels, both the groomed and ungroomed

Beginners: excellent
Drovers: didn't ski
Towers/Lakeside: excellent
Northside: didn't ski
Home Trails: very good
Ruined Castle/Scotts Area: didn't ski
Summit Area: very good-excellent
International Groomers: didn't ski
The Maze: very good-excellent but softening by late morning. Roller Coaster, Chainsaw, Black and Blue/Beesting & Wishing Well were groomed)
Off-piste: good to excellent

somebody else (1) 24 August 2008

Backside: Excellent
Maze: Skied off in parts, icy off piste
Summit: Very good
home trails: very good
Pick of the day: Darkside and lower cabbage patch- a bit of pow left over.

Showing comments 1 to 10 of 51 | Next | Last

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