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Flakey's Hotham Blog 14: Bluebird Birthday!
From: Flakey Uploaded: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:42:32 GMT
23-24th August After spending a day and a half in mykitchen, preparing a birthday dinner for my guests, we headed off toHotham in expectation of a fine weekend ... fine food, fine wines, finecompany and fine skiing and boarding! And the snow gods were certainlysmiling down upon me.Our house was packed this weekend, eight of us buzzing withexcitement about the 18cm of fresh snowfall on Friday. We were glad tobe driving up to Omeo, owing to the hassles on the Great Alpine Road onthe Harrietville side.“Avalanches”, which I suspect were cornices thatdropped, had blocked the road, ...

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Public Reports

currawong

Mon 25 August 2008 at 22:12:10

Ventured over to Hotham for the first time in a long while.
Blue sky, cool breeze early on but hardly anyone around - weird but good.

East facing slopes were already soft by 9:30, but not churned so they were still fun.
Moved over to Heavenly late morning and it was great. The main groomers were firm but not slick. Especially enjoyed Twilight Zone.
Next stop was Orchard. It was very soft on Initiation and Keogh's Bash on the way over there, but the Orchard runs were still firm. Spargos was in great condition.

All in all a great day of spring conditions.

Slush Puppy

Mon 25 August 2008 at 09:27:50

The Slushy Report - for Sunday 24th August

Except for the wind (the was none!), a carbon copy of Saturday. Blue Skies! Snorks, Doonks and me were doing a morning half-day session with Deano which took us through a good portion of Heavenly, Orchard and even a run down from Golden Point (the first bowl next to One Tree Hill).

Surprisingly, despite some warm temperatures and thawing the previous day, there was little ice about, owing perhaps to the extensive snow making and grooming of the piste.

All groomed runs were great, a corduroy layer loose dry snow on top of firm base, great to make turns on. In the off-piste area, mostly similar to yesterday, perhaps a touch heavier in the morning.

Temperatures rose more rapidly from a chilly -9 C (village temp readout) at 7.30am to above zero temps (late in the day it was +7 C, and the road dry). This caused significant softening in high traffic sun-facing runs (or parts of runs); from memory such as Basin, Sun Run, Sundowner, Wendix, that side of Canyon, Slalom Gully, Lower Playground and Off the Edge stood out in my mind,

On the other hand, areas that were shaded from the sun remained dryish and a little lighter and were great to ski on. Those that stuck in my mind were Peach Bowl, Keogh's Bash (even though this got a lot of sun, but it held up well), Zirks, Big Slope, Spargo's, Pipeline (the tree-lined bit).

Like yester, we finished the day hiking up Golden Point (having just missed last ride on the Kat at 2.35pm) and going down the same bowl (second from One Tree Hill). Although thorough chopped up, nonethese the snow remained loose and the steep pitch enable some nice linked fall-line towns.

Simply a superb weekend at Hotham with perfect visibility. Sunday, with hardly a breeze about, was just about the perfect skiing day. Can't wait to go up again soon! :-D

Slush Puppy

Mon 25 August 2008 at 03:06:13

The Slushy Report - for Saturday 23rd August

Blue Skies! Left the CSIR lodge at around 7.45am was on the slopes by 8am.Village thermometer read a chilly -9 C.

Runs Assessed:
Basin, Gully Cat Walk, Slalom Gully etc - fresh dry snow on compacted surface, great to turn on, and fast.

It was very windy at the top of the Heavenly Chair, so strong that one could almost be blown off. However, once into the gullies and shelter, the wind dropped rapid to almost nothing.

Heaven Valley - Imagine, Twilight Zone, Gunbarrel, Race Gully, Canyon. ~9.15-ish? am. Caught up with a friend, checked out Cornice and Poma Line, and then Snake Gully when the race team opened it to the public.

On-piste - Plenty of corduroy early in the morning providing great skiing. Off piste, the snow was rough but a touch icy, but mostly dry, loose and light, so it was not too bad to ski on. My pick was Peach Bowl and Purgatory Spur. Brockhoff bumps were medium to large, surprisingly not icy (must be the windblown snow).

Lower Playground: a touch icy in patches here and there.Otherwise loose, softish, ungroomed, but still light due to the cold morning temps. More bumps in Pipeline, but not as big as Brockhoff and not icy.

Gotcha & the Extreme Zone: The Keogh & Orchard chairs were on wind hold in the morning, but the Gotcha chair was moving. Initiation as usual was short sharp and sweet. Checked out Lindsays, some nice untracked in the clump of trees up top, but it was bit crusty. The top bit of Lindsays had some very thin breakable crust, but apart from that, the snow was loose and light, great to ski on.

Orchard:
After an early lunch, we went out to Orchard - the wind has been steadily weakening, allowing the Keogh & Orchard chairs to operate around midday. As usual, Keogh's Bash was a great place to enjoy some nice short/medium turns.

We headed for the out of bound areas in search of freshies, but the easy picks were gone. Still, there were some untouched pockets here and there in the trees.

We finished the hiking up Golden Point and taking the second bowl, the one that leads directly down to the Village chair. Some nice untracked snow across the saddle, fun in the trees, and then pay-dirt (snow) - Although already plenty of tracks on it, we still had a great time skiing light soft snow.

Temperatures really shot up after midday, and some of the more sun exposed slopes got a bit slushy. With a clear sky, overnight temps will plummet and there could be some ice around. None the less, apart from the high winds in the morning, a great day of skiing, perfect visibility, blue skies and complete snow cover.

SuskiQ

Thu 21 August 2008 at 12:19:55

What a difference a week makes! (Read Flakey's blog). I skived off work on Tues and Weds and headed up to Hotham of a few extra days. Tues morning started bluebird clear with a dusting of fresh on a very solid base. Orchard was a delight early, some freshies between the trees and around Twirlygig. An out of control skier cleaned me up but failed to spoil my morning in the sun. By 11 the fog came - and stayed! The rest of the 2 days were white out. At times so thick as to induce severe vertigo! The pick on Tues arvo was Upper Brockhoff. Lower areas were starting to turn brown as was the top of basin under Village chair. All of the mountain seemed to have a mix of ice, crud, lumps and slush.

Wed was total fog - Blue ribbon area was mixed snow - hardpack with soft bumps forming but at least you could see a bit. Canyon had great snow if you didn't mind skiing blind. The pick on Wed arvo was Upper Brockhoff down into Black Snake after the FIS races finished, but it was quickly scraped back to hardpack too.

In any case an ordinary day's skiing still beats a day in the office ;-)

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