Snow Report Mt Baw Baw 2019 - Trip Reports, Pics & Conditions.

Apologies - it's getting late!
The above post Should have ended 'worthwhile'.

 

Baw Baw getting some love today

 

https://www.ski.com.au/snowcams/australia/vic/bawbaw/bawbaw-tobogganpark.html
Mt.St.Gwinear could be worth the drive for some rock hopping on Thursday.

 

Friday could be worth the drive up to BB/MSG if it keeps snowing enough to make the XC trails rock hopper-able!

 

I'd like to think so too. You need the smoothest possible terrain under those skimpy 10cm.
My bet - if all the small Vic peaks get the same 10cm would be Lake Mtn -those inner trails have very few rocks and are pretty smooth from memory.

I'd say Gwinear would be the least smooth of the 3, with Bawbs in the middle ish but it's a tad higher the Gwinny & less exposed to the sun - overall. Of course Ideally Bb would groom eventually. He he!! Can always hope!

My 2 cents.

 

Stop complaining! At least you've got webcams. LM doesn't.

 

If LM paid me to go around and take photos of the ski terrain and resort each day and post them on this website it would be far more useful than the present arrangement, which is little better than taking a polaroid and posting it by snail mail every 6 months.
https://www.lakemountainresort.com.au/careers/

 

Um, I'm over web cams Teckel. It's all about the snow and where Mr T can get a ski. ( ;-)

 

At this of sounding like 'Doc No' again: looks like the update of the BB snow report is delayed on this site.

I note on the new snazzy BB Report there's no space (column) referring to snowmaking or grooming against actual lifts or runs. Nor is their a grooming column for XC trails - although they're in green/open status so some glimmer for this weekend.

Now, Getting more weather geeky (picky) here. It's been below -2 since 5:30 pm yesterday - so about a 16-hour window for BB to fire up the 'real' snowmaking - and get the mountain ready for the busy school holiday period.

Does anyone know if this happened? Or are there dam storage/staff/humidity excuses?
If the real guns aren't run this week - the resort would have one of the best /coldest snowmaking weeks of the season. And if this indeed the case, how can they say 'we did our best for visitors'?

Let's see eh??

 

BB/MSG might have the goods for a day trip on Sat. for some Nordic skiing. I will watch and wait for what the reports are saying as of Friday morning.

 

Baw Baw's trail report had me excited for a moment. Showing 7/24 runs open - but that's only Hut Run to tower 2, and the 6 XC runs. I wish they would separate these out into Downhill and XC.

 

Hi Nezumi, easy to do. It's a very dumbed down report. A few years ago it used to be more of a table with columns for open, groomed, snowmaking, possibly even a rating?

Now it's open or not. Perhaps IQs really have dropped while I've slept?
(sorry a quote from Ellen Rippley /Sigorney Weaver in Aliens).

 

Let hope they groom this time and not loose another good opportunity, also no snow making yet ???

 

I think all visitors do. Tend to hear mostly excuses these days.

 

Some interesting stats hot off the press...baw baw had its biggest opening weekend in the last 10 years and probably I may suggest all time? 2nd busiest resort on opening weekend.

Being up on opening weekend Sunday was mad busy and further justification for the labour government to dig into its coffers and send some money into baw baw infrastructure....

 

I have rung Baw Baw and mentioned that there's no information on their website as to actual grooming on specific runs nor anything on the running of 'old-fashioned', below -2C (real) snowmaking - as opposed to their 24/7 snow factory. The mgr said they'd look into this. I mentioned as it is, it's very hard to gauge the snow & ski quality & quantity.

 

Well fwiw I don't think the needed f

Fwiw I don't think the need free entry on the opening weekend, should have kept the money , the snow sold itself and to be quite honest the resort was overfull on Sunday .. The income helps offset some costs and helps justify investment

 

Probably right. Not sure anyone predicted just how busy it would be.
With no snow, free entry is the only reason 90% day trippers would visit BB on QB.

 

The problem is that they promised the free entry well before the snow happened, so if they had gone back on it they would have been criticised for that.

 

I get the impression that management of BB and LM were in the yacht club management caper before they took over the administration of some ski resorts.

 

Maybe they could use the Yacht to do some grooming

 

I think a big problem is that resorts don't tell people what's going on. When an essential service is not provided they just keep quiet, hoping it might go away, and getting all shirty with those who complain. What they should do to maintain favour with their customers is be honest and tell them what's happening. eg :- "We're sorry about the lack of grooming but we're short-staffed, or the chief groomer is ill, or the grooming machine has died and is in for repairs" or whatever the reason. Resorts would gain a lot more respect by being honest and up front with their clients (ie: with you and me)

 

Could not agree more!

 

Also agree totally , as a stakeholder and client it is frustrating to say the least. We have also sent emails asking for more information regarding snow making grooming ect. They did plough the village rd on the opening weekend ,as the last diesel delivery for winter had not arrived. As far as i know that has now been completed .

 

Nor I!

In this respect Stirling is pretty good - will warn if their cat is down or its just too thin to skidoo pack.

Now if Bb If ever did this on line?
Respect!!!

 

Correct , they have a web page , also a group of stakeholders who could also let guests and members know and share it on FB ect . BB have a FB page as well ??

 

True or their dam is empty or their electricity is insufficient or ... Pick one!

As for not grooming their XC trails when the snow is there - go figs!

Or rehabbing Village Trail East so the VT is a loop again - summer or winter. I've forwarded this explicit info and never, ever had any feedback, never mind some work!

 

I wah wah wah wah wonder ;-P if
Mt.St.G would be worth the drive this Sat. or Sunday.
12 cms at BB is still quite thin for Mt. St.G..
It has a lot of rocks and hazards that need to be well buried by snow before the green light for Nordic skiing is switched on for the ascent up the main trail from the car park.

 

Some simple aspects of what i have garnished from conversations with various mountain staff are as follows:

1. There is not enough power to run both the snow making old form and the new form snow factory at the same time plus there is not enough water pressure for both at the same time too. As the snow factory has a wider operating temperature that is the go to.

2. To groom the snow generally they need at least 20cm packed or 30cm on the ground, any less and the groomer will go through the top and destroy whatever is left. I suspect the conditions on the XC trails was not enough and give the points in 3 below any grooming would like taking a knife to a gun fight.

3. Specifically to the conditions on opening weekend, the ground was not frozen so a lot of the snow was melting from below on the Sunday, then comes the rain and wind conditions on top to seal the deal....and generally wind is worse then rain when it comes to destroying cover.

 

I remember many moons ago, the mountain had 2 groomers if i'm not wrong one was much smaller that allowed trail and village grooming, also when snow was not as deep.The snowmobiles also had a type of grooming unit they used to tow around also. I am possibly wrong times have changed for sure.. On a positive note it looks fantastic up there

 

http://www.janebunn.net/mt-baw-baw

 

I remember the toe behind matt although have not seen it in recent years.

Definitely have the smaller groomer although not sure how operational it is

 

"I remember the toe behind matt although have not seen it in recent years".

Perhaps it has been seen to by the TOE CUTTER. Otherwise towing a skiddoo groomer is another matter.

 

MSG is reporting 17 cms at the Toboggan and Snow ball throwing area at the car park and PV have cleared the road. I think They may throw a groomer over some of the trails too.

 

I note there were 4 lifts open today so the cover must be reasonable - certainly looked nice on the cams.

Now if we can only get the updates a little earlier in the day? But lets acknowledge the work done to get half the mtn open in quite light snow cover.

Now Im hoping possible snow at the start of July (Monday?) will mitigate some predicted weekend rain? Too many ifs to worry.

 

Up to yesterday arvo the info was that lift tickets were full orice without the Maltese t-bar running = a huge rip-off. Now it seems Malteee is running today after all. This is where Baw Baw need to get their comms sorted out ASAP. How many prospective ticket buyers are at home today when they nay well have been at Baw Baw skiing on Champagne run off the Maltese lift? For anyone beyond beginner level the runs off it are the only ones worth being on.
A $30 ticket for Maltese T-bar only for two hours would be ideal. When boredom sets in, have lunch then enjoy an xc trundle over the post-holed and rutted xc trails before heading home.

 

Big call on the champagne

 

Champagne is a nice little run but after yo-yo skiing it for an hour or more with the long lifting times in between and sneaking in some runs on the closed runs (just need to avoid the bare bits) there isn"t anything else that interests me there as a post-beginner skier. So after 2 hours I'm done on an $80 ticket ( if it's the weekend). We would do some of the other runs to follow and teach our kids but they are way past those runs too. That's the lift-servicedmarket I think. Families with little kids and beginner skiers and boarders.
We'd go fo xc days as a more varied experirnce than we can get at Lake Mt except that the trails are eithet ungroomed or are trashed soon after the irregular grooming.

 

Oh! Thought you where referring to snow quality not a run

 

" have lunch then enjoy an xc trundle over the post-holed and rutted xc trails before heading home. "
MSG is often like this so you need to be first on the hill after a big snow fall or it becomes frozen footprint central.

 

I think snow quality would be be poor today on Champagne and across the hill. A cheap ticket period until there has been some decent snowfall would be nice and thatcway they can get more gate fees.

 

A well communicated cheap ticket period would be good.

 

I delted the post you've quoted. Thought it was overly negative about the current Baw Baw exoerience on offer, particularly charging a lot for a couple of runs. And I'm grumpy about going into rehab today for my ankle. Fundamentally they don't have the terrain for a viable downhill operation without grid power IMO unless it ican be offset by income from the other activities. Diesel and lift-related staff aren't cheap. Snowplay, XC, dog-sledding on a dedicated trail so the XC trails aren't trashed and good value beginner ski/board packages seem to me to be the viable markets for Baw Baw. Offering cheap tickets to parents of kids having lessons and companions of beginners makes sense to me too.

 

That's unlikely . Number one issue ATM. I never got replies to queries I posted on their dedicated opening weekend FB page and on their main FB page about ticket prices.
Good comms supports positive relationships.

 

Have to say, the staff have been friendly on the phones when have rung - that's the last 3 weeks.

They Haven't had all the information though - I suspect thats their internal procedures & hopefully ll be sorted by now/soon.

So if you think you lack the necessary info - make sure you call the mtn. Perhaps call Thursday arvo for the weekend/Saturday planning but if you're in doubt about lifts and conditions, I'd call Friday pm as well. It's 5 mins and 30-40 cents well invested.

Until the Comms/website is refined, just have to accept this scenario. Very 80/90s - like my early (pre Internet) ski days. ( ;-D

 

Big shout out to the maintain staff and website guy for some good work...clearly there are some moves happening as 2 new web cams have gone live this month....

we now have view of tank hill looking back from the back of summit/big hill...

 

This is good news BB77 - when there's snow -or not - we want to see it. Shame they couldn't install during the long green season though? (Assume they had insufficient staff?)

 

I suspect that it more budget in deploying technology/website updates as i think its the internal security cameras they are using as webcams.

In summer season there is probably more eyes on the $$$ where as in white season as its alot busier and cashlfow is stronger then some of these things get done. Anyways we will take anything they can do that is a positive step forward!

 

Agreed not easy getting govt funding on anything. And it takes a lot of signatures on a lot of pieces of paper.