2011 Mt Hotham pics...

[FROG]

Live update epic snow - blizzard conditions I'd say!


Hopefully this keeps up all night - if so I'll be out for first tracks for sure.


In the words of Big Kev - "I'm excited!!"

Cheers

Bennie

onya Bennie enjoy mate
envy rating is high

[El_Freddo]

envy rating is high

I'm not meaning to rub it in, just sharing with others what Australia has to offer!

Unfortunately the thick snow did not continue and apart from that I was completely buggered after getting up wayyyy too early in the after noon before my night shift. Kez and I got jack of our asian house mates and the filth they had created under the kitchen table (they dominate this area at meal times, we're designated the couch but that's another story!)

Anyway, here are some pics of the snow that was coming in thick and fast:



With flash so you get the big flakes up close:



Then we had these dickheads who were trying to show off to some girls by sliding down the hill on their stomach before they headed back to the heated pool. I hope they got the usual dose of "gravel rash" that the snow gives you. To describe it would be like sliding down a hill of fine sandpaper - the coldness of the snow numbs your skin so you don't notice until you're either bleeding or starting to feel the pain as your skin recovers from the cold:



Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the girls in their bikini's - I don't think Kez would have been in favour of that. They looked good if not a wee bit cold!

Today and yesterday were both blue bird days This means sunny with no clouds. I got outside and in the sun for the first time in three days!! Not cool.

We need more snow to fall again. I haven't been skiing in over a week now... This week is predicted to be low of -5 and top of -1 for the middle of the week with the "chance of snow". Anyone noticed that they've now changed (probably years ago) the predictions to chance of showers/snow, a shower/snow shower or two rather than rain today etc etc? Very clever - keeps us in hopes until you realise their little game... I'm hoping for another good dump very soon otherwise the season is a fizzer - which can happen with a good start to the season

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Update:

Been crook from the bug that's going around - foreign housemates don't cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze. They're a thorn in my side at times!

On that note I got jack of their lack of cleaning the apartment so wrote this passive letter/note to inform them that it is everyone's responsibility to keep the apartment clean and tidy. I was finding the place toxic by the end of last week! This was the reply I got - we're still waiting on hearing the translation, sorry if it is offensive to those who know how to read it. This came from one of the tai girls:



In snow specific news - I've not been out skiing in about three weeks now! And it hasn't really snowed properly in that time even though it was looking promising. We need another 30cm dump to make it awesome again - but not for another week or two as I need to recover so I can ski when it is good again!

Out the back of Higgi Drive the ground vegetation is starting to poke through the snow Not good.
Last week we saw the aftermath of a guy on an inflatable pool thingy (you know the one!) that had climbed about 15 to 20m up the steep hill, jumped on, flew down the hill, off the 30cm drop onto the snow covered back road (snow mobiles only), I reckon he bounced twice if he was lucky before ending up meeting with a steel tube fence that KO'd him, he then ended up on the first "step" on the ice pack between the road and the back of the Arlberg right under our window. Ski patrol did a great job of securing him and getting the fella out, but I reckon he was pretty messed up!



From the above pic you can see the steep slope of the hill on the right (mt higginbotham), then the snow mobile road and the steel tube fence and the steps below (not the steel walking steps, the one below that). Hopefully you get the picture of what happened. Saddest thing was that there was some fella filming the Ski patrol's efforts while the guy was out to it!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Well it's currently raining. Locals are on a downer. If this keeps up all weekend (hopefully will get some snow this weekend, the sooner the better) I think we can kiss the season goodbye

We've had such a warm week with the weather - all temps above 5 degrees C even during the middle of the night! I did see 4.4C at dawn this morning.

It's not unusual to get some rain before a snow event, it's better when it just snows straight up with some cold weather. So here's hoping we get some snow overnight!

I should have got out and grabbed some pics of the area now that the vegetation is visible in large patches around the place - but alas I didn't as I've not left the building today.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

So last Saturday saw snow arrive about an hour after that last post above. It's been awesome! Still need more of course!!

I broke my 3 and a bit week skiing drought on Sunday I think it was. Good times had out there with a mate that happened to come up for that weekend - subaru driver too

More snow is forecast but I doubt we'll be seeing much more for a while now. Why are high pressure systems so slow moving yet the low are in turbo mode? Someone needs to put the handbrake on a very cold and moist low pressure system over the alpine areas!!

I'll get pics up later when I sort them out

Cheers

Bennie

[TOONGA]

Update:
On that note I got jack of their lack of cleaning the apartment so wrote this passive letter/note to inform them that it is everyone's responsibility to keep the apartment clean and tidy. I was finding the place toxic by the end of last week! This was the reply I got - we're still waiting on hearing the translation, sorry if it is offensive to those who know how to read it. This came from one of the tai girls:



Cheers

Bennie

Are you sure she is from Thailand as that is Kunji which is primarily used by the Japanese and not so much by the Chinese.

I can find out what it says, but I ve got a feeling it is about women not doing all the house work as the symbol for woman is used twice.

TOONGA

[El_Freddo]

Are you sure she is from Thailand as that is Kunji which is primarily used by the Japanese and not so much by the Chinese.

I can find out what it says, but I ve got a feeling it is about women not doing all the house work as the symbol for woman is used twice.

Sorry, Taiwan, I don't know if this makes a difference. I would love to get a second translation to see if we've been told right by some other taiwanese that work for a different company - I won't let on what we've been told until you get it translated, then I'll share or confirm what we've been told. Not nice and it does involve "ya mum"...

If you're correct in your feeling about it being about women not doing all the housework that would be ironic as they've DONE NONE before that letter came out - they've vacuumed once and that's it. The only reason why they've done that much is because I left the vacuum cleaner on the kitchen table with the note on it...

In other news we're getting the really good dry powdery snow all afternoon, hopefully it keeps up overnight but we'll see. I'll upload those images at work tonight then post them when I can It's looking awesome out there and everyone's pretty stoked!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Post full of pics as promised:

Last Sunday (07AUG11) I had a mate come up for a few days so we got to hang out and hit the slopes for a bit in the arvo, it worked out really well. I broke my three and a bit week skiing drought!

We hit up the Brockhoff ridge line through the trees quite a bit that day - found some small patches of untouched fresh snow to ski which was awesome! This is us coming out from the trees:





Old school mate and I - I'm not one to usually post personal pics but I was pretty stoked to be skiing with a good old friend, plus it's a good pic too:



I call this photo the "I own an expensive vehicle make so I can park anywhere I want". Yeah, the bus stop - epic fail:



Snow falling - this is what we like around here! Lots of it too!



And I got a suprise package from Canada on Monday arvo:



^ My sister rocked up an announced - so we've got the "chop-c trifecta" as our mates are calling it!

Monday 08AUG11:

So we had breakfast (cheese and spag jaffles) out the front of the 'berg while we watched the sun come up - but a cloud was in the way but we had a good time anyway:



Feathertop looking awesome! I'd sooo love to be doing an alpine walk out there for a couple of days of free skiing in the area!




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[El_Freddo]

Something you don't see everyday - two aircraft that appear to be passenger liners flying very close together while turning around back to the direction of sydney, second plane is in the bottom left corner of the pic:



We hit up Avalanche gully for some free skiing on slopes that had some really fresh snow - it was awesome. The walk out almost killed us though!



Here's the slope we carved up:



And this is how it was looking this afternoon - very healthy snow!



I'm hoping it keeps up over night as I'm keen for first tracks tomorrow morning with some very fresh snow on the runs But I have heard that it has been raining outside from time to time - not cool enough which is a real bummer as we've had a fresh injection of healthy snow, if it's raining that'll wipe all of that out and almost put us back to the negative of "what's the season going to do - end short?" mode...

Cheers

Bennie

PS Jules - the lawnmower thread was cleaned up completely!

[El_Freddo]

Well, last update I give while it's puking down... Literally 15 minutes after posting the above it started raining

It had been such a great day with loads of fluffy snow falling for most of the afternoon and evening that looked like it was going to continue through the night. But then the wind changed from a cold westerly to an easterly wind and with it came the rain.

All that good fresh snow washed away in a few hours. 1 step forward 2 or 3 back!

So I didn't stay up for first tracks - I went to bed instead. It's depressing - there is still good snow around but I don't want to be skiing it when it's raining!

Thought I'd share that with you all.

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Well it's been a while since an update...



^ Halo around the sun, the camera didn't pic it up very well but it looked awesome!

I've still not been skiing in a long time ^ the above pic was the last time I was skiing, probably about two weeks now - with sorting Ruby Scoo taking ski time while I got her going again then going driving for a day I've now been caught up with sleeping all day after the night shift, something I want to break.
Now it's job applications taking all of my time!!! If it's not one thing it's another!

No matter, got school camp next week at Falls so I'm guaranteed to get some ski time in over there, just hope their snow base is still good! We could be expecting some snow next week but I'm not holding my breath on this news.

At least it hasn't come good on the rain! My weather station didn't know what it was doing last week - showed rain, snow, cloud, humidity one day dropped to 17%!! It's currently at 49% and 6 degrees C, sunny again.

Which leads me to the pics I've got to show, first, here's two images to compare the ice melt on Higgi drive:

Saturday 27AUG11:



Wedensday 31AUG11:



^ Not representational of the slope, but depressing to see it going every day!

Now since the sun comes up earlier I've been hanging back from work to watch it rise on these beautifully still and clear mornings:

Friday 26AUG11:






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[El_Freddo]

^ I didn't stick around for the rest of this sun rise, but I have for the last three days...

Tuesday 30AUG11 Dawn:













^ Still got the snow from those aerial jumps to spread out once things start to get thin on the ground - at least on the summit anyway. Snow making will apparently end on the 11th of September while conditions are favourable and before their snow making budget runs out...


.

[El_Freddo]

Wednesday's sunrise:












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[El_Freddo]

Today's (Thurs 01SEP11) sunrise that I woke kez up to watch with me:













This sunrise was definitely the highest I've seen the ball of fire rise above the horizon up here. Great morning to show kez what I watch when I'm home late.


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[El_Freddo]

To finish off for now - these were what I suspect to be the "left over" fireworks from the second Jimmy Blaze show that they quietly cancelled. I was pissed about this as I missed the first show, I only got there in time to see a couple of jumps then the back flip - and my camera didn't work when I wanted it to. They had Jimmy Blaze and Corie Davis (I think). It looked awesome from the little bit I saw. I was hoping to back to back on my video from last year... Anyway, the fireworks that they didn't tell anyone about!











^ I love the way the white snow takes on and reflects the fireworks light. I really do have to pull my thumb out and get myself a good camera, the little Olympus stylus 8000 that I'm using is great for what it is but I want to play around with the ISO, aperture and the shutter speed... I'll get there.

Hope you've enjoyed the latest installment of my hotham times. Expect more green in the photos from now on I reckon!

Cheers

Bennie

PS - epic organisation going on for these threads!!

[El_Freddo]

A long over due update:

Last week we had some snow - it was great to see it fall again! We even had it settle for a couple of hours on the cement.



I had to get ruby scoo from the staff carpark, this is how I found her:



And I had to bust out the snow groomer for a bit of fun:



All of this has since melted and the runs are looking pretty dismal - the lift company has called it quits this sunday, just in time for school holidays!

Then it rained last night which pretty much spelled the end of the season over night.

But we got a pleasant surprise this morning:



Snow down to 1200m It's looking even better than it was in that pic since I took it at about 9am this morning, it hasn't really stopped snowing all day. Maybe my order for 50cm of snow on the ground is about to be delivered! Yeah I'm dreaming!

And this is about five minutes ago from 1pm Australian EST:



It will be interesting to see how much ends up falling and how long it lasts for!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

And a quick update. These pics were from Friday the 23rd of September, two days before the close of season:

I can now get a decent shot from a distance of Mt Feathertop, taken from Higgi Drive behind the Arlberg:



The summit with it's white snake of snow to ski on - just to keep the skiing going. There were probably 5 people out when I went for the walk:



Good advertising



And it got cold overnight with a lot of low cloud coming from the east, the moisture of the cloud has frozen on the trees creating a really interesting visual effect, the pic didn't turn out so good due to the clouds whipping past but I hope you get the idea:



That's it for now. Once again the season is done and dusted. Hotham is officially a ghost town again, which is kind of good and not at the same time...

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Well last night we had lots of rain and then a few thunderstorms - they're totally awesome up here! The sound moving back up through the valleys is something you really have to experience!

So this was Ruby Scoo riding it out last night:



My "back yard" this morning, exciting as snow is always:



Ruby Scoo and Mt Higginbotham, side of anyway:



Last year we had lots of this that were more awesome than what you see here:



Couldn't go without a Ruby Scoo close up:



^ Left the snow tyres at home to preserve them for later, now on my roadies

And a little more excitement than someone bargained for:



The general consensus is that the trailer saved him. Since the close of season the town's speed limit has been lifted from 40km/h to 60km/h. I reckon this guy didn't have his chains with him which as far as I know is still a requirement at this time of year. Poor bugger.
Tow truck is there now working out how to get him on all fours and level again.

Exciting this alpine weather! Throws all sorts at you at all times of the year, including summer - just that a lot of the general population doesn't realise that it can snow at any time of the year.

That's all for now.

Cheers

Bennie

[Matt]

More importantly what is a tinnie doing in the snow? lol

[El_Freddo]

More importantly what is a tinnie doing in the snow? lol

The Great Alpine Road is a through fare from Eastern Gippsland to northern and central victoria - so there's all sorts passing through from time to time, we even see the odd semi come through in the middle of winter...

I've got a few last photos for now, we've had snow for the last two days or so, and apparently more is on the way tomorrow. I'm now off the mountain for a family party but we'll be back up there on sunday to see what's fallen and still hanging around.

Here's a couple of pics from 4am this morning when I was surprised to see that it was still snowing:

Ice hanging off the roof edge:



Snow in the street lamp:



This morning after the "sun came up":



Ice on the retaining wall brick work:



Ice on the metal steps into the back of the Arlberg:



Chairs stacked for the offseason from the village chair lift:




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