Australian Snow Storm Journal – July 15 2009

Boen Ferguson Perisher. Photo by Hansen

Australia has had a cracking week and half of deep natural snowfalls coupled with clear and cold sunny skies in between the two storm fronts that passed through.

The latest storm, which passed over the Australian Snowy Mountains during the weekend and into Monday and Tuesday, left up to 40cms of snow at Mt Hotham in Victoria and 30cms in Thredbo, NSW.

Today’s clear and cold weather allowed snowboarders and skiers across the resorts to capitalise on the growing base of snow and enjoy real winter powder days.
During last week the stretch of very cold clear nights in between storm fronts allowed Perisher and Thredbo in NSW break snowmaking records with Thredbo cranking all 190 guns at once during one evening, which resulted in 170,000 cubic metres of snow to be made! The man-made snow has been an incredible quality (thanks to new automated systems) that made for perfect early morning groomer glory-runs on the ‘ego-snow’.

The whole past two weeks has been a perfect combination of weather and snow for the school holidays with skier numbers on the hill being reported at an all time high despite the so-called economic crisis, people are truning up to the mountains in droves to enjoy the great start to winter. (Mt Buller in Victoria recorded a daily visitor record with over 6000 tickets sold in one day.)