Mountain Safety Collective Backcountry Conditions Report – Friday 16 August 2024

August 16th, 2024

 

Mixed conditions in the Main Range backcountry this week with sheets of ice but soft wind drifts and fun snow spring snow once it softened. Photo: @cappo.ski.tweedie

Mountainwatch | Mountain Safety Collective

Spring hit early in the mountains this week with temperatures struggling to dip below zero since Monday and soaring past 10 degrees in Perisher Thursday afternoon. This wasn’t helped by some light rain on Tuesday and more forecast through this coming weekend at lower elevations.

Despite this, the deeper snowpack in the alpine is holding up well so far and plenty of people have been getting nice soft turns through the week up high. Lower elevations have suffered with an already shallow snowpack becoming isothermal (Snow temperatures at zero degrees) and very unsupportive. Postholing 30cm deep on snowshoes is never a good sign!

As of Thursday, there was still just enough snow at popular trailheads like Dead Horse Gap and Guthega to skin out, but this is likely to change quickly over the weekend as we see rain falling at lower elevations.

In NSW, the last chance for sunny laps will be on Friday morning before the next cold front pushes in through the afternoon. Accompanied by pre-frontal rain, most forecasts are indicating moist snow falling above 1800m. This weather system will set in through Saturday with consistent precipitation, heavy cloud and moderate to strong winds before abating through Sunday. This will significantly impact any plans for extended backcountry tours over the weekend.

MSC’s Observation Team on a recent training day in sunnier, colder conditions

Victoria sees a similar situation, with heavier rain forecast in the alpine valleys but hopefully less precipitation impact around the alpine peaks.

A light break in the weather is possible on Monday before another front hits on Tuesday next week, accompanied by very strong to extreme winds and more mild temperatures and precipitation through Wednesday and Thursday. This will be likely to wipe out a lot of snow cover at lower elevations and push us deeper into an early spring melt cycle through late August and early September with unsettled weather expected across the next couple of weeks.

Stay across backcountry conditions and news at mountainsafetycollective.org