STORMWATCH NZ – A polar blast lashes the South Island

June 21st, 2013


The snowsports office is completely snowed in, do you think they mind? Image:: Mt Hutt

Mountainwatch | Storm Watch

We are entering the third quarter of this match of matches. Over 1 m of snow has hammered the Canterbury region and is still working its magic across the New Zealand resorts. 

As I type there is still limited information dribbling in about snow totals due to service disruptions and road closures, at last check Mt Hutt was reporting about 1.2 m of fresh snow and after the relentless falls last night you can expect to see about 50% added to that today. Temperatures have remained seriously cold, freezing levels have been hovering around about 200 m so it is safe to say the snow quality will be superb. Might be time to start thinking about taking Monday and Tuesday off!


The Southern Lakes certainly haven’t missed out, Opening day will be all time. Image:: Cardona

The Grasshopper has been keeping a close tab on this storm throughout the event and has been updating us with the latest since he picked this storm last Wednesday! When quizzed about the remainder of this event he said, “Mount Hutt are saying they can’t tell us how much snow has fallen overnight on account of the 1.2 METRES that fell yesterday. Sucks to be them. A lot of Canterbury and Marlborough fields are going to be in the same boat, and the issue now becomes too much snow and the need to conduct extensive avalanche control before riding can commence. But before they can do that they need the visibility to improve, and that might not be until tomorrow.”

And what about the next few days? He said, “Tomorrow a ridge pushes in over the Southern Lakes, and that should provide fantastic weather for the huge crowds that will be heading up, but it could be afternoon before things start to clear around Canterbury and evening for MarlboroughOn Saturday night winds go westerly as a front clips the lower South Island. Canterbury should be fine, but the Southern Lakes could pick up the odd flurry drifting across. Those westerly winds could also be a little stiff – around the 40 to 50km/h mark at times.”

While we wait for the resorts to dig themselves out here some epic photos that are slowly filtering through and check out this video from Mt Cheeseman – you’ll need to wade through the awkward video … but its worth it to see the mind-blowing amount of snow.


Broken River is leading the clubbies in terms of opening dates, there is a pretty good chance they are leading the new snow totals too Image:: Broken River


I hope nobody is hungry, the cafeteria is covered Image:: Cardrona

The Remarkables will be enjoying some of their best opening day conditions in a long time. The park crew will be setting up some features for the crowds to session Image:: The Remarkables

Any more snow and that building may not open till spring. Image:: Mt Hutt

How good is that!? Image:: Treble Cone