THREDBO – Storm Reflection, 50cm of Snow

Supertrail – 22 June Image::Reggae Ellis

Reggae Elliss

Monday was one of those nervous nights you have when you live in the mountains, not just because of the howling northwester. It was waiting for the cold front and the promise of the 30cm – 60cm of snow forecast by the Grasshopper and the Mountainwatch computer models.

I checked the radar at 10.30pm and the front was just crossing Cape Otway, heading east. At that rate I estimated it would arrive 3am. When a gust of wind that shook the house woke me at 2am, it was still raining outside. At 6am it was still raining in Thredbo Village and still raining in Perisher valley which is at 1600m. Worse still, I could see the light at the top of Kosiuszko Chair, usually is a sign that it’s also raining at the top. It wouldn’t have been the first time an almost perfect front had stayed too warm for snow, so a bit of panic set in. Then, right on cue, I received a text from Harro in Buller saying it had been blizzarding there since 5am, which meant it would probably hit us around 7.30am, which it did.

I went up the mountain at 2pm and had a couple of hours of freshies and dry windblown up at Merritts. The amount of snow was amazing. The westerly was blowing in a lot of snow and I measured 20cm of snow on the tables outside Merritts restaurant. That meant there had to be 50cm up at the top of Kosi Chair.

Hovering above a very snow covered mid station, 22 June. Image::Reggae Ellis

Wednesday was one of those early season days you never forget. Even with the open terrain limited to the Merritts area and High Noon, there were still plenty of fresh tracks to be had, especially for those who were a little more adventurous. The groomed runs were perfect – 5cm of fresh dry snow on a firm base. Minus 5 degrees kept it dry all day and the wind kept blowing more snow in, filling in the off piste runs. You could see tonnes of snow blowing into Waimea and around Antons and Sponars, so after skiing I decided to ride up Kosi Chair. I was blown away by the amount of snow on the Supertail and World Cup, 40cm of untracked powder all the way to the bottom of the Milk Run. Unfortunately Monday night’s rain and no snowmaking for the bottom 100 metres meant the cover was too thin to open the Supertrail. A couple of people had traversed over from the other side and poached some fresh lines and the tracks looked amazing. Riding down on the chair I couldn’t help but think if f I was on skis it would have been one of the best top to bottom runs ever – 2km of untracked pow in the mid-afternoon.

Anyway, it’s early days and the Supertrail will open this weekend.

Some cold nights early next week will see the snowmakers improve the cover while all eyes are on another front which will possibly hit around 30 June.

Keep your eyes on the forecast models and wait for the word from the Grasshopper. He was spot on with this latest fall – let’s hope this time next week he is calling for another 20cm+ fall.

Supertrail – 22 June Image::Reggae Ellis

Thredbo forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.