Hotham Snow Report – Fri Aug 24th 2012

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Volkl Australia's Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow
Volkl Australia's Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow

After yesterday’s rain and well needed day off it turned to snow in the late afternoon and by morning there was around 15cm of fresh. I got out just after the 7:30am opening of Heavenly and had a bunch of great runs in the new snow, mainly The Cornice into Snake Gully and also Purgatory Spur. There were a few patches of ice here & there from the yesterday’s rain, but overall the new snow was lovely, as it started wet and then slowly dried out so it was bonded well to the layers below with a nice coating of fluff on top.

High winds meant that Gotcha/Keoghs/Orchard weren’t open in the morning, but to be honest I thought that was a blessing as we had many laps traversing into the Gotcha Ridge/Lindsey’s area skiing some great untracked snow. I hooked up with Volkl Australia’s Nick Hill and a couple of his mates who are local rippers and we had a ball.

Overall I didn’t take many photos as the conditions just didn’t allow – and I’m not going to bother posting them as they are just greyed-out shots of chairlifts – but attempted a few action shots which you can see here:

Hotham Freerider Sam in the Pow
Hotham Freerider Sam in the Pow
Hotham Freerider Sam in the Pow
Hotham Freerider Sam in the Pow
Volkl Australia's Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow
Volkl Australia’s Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow
Volkl Australia's Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow
Volkl Australia’s Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow
Volkl Australia's Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow
Volkl Australia’s Nick Hill in the Hotham Pow

After lunch I got an SMS from the usual aussieskier.com Hotham Blogger that Gotcha chair was about to open and I had a few lovely runs on the ridge & gully skier’s right of Mary’s Slide. Every turn untracked and a pleasure to be there.

The snow fell consistently throughout the day, and if anything intensified at about 3pm. As I type this it is absolutely dumping at Dinner Plain with enormous flakes.

The weekend’s activities will include a Level 1 AST Avalanche Course, so while we will be missing out on the freshies tomorrow, attending this very important course is well overrdue and I’m looking forward to continuing my backcountry education.

If you missed, it, I posted an epic Trip Report of our trek over the Razorback to the Feathertop Area from earlier in the week. Well worth checking out with some great pictures.

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