Comment
Share
Posted on Saturday July 4th at 2:21 p.m.
Tweet
All but three of New Zealand's ski areas are now open after opening day for 6 areas today. There is new snow on the ground just in time for the school holiday and not too bad weather forecast for today. Tomorrow is a different story though, see the forecast below for details.
The NZ Snow Sports Awards are on in Wanaka tonight and we wait with anticipation to who will be the Snow Sports Athlete of the Year.
Otago got slammed but a cold front and inversion layer which made travelling anywhere difficult. This made for a slow start this morning around Queenstown and Wanaka as people were warned not to take unnecessary travel this morning. Conditions eased by this afternoon.
Great snow conditions at Porters today, SnowTV's Martyn Davies reported light dry powder on Big Mamma forcing him to ride his new Gotama's until his legs wouldn't work anymore.
What's good for Porters is also good for most other areas with solid snowpacks right across the country. This is going to get topped up even more with the next storm progressing across the North Island as I write this. Good snow is forecast right across the country for the next two to three days.
FORECAST: It's a clear two parter this week with unsettled conditions and snow in most areas until Tuesday and clear conditions from Wednesday.
An active low centred west on Cook Straight will move slowly east across the country tonight and tomorrow. This will weaken and move off into the Pacific on Tuesday when a anitcyclone will take command bringing cold clear conditions later in the week.
* Not counting the use of skis by Norwegian miners in the Otago goldfields in the 1860s, the first real act of formation of a ski entitiy in New Zealand was the formation of Ruapehu Ski Club by William Mead and Bernard Drake on 31st July 1913.
RETRACTION:
On the 28th March I made a comment about the snow reporting at Mt Ruapehu being inaccurate. My wording was badly chosen and could have caused confusion. I stated that,
"RAL took surveys years ago and found that no-one trusts their snow reports... and nothing's changed. I would urge them to put more info into their reports."
I had no actual access to these surveys. I made my comment based upon my experience when, as a shareholder of RAL I attended an RAL AGM in the 1990's where the then marketing manager stated this as part of RAL's plan to gain a greater trust of the public of their reporting systems in the future. At the time of writing I had no knowledge of what the general public thought about their current reports.
My comment was interpretive and base upon my research into the weather report and forecast, my view of the RAL operated webcam images and the comments on their snow report. I am based in Christchurch and had no firsthand knowledge of the conditions on the hills that morning.
My comment was published on Snowco's old live website and also on the current website which was not visible at the time. My comment was removed from the old website and made 'draft only' on the new website. Regrettably due to a software error my comment was still visible in a navigation bar when we launched our new website.
I regret causing, and apologize for any distress that I have caused RAL staff or Board Members and for any confusion caused by my comments to the public.