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Ruapehu 2011
yeah, would be more than happy if they just had the national/west quad/far west T open if they need to do maintenance on the other lifts
I'd happily put in my 2cents around keeping things open for Snowvember. Including that I'll be bringing a full paying customer up at times as well 
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IT Hack & Genuine NutJob
why dont ruapehu make a bit of money in the summer and open it up for bikes? 
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calvin.b
maybe for the same reason coronet stopped doing it. Plus they would probably have to move some big rocks to make some decent tracks.
coronet stopped and skyline started. just cause coronet stopped for some reason dosent mean reuapehu cant start? just my opinion
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calvin.b
Perhaps RAL is going to extend the season on the basis of spring pass sales? Since now they are available day pass revenue is only going to decline further...
At a guess, the latest they'd wait before announcing a season extension is the 1st of october.
And I did email RAL some feedback about my support for an extended season. Can't hurt.
Originally posted by: NzBoy
why dont ruapehu make a bit of money in the summer and open it up for bikes?
They should be using Turoa for this. Some insane trails, some with some serious gnar could be formed from the top of the Pick. With riding picking up hugely around the area, just anotehr way to draw the all year crowds in. This side has sightseeing and the Crossing so Kune should get bikes.
...but don't forget the certain culprits stopping development
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
Saw on the RAL facebook today that they'll have a big airbag operating at turoa this weekend. Could be a bit of fun. Bring your helmet
Awesome 2 days @ Turoa Monday and Tuesday. Apart from blowing a water hose @ the 13km mark and missing out on any fresh lines on Monday morning the afternoon more than made up for it with blue-skys, warm temps and primo snow. Tuesday was a firm and fast to start with, softened by 10:30 but never slushed out due to the cool breeze. Got to do a few runs with CCS and got my youngest grom up the express and caning it down Vertigo. Riding the express all afternoon was an absolute delight. The cover is still unreal and should last well into November unless we get 2 weeks of rain.
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*** Blinding Night ***
^^^ Nice
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Wait For The Ricochet
Thats great. Now we just have to hope the lifts are open into november.
Spring passes are on sale now and at $285 for an Adult you'd better hope they're open well into Nov. But if people stop coming they will close 
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*** Blinding Night ***
4 weekends x $95 day pass = $760 so you can still easily get good value out of them unless there are 3 crap weekends in a row.
Yeah, but most people keen enough to consider going that much probably already have season passes. Spring passes are only really going to sell to anyone that has caught the bug during this season or SI skiiers and boarders that want a few more weeks of snow.
So get up here and buy spring passes you mainlanders!
I'm hoping this high flexes it's muscles a bit more and sticks around as the current forecast for the weekend isn't too flash at all
Although I will probably tell myself it's still worth going.. knowing how twitchy I'll get when it comes to summmer!
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IT Hack & Genuine NutJob
Saturday might be alright. Heres hoping. And with october 24th looming over our heads, probably pays not to be picky.
who knows when the forecasts keep changing. you just gota go
Originally posted by: skiingsam
And with october 24th looming over our heads, probably pays not to be picky.
Especially as my November is looking to be filled with all the family expectations I haven't fufilled for the season.
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Where's the white stuff?
Another primo day
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reine de l'hiver
i saw this and thought...jedski would like...another great day on ruapehu..
Crap morning again leading to another primo arvo. Sure do like that play ground Voltaren, where is it? About 5 options of a line are screaming!
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
F*@k I hate queues
F*@k I hate queues
another crappy weather weekend
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Of more concern is the warm tropical low heading it's way over next week
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IT Hack & Genuine NutJob
^^^ its Springtime what do you expect?
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*** Blinding Night ***
^heaps of powder, no crowds, sunny days, no lift queues
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had that yesterday, minus the extreeeeme powder part, can't have it all, all the time
Been like that MOn-Fri most days this season. 8.40am, 2 degrees outside and the windscreen is frozen to buggery.
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
Originally posted by: Freshie
^heaps of powder, no crowds, sunny days, no lift queues
That was Mon and Tue for me. Snow conditions were primo and no qs!!! You need to save some leave days for mid week riding Freshie instead of using all your leave to OE trips.
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*** Blinding Night ***
or you just gota go, out of 8 weekends I've only had one closed day. The weather never does as they say.
Originally posted by: voltaren
i saw this and thought...jedski would like...another great day on ruapehu..
Looks like the ridge to the left off layback below the organ pipes?
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Wait For The Ricochet
Originally posted by: BluntOriginally posted by: Freshie
^heaps of powder, no crowds, sunny days, no lift queues
That was Mon and Tue for me. Snow conditions were primo and no qs!!! You need to save some leave days for mid week riding Freshie instead of using all your leave to OE trips.
yeah will prob do next year. Gonna try and get a couple of mid weeker in next month and hpefully a couple of decent weekends.
Still ive got february to organise something in so all is not lost
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*edited 29 Sep 2011 15:01
Snow might be gone by February mate
If your planning on doing a midweek mish let me know and I'll see if I can meet you there.
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*** Blinding Night ***
@ oldscool........not west this one is hiding out east,,,rumour that turoa is open until 7 november....
I emailed RAL to voice my support for an extended season, got this response.
Originally posted by: RAL
I have forwarded your email to our Customer Service manager. They are currently reviewing whether the season will extend, this depends on weather and snow conditions throughout this month.
Could be quite likely.
Excellent!
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*** Blinding Night ***
Groundhog day...in a good way
Must be staff skiing on the RG this evening. Look like they are having fun.
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reine de l'hiver
I wonder if the relocation of the high flyer has anything to do with them delaying any announcements on extended season.
Relocating a chair will take just about as long as building a new one and they still have to remove the towers which are right in the middle of the skifield.
Originally posted by: Blunt
*edited 29 Sep 2011 15:01
Snow might be gone by February mate
If your planning on doing a midweek mish let me know and I'll see if I can meet you there.
im sure..but i have an air ticket to the uk and 3 weeks to find some euro snow in.
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i might head down for the day on saturday..forecast seems to have changed.
For sure blunt..will contact u when i take a midweeker off
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whats the consensus on weather for saturday?
snowforecast has fine with moderate winds
met has fine going cloudy with fresh winds
snowco has cloudy/rain with high winds
ral has sun/cloudy
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Just go. I'm predicting it will be mostly fine with passing cloud and moderate winds. Shouldnt stop anything from opening, and will be quite a warm day.
Btw, snowforecast and snowco forecasts are automatically generated from software models, they only really are valid for the wind. RAL is usually most reliable when it comes to predicting whether it will be cloudy or clear. Metservice tends to overestimate how low freezing levels will be, but is usually pretty accurate with the wind. (this is just from my observations)
But given how variable the weather is at this time of year, its best not to trust forecasts entirely.
And for what its worth im going tomorrow regardless. Has been too long since my last visit..
Looks like today could be the last mid-week day of the season with holidays beconning at the end of next week while next week looks set to be total crap.
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
With all the weather reports it also pays to look at what time they were updated.
Metservice typically update anything more than 24 hours every 24 hours or so. Snow-Forecast I think do every 12 hours, and as for RAL they don't publish when they update.
Metservice have a lot of good things on their page, their Thursday afternoon weekend update with Dan Corbett, the 3 day fly-by, the wind and rain/snow charts.
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IT Hack & Genuine NutJob
tis the beginning of the end, sort of. Still a few weeks to go before we move out of the Kune house, then extended spring riding 2 weeks after that til November the 6th. Sucks to be able to count the potential last riding weekends on 2 hands
anyway, getting up there for another sunny day today, and hopefully tomorrow (saturday) is on too.
Anyone doing the AIRBAG today?
yeah seasons are to short, made even worse when it doesn't get going till mid july. Hoping for a few days last week oct now.
Another fabulous day.
I'm home on Sunday for a few days so you should get a big dump followed by a bluebird pow day 
Turoa open to 7 Nov
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reine de l'hiver
this has been asked before, but i cant remember where
if the wind is predicted to be 40km NE will the mountain be open?
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On Whakapapa Ski Area most of the lifts run in a North to South direction. This means a straight Southerly will blow directly down the line of most lifts which is good, and a straight Westerly will blow directly across the lift lines, which is not ideal. As a general guide we can run our lifts in Southerlies of up to 70km/h, a Southwesterly about 45km/h, and Westerly's of only 25km/h. These speeds are only guides, with wind gusts and lull periods also being taken into consideration to determine operational speeds on a daily basis.
Turoa, the lift lines run predominantly from the Southwesterly quarter. A forecast for Southwesterly winds a Turoa, generally produce very little wind. We are affected far great by wind from the Northwest through to the Southeast and can operate, as a general guide in speeds of up to 55km/h. There are many gullies that funnel the wind, increasing its strength at certain points of different chair lifts. For example, a Northwesterly wind may read 55km/h at the top of the Movenpick Chair, but reading of up to 75km/h or more are not uncommon further down the lift line.
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reine de l'hiver
You know you want to go freshie. tomorrow is looking sweet and sunday now looks like it could be ok
so Jude..what does that mean for a Northerly?
Ben..yep am 100% keen, and 70% sure im gonna go..but the wind forecast is causing me to doubt
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@ Freshie....dunno...Whaka in a northerly, Turoa in a southerly?
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reine de l'hiver
Originally posted by: Freshie
this has been asked before, but i cant remember where
if the wind is predicted to be 40km NE will the mountain be open?
for sure
5 big days straight, never enough suncream, legs are toast
not bad for a city slicker
Well it turned into a ripper day up here after all. Didnt soften until around midday, but when it did it was stunning.
Spent the morning practicing riding switch, and the avo running out west beyond the boundary. Still great cover for the returns.
fingers crossed this high sticks around until tomorrow. Going to be heading to thedark side most likely.
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IT Hack & Genuine NutJob
Blunt did you have some kids in tow, thought I had seen you. Going by your pic, but that is a bit vague aye.. haha.
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Winter is always coming!
well i went down and it was pretty awesome..amazing how much snow there is..better than peak of last few seasons.
Just by chance saw Ben, and rode with him and mates for rest of the day..my dreaded knee seemed fine..although it is a bit dodgy right now (hopefully just from driving too long and first day pains)
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@ Guru - Sorry man, missed your PM's but didn't get up there today anyways as some of us have jobs...morning to night. No time to ski.
Sweet effort, looked like it was all good all day. Forecast looks interesting for tomorrow and a bit of a can of worms. Windy as heck but warm. Any moisture will decimate!
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
sixth day of intense sunshine and top to bottom runs, might feel a bit picky tomorrow if the weather is iffy