Impressive snow accumulation up on the hill folks! Here’s a little animation of cam pics commencing Wednesday 15th August – up until this afternoon Tuesday 21st August.
Westerly to North Westerly winds have dominated over this period (blowing from the right hand side of the frame to the left). This has produced pronounced drifts running across the slope (I think we all fell off or ran into at least one of these while sliding on the weekend). We can see lots of accumulation in the foreground immediately to leeward of the snow fencing, so they’re doing their job really well. Remember the actual snow depth across the ski field is not what you see in the foreground, it’s nearly always less as the snow fence is amplifying the effect there.
Just before midday today the wind backed into a more South Westerly direction at the Scotts Peak AWS. This is good news because it means any further snow has a chance to drift a bit more in a downward direction on the slope and hopefully fill in a few of the big troughs in the existing drifts. It’s forecast to stay in a South Westerly direction until later tonight before swinging back to the north by tomorrow morning.
Oldina Ski Club is on roster to run the tows this weekend. I’m anticipating that we’ll need a good crew to dig out the rope and lift the pulleys before we can get things rolling on Saturday morning.
So if you’re up there early on Saturday, come along, bring a shovel and join in the fun!
Updated: added the Wednesday morning cam shot.
