South Island Ski Season opens this weekend

[SunSurfer]

Major dump of snow over the last 24hrs means Mt Hutt in Canterbury will be open for the 2012 Southern hemisphere season this weekend. Other South Island fields weren't quite so fortunate and the North Island fields pretty much missed out entirely.I'm hanging out for the second half of August when the snow cover should reliably be good and I have a week off. Sunsurfer

[kieran]

Nice. much envy.

[SunSurfer]

http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Train-p...5/Default.aspx

Even the trains got to carve up the fresh pow!
Reminds me of being in the UK in Dec 2010 and the trains there stopping for more than just a few cm of snow on the tracks!

SunSurfer

[kieran]

http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Train-p...5/Default.aspx

Even the trains got to carve up the fresh pow!
Reminds me of being in the UK in Dec 2010 and the trains there stopping for more than just a few cm of snow on the tracks!

SunSurfer

yeah it's pathetic. my local hill has a raised funicular as its central uplift, and even they 'struggle' to keep it running when there's fresh snowfall.

[leeho730]

Ha!

But in reality Mt Hutt had really lean season last year whereas club fields had better covers. Better not to hold one's breath yet. I believe craigeburn had over 1m dump. Well, I practically live next to mt Hutt but I cannot ski until July.... Bugger.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Very cool to hear about the fresh snow in NZ!!! I love New Zealand!!! Keep the reports coming!!

Nut Crackers Rule!!!

Those are some heavy duty groomers. I love the face shots!!! I wouldn't want to meet up with one on the combined train/auto bridges though!!! They were scary enough when it was dry.

[Michelle]

Ha!

But in reality Mt Hutt had really lean season last year whereas club fields had better covers. Better not to hold one's breath yet. I believe craigeburn had over 1m dump. Well, I practically live next to mt Hutt but I cannot ski until July.... Bugger.

I also love NZ, and spent 6 weeks in Methven (yikes almost 20 yrs ago....). What a great little town! Enjoy the snow!

[LeeW]

Yeah, some guy in Vail Cat Crew posted photos of Mt Hutt with the insane amount of snow whilst doing snowmaking. it's awesome.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Yeah, some guy in Vail Cat Crew posted photos of Mt Hutt with the insane amount of snow whilst doing snowmaking. it's awesome.

Hey Lee, do we get to see them too??

[LeeW]

Lemme see if I get 'em.

Ok, here you go:

[LeeW]

[kieran]

atmospheric pics.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

SWEET! Ok, I think I have found my next summer job!!

Night shift groomer, South Island NZ , get the pow in the am and live in a cave. Dude!! Thanks for the photos.

Although I was hoping they were FACE SHOTS on the machine in bottomless. These are so very cool.