Snow Business

Anyone heading to the snow this weekend??

Lucky for some! Would love to be heading down.

Am heading down tomorrow to Ohakune untill Sunday

haha lol, let the threads begin

yup heading down 4am tomorrow tlll sunday .. wooooo shred time

weather looks kinda crap sunday.. (well good cos looks like it will dump)

http://metservice.com/skifields/whakapapa
http://metservice.com/skifields/turoa

yeap heading down!

you all care way to much about the weather haha, if theres snow, you can shred, end of story.

if there's snow

It's alll about the Tuesday/Wednesday mid week boarding for me. Gonna hit it next week or the week after

there is plenty of snow.

haha, man, listen to you all.. 'oh na only if the weathers good, oh na only if theres new snow'

is it white? Yes?

is it slippery? Yes?

then you can shred it, and if you can't shred it, theres plenty of rocks you can jib!

There be plenty of rocks I'll five you that

I think there's a reasonable cover now. Still heaps more on Turoa side though

130cm Turoa
83cm Whakapapa

last time i was there it was glorified ice skating off piste, was ok on piste.. but fuck riding on piste on weekends with kids everywhere.. would just rather save the cash and ride hard in a few weeks when im down there on holiday.. riding ice and in white outs isnt really my thing

Next weekend, the weekend after that and again in Sept ^_^ YEY SNOW!

With snow forecast for Sun-Tues Wednesday looks like it'll be MEAN!

Lol sucha you response

Friday was epic .. bluebird , no wind and no ques , sat was ok weather packed in and started to snow about mid arvo .. today 5cm of freshies we got first chair up it started dumping snow about lunchtime ..

seriously though, people fuckin' do nothing but bitch and moan about the weather and the condition of the snow..

fuck it, just shred eh, end.

yea had a sick weekend.. no complaints.

Nah, fuck that. I can't be bothered getting on it unless it's gonna be good. If you want to shred on shit snow and/or in bad conditions, then good for you, but not everyone wants that ..

This off facebook this morning:

TUROA 15CM ON THE HILL !!!!
Yeah Boi and just started to snow outside the shop...

prfft. Im look out my window at Coronet Peak right now with 45cm of fresh powder. Seeyas this eve

hahaha, coronet didnt get 45cm, they are just saying they did.

just go throw down in the park when its hard..

what a load of shit that is though itchy, id rather be on the hill when the snows hard and its flat light then sitting on my arse at home or something, commitment to the cause people.

you're a cause

Did you go measure it, Tom?

actually, yes.

I'm gonna head down tomorrow I think (snowing tomorrow so not interested) and hopefully Wednesday will be off the hook with freshies everywhere ... and 3 of the TCB crew will be hitting the slopes so I'll have a bit of a challenge laid down.

apparently its clear and sunny today.

lol, seen the webcams?

na, haha, just saw some photos from today.. obviously not though?

looks pretty white

The 10cm at Whakapapa yesterday was more like 2-4cm. Wednesday should be good. Hoping to get back down next weekend.

Like I said before on nzrave you have to wonder why they'd say Whakapapa has had more snow than it has and Turoa has had less ...

Got next 2 days off, think I'll head to Ohakune later tonight or tomorrow sometime

Anyone want a lift?

I didn't see him up there with his ruler

Wasn't far off, there was a fuckload of new snow. EPIC DAY.

I think Tim and Tom were heading down at some stage

Thinking about even heading down tonight ... or maybe tomorrow morning so I can do a couple hours in the afternoon

My mates are at Porter Heights today and said the 60cm of overnight powder was insane

From a mate (about Mt Ruapehu):

Snow snow snow. If satellite report or the next week is correct, we are all gonna be swimming in snow!!

http://www.metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain&region=nzni&noofdays=7

Ha. Let's hope so. What I've been waiting for. Shredding snow rather than being shredded by rocks.

When were you last up? Looks like Turoa has a really god coverage now.

Whakapap was very rocky yesterday, rain wouldn't have helped.
Turoa is is much better shape

the pics Tom took on the weekend showed poor as coverage down low.. youre a crazy itchy!

Not too sure where Tom was, but Turoa has a really good coverage now IMO. Few rocks down low but really minimal compared to last time I was down here ...

Sounds like today was off the hook from about 11am when the High Noon opened. I rocked up at 3pm and got a good 90min in. Stayed on trail the whole time and just had a phenom time screaming down the trails at mach 10 ... slopes were almost desesrted so you could crank as fast as you wanted without worrying about bowling into anyone. Such a good afternoon.

Thinking tomorrow will be more of the same Might be a bit frosty early on, not sure if there's gonna be much snow over night.

Tom was on Turoa with me ... def poor coverage down lower mountain but looks like its a bit better now after the latest snow .. heading back down sat am with _kat_

Like I said, since I last came down round mid July it's heaps better.

Such a mean time today! Massive wide open runs, just about no one around. Just kept hitting the 6 and had such a good day! Stoked I came down this week. So fucken mean!

I also worked out that I'm not actually that interested at all in learning/doing tricks. My buzz is al about just flying down the slopes, and carving up the snow. That's where I'm at right now ... just love it!!

itchy: did you get any riding in while you were in Japan- specifically up in Hokkaido but given you were based in tokyo possibly Nagano?

turning corner is for dicks, it's all about jibbing.. fact.

LOLL Tom .. but totaly .. the more you can do the more fun it is

na itchy is way too cool for that.

too cool for snowboarding full stop I think

Didn't go far North to Hokkaido, but did board Nagano, Nigata and Mt Zhou Sendai

Soooooooooooooooooooo good!

What a mean 2 days, still buzzing! Gotta hit it mid week, it's fucken primo.

you can kiss this North Island season goodbye - webcams say it all

going down for a week tomorrow.. warm rain = not good :/ oh well, hope it cools down tonight and dumps hard.

re; boarding in Hokkaido: Amazing, best snow ive ever ridden, was based in Niseko for 3 months at the start of the year

Where did you spend your time riding?
Did two seasons and was a big fan of Rusutsu, also spent a few days at Teine as was close to Sapporo.
Only did a few days elsewhere: Grand Hirafu, Annupuri and Higashiyama.
Agree on the best pow, back for a few days this january

I'm hoping it'll be good next weekend ... was gonna cruise down with some chick I'm casually seeing. Dirty weekend and boarding/skiing ON!

oh hey, its itchy posting about his sex life and ohakune for a change..

RabingMad: was working as a photographer based at Grand Hirafu, so did most of my riding there, and at Hanazono and Annupuri.
Also did a day mish to Moiwa, and Rusutsu.. Rusutsu was awesome!!! (so was everywhere else though) but yeah both Moiwa and Rusutsu were like ghost towns!!

well went up Turoa today and it is bare !!
so much snow got washed away with rain in the last few days .. dont think ill bother heading back down unless they get a decent dumping soon .. dud season !

Only posted about Japan/Ohakune/exes etc cause people on there were stupid enough to bite every time. Go pull up my posts on biggie over the last 10 years ... not so much of that carry on here you might notice.

yeah sounding pretty grim.. meant to be decent dump wed/thurs.. think ill just have a play on the rails and stuff and maybe try a bit of park if its open.. got the week down here so might as well make the most of it..

Yeah, it's not sounding too flash at all .... fingers crossed for more snow later this week and no more rain ...

looks like today should be ok, despite the waterfall you can see coming down the turoa side :/

snow level meant to be dropping to 1200m wednesday, 800m thursday.. Friday looks like it may be the pick of the week before weather closes in on saturday again..

Dammit! Here was I hoping to do Sunday/Monday next week, heres hoping things chnage in the next couple of days

looking fucking grim below the parklane..
however, had an epic day riding off the 6 seater, pretty much spring conditions, theyve pushed a lot of snow around, fuck all exposed rocks, and soft slush, which ill take any day over sheet ice.

Fucken grim as in lots of rocks uncovered? Yeah, just generally it hasn't been a very cold winter at all this year ...

grim as in the only snow below the parklane is where theyve pushed manmade snow around to let people ride to the bottom, apparently only lost 20cms, id say theyve lost at least half a metre.. not too worried, still sweet up higher, and snow on the way.

Mean. Yeah, I had a great time when I was last down just riding over paST the Big Bowl .... I like the idea of going off trail but not keen to go unless I'm with people who ride there a bit and know where to cut back in etc

Yeah was looking pretty dire on the lower mountain on Sunday

Whakapapa's sweet river on Saturday afternoon after all the rain was a good one

could go rafting on whaka

shit was lush thurs afternoon/friday at Turoa.. amazing how much a small dump can change the mountain!

Heading down tomorrow morning, thank god it snowed and filled in what all that rain the other week washed away

I might look at heading down next week sometime ... ex flies in from Japan Sept 13 so we'll definititely hit it the 14th and 15th that week if it's looking good.

Ok, thinking of hitting it from next Wednesday onwards. Looks like snow this weekend, clearing by Tuesday .... don't fully trust the weather reports. What's everything thinking about this?

Too soon to tell I reckon, haven't looked at the weather satelite, snow levels are back to reasonable levels, hoping for 3 day weekend next weekend.

I can't read weather maps so just rely on the forecasts ... which is never ideal

Learn to read a weather map !! pehu is pretty npredictable tho it can be raining one minute then bluebird the next
Im heading down thursday early till sat

Learn to read a weather map !! pehu is pretty npredictable tho it can be raining one minute then bluebird the next
Im heading down thursday early till sat

its not just pehu thats like that... south island is too, the mountain environment can change from blue to blizzard in no time at all.

or just learn to ride in all conditions..

Sometimes it not the issue of being able to get down the mountain but rather up it. Generally wheneve it snows at Ruapehu it blows, leaving inconsistent conditons (where you need at least a metre base) and then they go and groom the main trails....
Despite the low price season passes I still contemplate a week down south instead.
It would be interesting to see the number of days whakapapa/turoa is closed vs south island slopes.

Yah, I think it's been a pretty bad season all things considered ... still, I reckon I'll be down there Wednesday-Monday

Conditions today are what have been in short supply of all season.

My friend in Kune said Wednesday afternoon and Thursday are both looking really good at his stage .... I'm only heading down Wednesday so I'm not suggesting it won't be good before then.

I work for Cardrona in Wanaka.. and we only usually have about 4 closed days a season.

Ruapehu closes for things like low vis, whereas down south its really ONLY for wind, and even then, all the lifts are on different angles, so if one is closed, generally another is open.

Also, the road RARELY closes, as it is a gravel road it doesnt freeze up like the tarmac up north, and it is constantly groomed from top to bottom.

I think the only mountain to compare down south would be Mt Hutt

Stegel my mate who runs the Projection Room in Thames Street was on B Fm yesterday saying that Tuesday doesn't look good but Wenesday/Thursday should be the business Turoa side.

So, I've had 3 different locals says those days are looking mean ... looks like it'll be ONNNN

glad I didnt bother going down tthursday !!

Heres hoping the wind dies down so we can actually enjoy the fresh conditions this weekend

True that! Wednsday was great. Mountain closed Thursday/Friday on Turoa. Guess it does show that the wather can change super quick

Fuuuuuuuuck! Gutted. On Friday the weekend looked like a right off so we bailed back to Auckland ... and it sounds liike the weeekend was mean! Stink

at Nat. Park at the moment, its pissing down... hope to get a day in tomorrow (both sides closed today)
got my mate here from melbourne who flies home wednesday, would really suck if its closed tomorrow.. might head off to turangi hot pools i think

at Nat. Park at the moment, its pissing down... hope to get a day in tomorrow (both sides closed today)
got my mate here from melbourne who flies home wednesday, would really suck if its closed tomorrow.. might head off to turangi hot pools i think

The weekend was great, spent both days at Turoa (sounded pretty windy at Whakapapa). I ended up leaving later Sat am as didn't expect to be able to get up the mountain first thing, was surprised to see snow in Raurimu. Took like an hour to get up mountain road (was open just massive queues) but eventually got some good riding in.
Didn't open High noon until around 1:30-2pm though and queues were crazy.
Sunday we opted to go back eventhough they were opening west and knoll, wind continued to pick up across the day and upper mountian closed around 2. Still got plenty of fresh runs though and overall visibility was good for majority of time. Tomorrow looks to be the pick for this week.

Really? Almost tempted to boost down and hit it. Gutted we bailed Friday thinking the winds would mean the mountain would be close Saturday

Snow is fucking cold.

Provided there is no wind its not really that cold when it snows as the air is quite dry, you can quite comfortably walk around while its snowing versus when its raining.
I don't know whether there'll be any fresh snow tomorrow but sun and lack of wind are the positives for tomorrow.

no freshies left, just slush... got hammered by rain all day monday, yesterday the snow was just like super slushed out spring snow.. wasnt too bad, just slow and wet.. good conditions to work on a few tricks that needed attention

I wonder what's gonna happen over next few weeks. It's definitly Spring up in 09. Been outside in a t shirt all day

might head down tomorrow

snow was really good yesterday, was out west at whaka till about 2pm when the weather closed in and it started snowing, quiet as and mint snow, surprisingly good day

is there a decent amount of snow out west ? haven't managed to head over that side yet ..

yeah its decent eh.. still rocks around but easy enough to avoid them, and as always, a shit load better than the other side of whaka. Plus now its not bulletproof ice so the snow is soft enough to ride everwhere and there are a few random kickers as well.. probably one of the better days of the season for me on saturday

Be interesting to see what the snows doing in a few weeks when I'm down for school holidays ... hopefully will get a couple more half decent days in while I'm down.