HOTHAM 2010 - Live From the Mountain
Warm again today and brilliant sunshine with just a hint of a breeze.
SUMMIT OPENS TODAY
This should take some pressure off Big D for beginners and ski school
With all of this week so far pretty much with the same sunny, light breeze conditions there is not anything new to post.
We had a 2cm dusting of very light dry snow on Monday night which was nice to see on the windscreen in the morning.
It is off to Harry the Snowdragon’s Birthday Bash at Big D this afternoon for me.
After that there is Fireworks and Night Skiing - which I have never done before, so I might as well give it a few turns.
I am really waiting for the School Holidays to be over with and hopefully some new snow to arrive before venturing out onto the slopes again.
They are not opening Heavenly Valley until 8:30am instead of the 7:30am Wednesdy to Sunday starts - need some new snow for the early openers to commence
WEDNESDAY 7TH JULY - HARRY’S BIRTHDAY & NIGHT BOARDING
It was Harry the Snowdragon’s birthday today and DP and Hotham were abuzz with blue dragon tails, dragon helmet heads and dragon wings.
Headed up just after the birthday cake was cut and “Happy Birthday” was sung by what looked like one million kids.
Nephew and niece joined in the festivities.
still time for one more ski before the lift closed at 5pm:
We retired for a couple of quick ones at The Genny before the Fireworks started at 6:15pm:
Strapped on the board and decided I’d give the night boarding a bit of a go.
There were soooooo many people the lift queues were ginormous!
Harry the Snowdragon also jumped on his board for a few turns down Big D with the kids.
No goggles required:
Harry was kind enough to let us have a group shot:
Just a quick pic of us in the DP Onsen - every day after Ski School the kids wanted to do this:
Quick report, nice sunny, not as busy as last few days(thankfully)
Well overdue for some more snow, finge rs crossed it comes soon.
Keep an eye out for my friend Yennie, She is up there by herself atm and just been hangin at the swindlers boxes most the day. If you see her say brad said hi 
SATURDAY 10TH JULY:
First day back on snow since the night boarding on Wednesday.
Not a great day to pick, but at least as Tambazz says the crowds have mysteriously disappeared.
Unfortunately the wind was blowing a gale all day and was at gale force at about 2:30 onwards.
Visibility is minimal - unless down the bottom of the gully.
Stared to rain about 3:30 and as I type an hour later it (along with the gale force wind) does not look like it will stop for a while.
This of course is a bad combination - lets hope taht too much damage is not done.
it would be great if the temps dropped a few degrees - currently its about 2 degrees - and it would be nice white stuff falling from the sky.
Few snaps from the hill today:
Snake Gully…...no crowds:
Slalom Gully…....no crowds:
Snake Gully Hut…....... :
No queues at Heavenly Valley Chair:
Looking pretty sad out there now, all the lifts shut at 4:30, pouring rain now :-(
Just started to rain and snow a little, but it is a little icy rather than anything else.
Hopefully the temps can drop a little and if this moisture keeps up all day it could go a little way to repairing yesterday/last night’s damage.
My deck at Dinner Plain is starting to turn from a brown decking colour to an icy, snowy white colour.
Lets see if anything accumulates
Had turned to nice white flakes up top at 2:30 when we were rolling out, I’ll get some pics up later from today.
MONDAY 12TH JULY:
There was a reported 2cms over night (most of it would have fallen yesterday afternoon).
Getting up the hill this morning at about 9am it was already about 2 or 3 degrees.
Had a coffee at Zirkys and headed out for our first run down Basin, Slalom Gully and down the trails to Village Chair.
It was BUSY!!!!!!!!
Apparently 30 bus loads of Uni Students had arrived!
It was warm and Slalon Gully looked and performed really really nicely, but I could only manage two loops as it was just too dangerous for me on the trails especially with that many people.
I was only out there for an hour or so - headed back in at about 11:30am for an early lunch at the White room.
Some pics from around the mountain today:
Cover under Village Chair all gone:
Basin looking a bit patchy:
bottom of Village Chair looking towards Snake Gully:
Chopper Ride Anyone:
Summit Trainer very Busy with all the lessons:
I really hope we get the reported 20 - 40cms on Wednesday cos it is badly needed.
Snowmaking is still on standby and they desperately need more cover on the runs and also need to get more runs open to disperse the crowds a little.
The firece winds and heavy rain have hit - started a couple of hours ago here at Dinner Plain
Temps up at Hotham are still reading well over 0 according to the BOM and at 5pm we have had about 5mm of rain
I really hope the temps drop soon
Hopefully I get to wake up to some white stuff tomorrow morning and that the man made base has not been destroyed before that.
Snow conditions should be great by Thursday! Looks like it will all be snow after tonight, with lots of precipitation on the way. 
Wow! Those pics of under village look like late Sept!
Keep up the pics Bdenny! It’s good to have someone on the hill providing photo updates!
The fierce winds and driving rain kept up all night last night until the temps finally dropped enough during the early morning to turn the clear stuff into white stuff.
I woke up this morning to about 3 cms or so of wettish snow surrounding me here at Dinner Plain.
It is a welcomed sight as all the snow had gone.
It has started to snow a little heavier now and hopefully by lunchtime we will have a further 5cms.
By morning it would be great to see that 40cms of predicted snow covering DP and the slopes at Mount Hotham.
I will try to get out tomorrow morning to take some pics….if not it will be Friday morning when I get out on the slopes
Come on baby!!!! Keep snowing!!!!!!