Australia and NZ 2024

Tony Crocker said:
Cape Town mtns are not max quite 7,000 feet and thus are skiable once in a blue moon. Thus strictly earned turns.
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I’ve been checking roughly for the last decade. Ropetow installation, but I agree, you don’t plan a trip around it. I think skiing in Hawaii might be easier.
ChrisC said:
Doubtful. He will be at a Midnight Oil concert in Sydney, skiing on White Ribbons of Death in Australia between the Eucalyptus. :D :)
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Never skied WROD in Australia. ;)

Combining a great Oz snow year, 2 shows including last concert ever of the Oils in their hometown = Epic.
Longest MO and last show ever. 3:45 with 40 songs off 15 albums.

www.setlist.fm

Midnight Oil Setlist at Hordern Pavilion, Sydney

Get the Midnight Oil Setlist of the concert at Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia on October 3, 2022 from the One For The Road Tour and other Midnight Oil Setlists for free on setlist.fm!
www.setlist.fm www.setlist.fm

I don’t think 2022 was a good year in SA, especially in late Sep/early Oct.

For the record, my South Hemisphere experiences isn’t bad. Andes 5 times (14 areas) Oz/NZ 3 times (13 areas),and Africa 0.
 
Midnight Oil discussion is moved here.

There is no question Patrick's 2022 trip was September/October instead of August/September because of Midnight Oil.

Patrick was very lucky both Australia trips for skiing. Spencer's Creek snow depths since 1954:
Aug 31: average 174cm, 26% of seasons over 200cm, over 210cm during all of Patrick's 2018 trip.
Sept. 28: average 149cm, 20% of seasons over 200cm, 190cm during Patrick's 2022 trip.

My opinion of Oz as a destination for skiing has not changed. By James' definition they are third tier Northeast areas for snow reliability and second tier at best for terrain quality. Australia skiing is also very expensive by international standards and I suspect weekends should be avoided like the plague. Furthermore, if the skiing sucks, Australia's best winter attractions are thousands of miles away: Great Barrier Reef, Red Centre, Top End.

NZ is no paragon of reliability either, about like second tier Northeast but terrain quality is potentially much higher. I say potentially because during both of my Mt. Hutt visits in 1982 and 2010 all of its advanced terrain was closed for icy conditions. But NZ is compact and it's easy to divert to non-ski activities when weather is uncooperative.
 
Tony Crocker said:
There is no question Patrick's 2022 trip was September/October instead of August/September because of Midnight Oil.
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Yes and No.
I believe I could have made a rescheduled MO show in Christchurch NZ and combine Aug/Sep. However NZ measures were still important in 2022, and if you became Covid positive in the day travel to NZ, but would be forced to quarantine.
I also had concert tickets for Bauhaus in Toronto and NYC on the 1st week of September - which the rest of the tour was canceled after the last show in Europe in late August due to health issues. This was the 3rd time that the NYC was canceled in the Bauhaus reunion; lucky I decided to go see them at Cruel World Festival in Pasadena in May 2022.
Tony Crocker said:
Patrick was very lucky both Australia trips for skiing. Spencer's Creek snow depths since 1954:
Aug 31: average 174cm, 26% of seasons over 200cm, over 210cm during all of Patrick's 2018 trip.
Sept. 28: average 149cm, 20% of seasons over 200cm, 190cm during Patrick's 2022 trip.
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In 2022, I had already done my Sept turns in Alberta. The plane tickets for both Oz trips were made only 3 weeks prior, so the season was well underway, so it was much less of a gamble.
 
Meanwhile a feral cat-killing competition in NZ.

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Fascinating to see how they appear to be evolving in the AU outback. Scroll down this forum thread -- look at the size of some of them!
carnivora.net

Carnivora-Feral Cats in the Australian outback are evolving into a new Wildcat.

In the Australian outback, the descendants of European ship cats have reverted to their wild ancestral condition and evolved to become a unique predat
carnivora.net carnivora.net
 
jamesdeluxe said:
Meanwhile a feral cat-killing competition in NZ.

View attachment 41968


Fascinating to see how they appear to be evolving in the AU outback. Scroll down this forum thread -- look at the size of some of them!
carnivora.net

Carnivora-Feral Cats in the Australian outback are evolving into a new Wildcat.

In the Australian outback, the descendants of European ship cats have reverted to their wild ancestral condition and evolved to become a unique predat
carnivora.net carnivora.net
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i listened to a podcast about theses beasts...yep they all need to go
 
We fly out of Cape Town very early Sunday morning, then drive 4 hours from Johannesburg to Fouriesburg. Afriski next Monday is about 1.5 hours from Fouriesburg.
 
Sbooker said:
The Euro, GFS and Access models all agree on snow for the South Island of NZ over the next ten days.
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Yes but modest amounts. 30-50cm base at Treble Cone strikes me as very low tide. Mt. Hutt is the only reported base over 100cm and even there the range is 59-144cm. Mt. Hutt also has the highest 5-day new snow prediction at 16 inches.

windy.com was the website I used in Mexico in April for cloud predictions.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
Yes but modest amounts. 30-50cm base at Treble Cone strikes me as very low tide. Mt. Hutt is the only reported base over 100cm and even there the range is 59-144cm. Mt. Hutt also has the highest 5-day new snow prediction at 16 inches.

windy.com was the website I used in Mexico in April for cloud predictions.
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I'm there in a month. Flying into Queenstown. If it doesn't look like the skiing will be half decent I won't take skis (even though we have a Mountain Collective pass) and we'll drive the west coast to check the glaciers. Or hike around Wanaka etc.
Hospitality in the region is hurting apparently. The lodging bookings are well down and restaurant numbers are down too. This has been a common theme all year apparently as Aussie households are struggling financially.
Some of the heli operators have been offering big discounts. I've seen some recent pics of heli days just after the last snowfall that looked good. If there looks to be a base and the forecast is ok just before I leave I'll take skis and I'll treat myself to my first heli day.
 
Tony Crocker said:
If you're doing heli, you better rent fat skis. In 2006 one customer did not and was having trouble, so the guide parked him on a glacier for 3 runs that the rest of us skied.

Based on what conditions are now, Mt. Hutt might be worthwhile even if the Southern Lakes areas are not.,
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I have new 102mm skis that I’ve not driven yet. I bought them so I could attach some Shift bindings for some planned guiding in Europe next March. I’ll take them to US/Canada in January to get used to them I suppose.
A risk taking untried skis on a maiden heli day? Ideally I’ll have a resort day on them in the lead up.
 
Sbooker said:
Ideally I’ll have a resort day on them in the lead up.
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Yes that would be a good idea. 102 underfoot providing you have a wide tip with rocker is probably adequate for powder. That said NZ is a coastal snowpack with possible wind effect, which may call for the most forgiving powder ski you can get.

The operator you want is Harris Mt. Heli, as their tenure covers multiple areas stretching from well north of Wanaka to closer to Queenstown.
 
Tony Crocker said:
Yes that would be a good idea. 102 underfoot providing you have a wide tip with rocker is probably adequate for powder. That said NZ is a coastal snowpack with possible wind effect, which may call for the most forgiving powder ski you can get.

The operator you want is Harris Mt. Heli, as their tenure covers multiple areas stretching from well north of Wanaka to closer to Queenstown.
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I have only skied on 92mm skis previously and have done ok in powder.
New skis are Blizzard Rustler 10 and are apparently built to handle powder skiing.
 
Does not look like the best year ever. Obviously wind/weather can create a base later in the season, but natural snow has been a bit lacking.

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