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KiwiNewZ

I really enjoy looking at the cams in New Zealand and yours are one of the best that I have seen. So keep them on. Tina in Grantsville, MD

Kiwi Snow Reports, New Zealand

August 11, 2000 - Free and Independent

Kia Ora My ears perked the other nite when I heard our favourite TV weather man Jim use a term I hadn't heard since geography lessons in school ... fohn wind.

Eeek. I knew I didn't like the sound of it, but I knew I had to know more. Being an online kinda guy I went to my favourite online dictionary google.com and sure enough up pops a handy definition from The Probert Encyclopaedia;

"In geography, a fohn is a hot, dry, local Alpine wind produced by... ...denser valley atmosphere."

Aghast that such a thing could really exist and even more dispirited that we were in the depths of one of these beasts I quietly closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Evan " fohn off " Bloomfield

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>== This Issue

** Short Takes
** Fresh Snow Falls
** Snow Area Report update for 11 August
** Roy's Report
** Mailing List Blues
** Jae has a Snow Scooter
** Club Med for summer?
** Snowboarding Simulation
** Subscribe and unsubscribe information

>== Short Takes

Burton snowboard founder Jake Carpenter has recently visited the southern fields for some "testing". Jeeeze. Pick me. Then again he has probably earned it. He made his first Burton 23 years ago.

CHILE Portillo has a base of about 300 cm at present and is offering great skiing. There is still some availability at the famous Portillo hotel: http://www.iglu.com/summerski.htm

In Christchurch phone 366 66 44 then dial 1101 for a full menu of snow field reports - 17 actually. And it's free!

Whakapapa is still trying to buy Turoa even though the Commerce Commission has said no you can't on the grounds that it would be a monopoly on North Island fields. Hey! Wot about Tukino, Mangakino and the artificial slope at Albany?

>== Fresh Snow Falls

Last 7 days has seen quite a few fronts and associated flack shifting through. Our favourite snow forecast site has picked for over 10cm of snow to fall on Coronet Peak through Friday the 11th then freezing level to drop to 450m Saturday morning.

Might just be time to check out our "guess the next big dump" competition do you think? Those iso bars are bunching up in a nice tight little fist dragging all the cooool air up so come on everyone help out

cm	Cardrona		Coronet Peak		The Remarkables		Treble Cone		Waiorau Snow Farm
2 June	35	80	5	25	60	80	55	1m+	25
11 June			10	20		60
12 June	30		20			50		50	heaps in drifts
19 June		15		5		10
24 June		4	rain			2
2 July		dusting				4		dusting
23 July						4
24 July		dusting		2		3		2	dusting
26 July								7
27 July		30							5
28 July			5	10	20	30	10	30
31 July		3		dusting		10		5
1 August		5				10		10
11 August		20		20		30	25	45

The two columns represent, roughly, top and bottom measurements reported at about 6am for the previous 24 hours. If it is blank it is because they didn't get any snow or I never did find out how much. These figures are a combination of the early bird radio report ( sometimes ), faxed snow reports and extensive personal research :-)

Up to the contents

>== Snow Area Report as of 14 July

Treble Cone

Dry fluffy powder at the base with some wind blow on the top. Saddle T-Bar will be closed until at least lunch time for avalanche control.

One of those legendary TC snow falls. Still snowing heavily at 7am.

Treble Cone has announced a reciprocal deal with Turoa. A $20 discount on an adult day pass wil be available to season pass holders at the other field. Treble Cone also has special deals with Ohau and Porter Heights.

Coronet Peak

Masters amass as the annual race off of geriatric skiers re appears. Aged from 30 to 74 and some of the keenest skiers you will find. 5 days of ski racing ( it's the downhill this morning ), 5 nights of socialising and 150 odd competitors. What a crew.

Wednesday morning on the Peak was sublime. You know the routine by now. We are about halfway through winter so the season pass is in the right place and to the mountain fuss kept to a minimum. 9am and you are on one of the first chairs.

The survey is impressive. It's obvious the groomers had their dancing shoes on. The trails are wIDe, and smooth and empty.

Boots are buckled well before you reach the top and the first turn confirms your wildest. Smooth, attentive, forgiving. Sometimes so fast your heart is in your mouth and pulse races in the pit of your stomach. 2 hours of streaming and exploring. Cycling without stop. Recovering on the chair.

11am skis on shoulders and you are walking off the hill. Cut to ribbons and laid bare. That was the early bird.

Up to the contents

Remarkables

Big social family day last weekend with free day passes for kids under 11 and lots of havoc at the tubing park. 30cm of wind drifted new snow on the 11th. Heaps of off country happening.

The Remarkables looking distinctly white,

Aaron Jameson K2 Snowboard Challenge Halfpipe

Cardrona

20cm of new snow on the 11th and it was still bucketing down at 7am.

Dry packed powder on the upper mountain with ski and body packed powder off piste. Winter snow on a firm base on the lower mountain.

Overall winter skiing and boarding has been the situation for the last week and this is expected to continue at Cardrona with daytime temperatures topping out at no more than 2 degrees. Current snow base is between 40-100cm with 100% of trails and 85% of off-piste open.

Best snow has been Captains while the double has been turning quite a few people on. All lifts and facilities are operating. Bookings for Kid's Korral are essential.

Waiorau Snow Farm

Main trails are groomed and skiing well. Lift that heel!

Check out the brand new Waiorau Snow Cam.

Heli Skiing and Boarding

Big numbers going out the back in August. Bad weather is causing a bit of chaos and conditions are "variable" as one anonymous industry source carefully put it. Still some great days and if you even think you want to then do it!

My tip? If you are a skier get the fat ones.

Up to the contents

>== Roy's Report

It's a three liner.

Mt Hutt sucked - Roy fell down the towers one year and had to be helivaced to Christchurch

Treble Cone was pretty good - gun barrel was going off

Cardrona rocked - Roy discovered Captains at 2pm

It's Extreme

>== Mailing List Blues

You might be surprised that one of my biggest tasks in producing the Kiwi Snow Reports is looking after you! No bull.

See with nearly 4 000 subscribers and email addresses ( don't worry, they are very secure and not going anywhere ) all the signing up and off and changes of address and the like keep me pretty busy.

Just recently with all those email virus things many companies have installed software with cutsey little names like EmailMonitor or Mail Marshall. Now these " automated content monitoring gateway's" often burp back my Snow Reports. Not so cutsey. In the biz it's called a "bounce". And it hurts my head.

So if you are in a content monitoring environment and you aren't receiving please either tell your mail administrator that I am a friendly sending plain vanilla text ( sorry more biz terms ) with no attachments or sign up using a personal email account. If you want to sign up or off then please follow the guidelines listed at the bottom. It's all automatic that way.

So all of this list talk shouldn't deflect the issue. I dig hearing from you. Let's talk snow. If you want to say hoora or thanks or you can't seem to get signed off then please email me.

In fact I dare you to, right now.

Up to the contents

> == Jae has a Snow Scooter

From: jae13@hkg.odn.....
Subject: heliscoot

Hello. I live in Japan.

Though I can speak English a little, I will go to Newzealand to run on mountain. I have some qestion below.

Jae on his Snow Scoot

1) I want to run by snowscoot. Is that OK?
2) I will go september middle. How long can I run ?
3) I will arrive at Christchurch. How many hours does it take to go there?
4) How much will it cost to run ?
5) Do you understand my English?

Prease answer to me.

Up to the contents

>== Club Med for Summer?

Just out of curiosity I emailed away for the Club MEd Ski Brochure for the 2000 / 2001 season and you know what? I was quite surprised.

A well set out brochure with 29 resorts scattered around the world. Now that's a reasonable cover.

And reasonable prices as well. 7 nights accommodation, lift passes and 3 meals a day at Chamonix from $1300. Now I had to ring and make sure that was NZ$ but yep. For well under NZ$200 a day you can have your taste of Europe and no it doesn't include air fares.

Now that aint bad considering a lift pass alone in Chamonix must be well over NZ$100!

In New Zealand ring 0800 258 263 or in Oz 1800 258 263.

If you have a lot of time to waste and a fast connection you could enter their competition;
http://www.clubmed.co.nz/treasure.asp

Up to the contents

>== Snowboarding Simulation Software

So here is a little something from a Lockergnome newsletter for those gamers amongst you. Someone want to download it and review it for me?

<> Freeride Earth v2.0 [700k] W9x FREE http://www.cadfrance.com/users/perso/gritche/demos/Freeride_v2.zip http://www.cadfrance.com/users/perso/gritche/bienvenue.htm

{Snowboarding simulation} What does this DirectX thing do? I hardly have time for games, and when I do find the time, I always lose quickly. Are you sick of summer in the Southern Hemisphere? Would you rather be surfin' o'er the drifts of snow? S'no wonder you're down under, but you can throw on a virtual scarf and play a game that you can't lose! Fly past trees, over hills, and around rocks -- amazingly enough, you'll never fall down. Whoosh! All the examples need DirectX 6.1 or above installed on your computer. Most also require a 3D accelerated card.

>++ Outside Sports - Proud to sponsor Kiwi Snow Reports

Outside Sports, Queenstown's largest winter store.

Need new skis? Take advantage of the Outside Sports "Demo Programme". Try Before You Buy!

Our demo programme on Coronet Peak offers on mountain assistance plus the chance to test different makes and models of skis and snowboards.

To check out our demo program at Outside Sports click here.

Top of the Mall, Queenstown. Come in and say gidday.

>== In the Last Issue

24 July 2000 - Cumulative Snow Fall, Snow Area Report update for 24 July, Cams over Cardrona, BoarderZone cover the festival, Compaq 50k is unstoppable, Snow Dome in the UK, The Stockman are coming.

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