Mon. 6.6.11 I just received this small pic from Deb who is up at Oldina at present.
Mon. 6.6.11 There seems to be an issue with the new woodheater. Various people report that it's not burning very well - that is, not very hot. I had a look at it when I was up there the weekend before last, for the STSA working bee. The issue seems to be the amount of air introduced to the heater which in turn directly effects how hard it burns - i.e. less air = low burn, more air = high burn. It looked like it wasn't getting enough air to me and looking at the adjustment lever, it seemed like there was another 5mm of travel available in the slot when you push it to the right (high). It could be that this mechanism just wasn't assembled correctly out of the factory. I got up on the roof and checked for blockages in the flue, but that all seemed fine. At the last meeting, Deb agreed to call the manufacturer and report back to us. We could take the top off the heater when it's cold and investigate the mechanism that controls airflow to see if we can determine if this is the problem or not. It could be something that we could adjust ourselves without to much hassle, but we won't know until we have a good look.
Mon. 20.9.10 - Misch and I went up on Saturday, it was blowing a gale. Couldn't ski (broken rope). Sunday was awful, still blowing a gale and now drizzling to make matters worse. Good big crew up there on the ski field however! We went and had a look but decided to pull the plug as the conditions were so awful. Nevertheless, we spent a pleasant weekend with the Davis's chatting, planning and drooling over a skiing in Japan book that Misch found on the net and had shipped down. It's a particularly well written, organised, comprehensive and independent resource. If anyone is interested, call in and have a look and we can give you the order details.
Dennis called in on his way Sunday on his way to and from a quick cross country ski, nice to catch up with him.
Looking ahead, we're rostered on for this weekend (shudder!) and the forecast is atrocious. Rain on Friday into Saturday and no real chance of it turning to snow at this point in time. Still a week is a long time in Tassy weather forecasting. We'll see what's happening later in the week. At this stage and with the current forecast - we should just hope that the rain destroys the snow pack so we don't have to stand around in dismal conditions. But presume the worst and be prepared to do your duty comrades!
Just a reminder: please ensure that the water system is fully drained as per the instruction manual. Peter and Karen had frozen pipes to deal with on Friday evening.
Also a warning, the water tastes really rank from creosote at the moment. We melted snow to use for hot and cold drinks as no one could stomach it.
Fri. 27.8.10 - It's looking very good folks! The cam has updated this morning and I can see that the pulley on pole 2 is only 30cm's off the snow. That's at 30cm + more snow in that spot compared to last weekend. Looking further up the slope I can see a much denser and more extensive cover as well, could even be in for some off-piste freshies! The forecast for the weekend is pretty clear, so I think we're in for a classic weekend's skiing.
24.8.10 - 4.00pm-ish and the next front has hit. Mt Wello temp has just slipped under freezing. All the models are lining up for some reasonable snowfalls. Then the next pulse on Thursday has a decent amount of precipitation too with some very cold air and falls down to 400m.
24.8.10 No doubt you've seen a few emails flying around for bookings for this weekend and beyond. I'm consolidating them all on the calendar, so check here.
22.8.10 A big thanks to everyone who came up to help get the tows going over the weekend: Mischi and Bishwa, Hubert, Andrew B, Andrew K, Mark, Murray, Deb, Eve and Kay (and Karen too!).
After the hiccup with the ski patrol on Saturday Liz Koolhof and Pam Mason fronted for Sunday, and we made over a thousand dollars for STSA. It took quite a while to dig the Mawson tow out (on both Saturday and Sunday!) but conditions proved good for skiing on Sunday – relatively cold and good snow. (and rain showers in the arvo - ed.)
Hubert again showed great leadership by getting up to Oldina in the deep snow on Friday (just before the road was closed) and had to navigate three fallen trees and 18” of snow on the jeep trail to get there. Almost everyone had a ski on Sunday too, just to make sure our legs still worked.
So again a big thankyou – it is this great club spirit and positive approach that keeps skiing alive in Southern Tasmania. Should be good next weekend too – with more snow forecast during the week.
Finally I attach a photo of a little friend we found in our drink bottle this morning – in the pantry! So be conscious of leaving accessible food in the kitchen and panty until we can be sure we have blocked up any small access holes.
Cheers
Peter
b.t.w. Tow button attendant award for this year goes to Murray! Only just pipped at the post for 'best furry animal' award by the Pygmy Possum.
20.8.10 evening: Looking good snow dogs! Hubert reports that as of 3pm the tow was just runnable. Given that it's been bogging down since and forecast to continue overnight, the outlook is very promising. We're definitely heading up first thing in the morning with the intention of running. I'm awaiting contact and confirmation from a patroller still. I'll do a call around tonight too. The road is closed and will be till it's cleared tomorrow - morning, early hopefully, but there's always the possibility that it'll take them longer to get to it with any other roads receiving priority.
As I mentioned, i'll tweet updates to the tweetboard tomorrow. So you can check on things there.
20.8.10 I just heard from Nancy that Hubert is enroute to Oldina, should be up there around midday I suppose. I'll give him a call around 1pm and get a first hand report. If you can resist calling him yourselves (around that time) it would be handy, so that I can get through. Once I have that report, I'll post it here and send out an email to everyone. Misch and I have decided to go up on Saturday morning either way to have a weekend in the snow. At the least we'll be able to go snow shoeing.
I'll also be posting a snow report on Saturday on the twitter link on the left of the screen. Just click on it and it'll slide open.
Also, if you look, the webcam pic on the right has updated.
This current weather system is looking good and active, fingers crossed for enough snowfall to get the tow rolling!
18.8.10 Has the switch flicked? that is the question on everyones lips...There's more snow forecast through to Saturday, with a possible big dump next week.
From Kay: George went up the mountain yesterday. The phone from the Ski Patrol Room was not working, so it seems the fault is with the Telstra phone out. George started the Sitzmark generator and plugged in the Telstra panel, and with the panel and its batteries being charged the phone worked OK. George left the generator running for a couple of hours to charge the Telstra batteries as much as possible. So far today the snowcam has not updated, but we are not sure at what time it should update. George said that he walked up the Jeep Track in ankle deep snow, but it was only the same depth on the slopes as well with no significant drift.
I'm proceeding with plans to run the tow this weekend (21-22 aug) based on the assumption that we'll get enough by Saturday to make it worthwhile (insert buckets of optimism here).
Shots below taken by George on Tuesday 17.8.10
15.7.10 As usual, just when I start to wonder if we have any chance of getting a ski season at all, along comes a cold snap and things start to look promising again. As of this morning the the thumbnail mawson cam pic to the right hasn't updated (something flakey on their end I think). However clicking on it does launch the latest shot from this morning, which I've copied in below. Not bad eh? and the next system rolling off Antarctica is looking pretty serious too at this stage. If it sends another dump our way too, then I think we may have a ski season!
4.7.10
Last weekend was our Ozmas celebration. Thirty two bods squeezed into Oldina for Saturday evening's meal. The hut was bursting at the seams with people, yummy food and celebration. My favorite-the ricotta cake, yum! My apologies, I'm a little late getting some photo's up, I've been flat out this week painting the ceiling and walls and sanding floorboards in our new studio, should be moving in later this week-yay!
Not all of my photos worked out, so I haven't got everyone here, sorry! Please email me any of your pics that you took and I'll add them to these. Click on the image below to launch the viewer.
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Do You Tweet??
Click on the "tweets" tab over there on the far left of the page. You can publish your tweet to this mini tweet board if you wish. Join Twitter - come back to this page and click on the "tweets" tab - click on the 'sign in with twitter' button and tweet to your hearts content. Or if you want to continue a particular message thread, click on the 'reply' link.
I've installed an app on my iphone that allows me to send a text from say Mt Mawson and it'll appear as a post under the "tweats" tab. Remember to check it, if you know I'm up there, and you're looking for a snow / conditions report.
Hint: Refresh your browser page too, just to make sure you have the latest version of the page each time you look up Oldina.info
22.6.10
I emailed Pete Taylor regarding a possible season forecast for Tasmania. Unfortunately his focus is purely on mainland resorts "I don't really follow the Tassie weather much and as such wouldn't really like to guess anything as it would be uneducated as I don't know the climate or terrain". So we'll just have to wait and see won't we!
15.6.01 Mark's Report:
Snow fell through Saturday afternoon and evening. It was good and cold on Saturday night, down around -1.8 degrees, and pretty windy. Sunday was a day of extremes - blue sky, and then white out intermingled. We skied outside the hut and down the road in the morning, The afternoon we built an igloo at the bottom of Mawson Tow, (just below the field of view of the snow cam). We placed a chunk of ice across the door of the igloo as we left, as Fin was worried some animals might make it their home, I think... (click on the photo for more)
2010 June update:
Welcome to season 2010! I'm ever the optimist when it comes to snow in Tasmania, even with Briggsy's recent prophecies of doom echoing in my ear :) (drier than average winter forecast for Tasmania). However this week we've seen a few centimeters of snow fall at Mt Mawson and my glimmer of hope has brightened.
This morning I also read this long range report by Pete Taylor. He's definitely optimistic for the season. His emphasis is mainland centric however, so I'll email him and ask him if he'd like to comment about Tasmania specifically.
Tracey and Mark and Fin are up at Oldina this weekend. It'll be interesting to hear a report and hopefully get a photo or two from them to put up here.
Misch and I were at the lodge last weekend with our friend Andy. Also there were Karen, Peter, Catherine and Matthew. We had a good time and a nice walk together on Sunday along the Lake Seal track. It was raining lightly, but not cold. Lot's of photo oportunities for Andy and I with all that saturated bark and lovely light. Poor Misch was abandoned early and it was well and truly time for lunch by the time we caught up with each other.
Andy put some of his great shots up on his flickr page so take a look.
On the subject of photos I had and opportunity to drop into Photoforce in Campbell St. to check out a bunch of Andrew Briggs' fungi prints on display in there. I'm not sure if they're still up, it's worth a look if you get the chance, they're as fantastic as ever.
2009 Sept-Dec home page (archived)
2009 Feb-Aug home page (archived)
2008 home page(archived)
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