Your weekly ski and snowboard roundup.

FIRST TRACKS

If you’d expect anyone to know about a lack of snow, it’d be someone from WA. Save for the odd dusting at Bluff Knoll, they don’t exactly have to deal too much in white goods of that variety. With that in mind, The Snow Gauge read with great interest Snowriders’ WA statistical and historical analysis of the Australian season thus far.

Two significant points arise.

1) It’s the worst start since `91 – but not in 50 years, as suggested by some media.

2) Don’t pack away your ski or board just yet.

The latter is best explained by this: “The years 1959, 1967, 1979, 1989 and 1991 were all characterised by lean starts. `67, `79 and `91, in particular, had 0 centimetres of snow on the ground between the June 27 and 30, but all went on to record maximum snow depths greater than 169cm.” Not to say it will happen, of course, but let’s wait and see.

The good news is some top-ups are expected from Thursday, with some decent drops predicted in just over a week.

In New Zealand, a slew of the Kiwi club resorts are set to open, with fantastic conditions on Saturday, including at Craigieburn, Rainbow, Mt Lyford, Hanmer Springs, Mt Olympus, Mt Dobson and Temple Basin.

TOP GEAR

Piste, on: Just like most of the Western world’s general populace, skis are getting fatter. But is wider always better? On the piste, where most people still actually ski, it ain’t really so.

Essentially, the wider the ski, the better it handles deeper and more variable conditions. On much more predictable groomed trails, a snappier set of planks is better.

“There’s such a great selection in 70-90 millimetre (under foot) range now,” says David Harrington from Harro’s Snowsports at Jindabyne.

“Beginners, in particular, will want to go a bit narrower with a reasonably soft flex, but torsionally (when twisted), strong enough so it won’t chatter.”

Harro says there’s a bevy of options in the category, but for intermediate cruisers, he is partial to the new Head Monster and Kastle LX82 or 72 (their widths underfoot). Expect to pay between around $900-$1200 for a good ski with binding in the range.

Web: www.harrosnowsports.com.au

AUSSIE FIRST

It seems odd that a country like Australia has not produced a full-length sports documentary for the cinema. But it’s arriving in October in the shape of a snapshot into the life and times of Winter Olympic gold and bronze medallist Lydia Lassila.

The Victorian, who had a baby after her Vancouver triumph, returned to the sport before the Sochi Games, where she attempted a complex jump untried by any other woman. The movie, The Will to Fly, by friend, former athlete and documentary maker Katie Bender, is much more than a sports flick, according to Lassila.

“It’s not like a sports documentary and it is not a ski movie,” she told The Snow Gauge. “It’s so much more than that. I think it is a really positive story … and it is a bit of a tear jerker, without giving too much away.” For updates on The Will to Fly – Journey Into The Mind Of A Champion, see: www.facebook.com/thewilltofly

Australia’s Lydia Lassila competes in the Ladies’ Aerials Final in the XXII Olympic Winter Games at Extreme Park in Sochi, Russia, Friday, Feb. 14, 2014. (AAP Image/Paul Miller) NO ARCHIVING

DEALING WITH IT

A sneaky one this week from the penny-pinching Snow Gauge himself. If you are looking for some cheap last-minute fares across the Tasman, it’s worth casting your eye over Gumtree and Ebay from time to time.

You do get people attempting to sell flights to places like Christchurch and Queenstown. Just watch for associated costs for name/date changes. The Snow Gauge picked up two return airfares for $550 on Gumtree a couple of years back to enjoy the ripper conditions at Mt Hutt and Porters at short notice. Sweet as!

CONDITIONS APPLY – WITH WEATHER GURU PETE `THE FROG’ TAYLOR

There’s good news on the horizon, snow lovers. The Frog is calling for some well overdue snow in the coming weeks. It looks set to start on Thursday with a 5cm or so taster, down to about 1400 metres. Then it gets interesting.

“Next week we’ll get something decent,” our favourite amphibian says. “I like the look of the following weekend. It’s cold and has some potential.”

From Saturday, July 11, The Frog is calling for up to 35cm over four days. Snow forecasters like the real estate line of “start it low and watch it go”, so there’s scope for this to be something bigger still.

And New Zealand? Just like the job the two Kiwi Super Rugby teams did on our hapless semi-finalists last week, the small islanders are giving it to us in, and on, the snow stakes. Up to another 70cm is called for in the next week. Stop reading this now and get over there. For The Frog’s updated reports, go to: www.snowatch.com.au

LAST RESORT – A LOOK AT AUSTRALASIA’S FORGOTTEN ALPINE AREAS

Manganui, NZ: If you have seen the classic Kiwi shot of the snowcapped volcano with verdant cattle fields in the foreground – then you have seen Mt Taranaki. Chances are, you probably didn’t know there was a skifield there though.

Located about 45 minutes from New Plymouth on the west coast of the North Island, this is a classic locals’ hill where the majority of punters snowboard – a bi-product of its location near the NZ surf coast. It has a respectable 420m vertical drop, three rope tows and one T-bar.

Day passes are a bargain-busting $45 for adults and there’s even some on-mountain accommodation, a rarity across the Tasman. For the particularly adventurous, there’s another 800m vertical of touring terrain above the highest lifted point.

The catches, I hear you ask? Proximity to the ocean means extraordinary variations in conditions, no ski school or equipment hire on-mountain. Then there’s the brisk half-an-hour walk in – including 15 minutes of that before you can put your belongings on a goods lift.

Web: www.skitaranaki.co.nz

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