Dud of a Snow Season

Mt Hotham 8.7.2019 - 

One third of the Australian snow season is almost over and so far 2019 has been a dud. Currently Mt Buller is sitting on a rock-solid 0 cm of natural snow cover while Mt Hotham has sad 13 cm.  The snow-makers are going great guns but unfortunately this does nothing for the backcountry. Statistically similar seasons have never recovered and only touched the long-term average snow-depth but that's about it.
Currently it's possible to get to Vallejo Gantner by mountain-bike which is great if you're not a snow lover (go away!).

Dud-Snow-Seasons - Mt Hotham 1997 - 2019

Natural Snow Depths in cm

I've plotted the past culprits 1997 - 1999, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2013 & 2015 and you can see it doesn't look too promising. Although the Grasshopper forecasts a dump for Thursday, don't be surprised if this season is will end up as a write-off. You'll see 2019 in the bright pink line is not progressing in the right direction. In fact it is on the best way to hit all time lows of 2006. Hopefully the predicted Thursday 's storm will smooth the pain a little bit. 

Given there isn't a point in hanging around, we'll nick off to Europe for some mountaineering. Hopefully the situation looks better when we're back in August. Keep your fingers crossed 

... and maybe this season is beating the odds and develops into a powder-fest during the 2nd half 

Cheers 

Philipp