Bushwalk Australia

Hi,

I noticed this online snow gauge on the Main Range for Spencers Creek. The gauge is near Spencers Creek (no surprises there) on the Kosciusko Road about halfway between Kosi and Perisher. There appears to be somewhat more snow currently than for some time in the past - 1.5m vs zero for most years. I'm not sure how good a predictor it is of snow elsewhere, but it's at about 1700m, so there's a lot of south facing country at or above that level. Also, a quick look at previous years shows that it usually takes about 1.5 to 2 months for that much snow to melt, so I think it might not have fully transitioned from white to green for quite a while. Might still be a bit white and crunchy when I go through on the AAWT about the end of November and early starters south bound, even more so!

http://www.snowyhydro.com.au/waterenvir ... alculator/

This view from the Perisher website is also pretty white for this time of the year.

https://www.perisher.com.au/reports-cams/cams#Xcowt

The snow is certainly hanging in there this year. If you look at Selwyn Resort about 1,600 metres, similarly at Smiggins there is no snow at all. I expect the current snow line around Kosciuszko the snow should be about 1,700m. I expect that at the moment you should be able to walk through to Schlink without difficulty along the fire trails. I am walking in to Jagungal on Monday/Tuesday and will report back. I expect by the time I hit the Main Range in mid November it shouldn't be a problem.

The Guthega camera is quite useful as well (on the Perisher site). The Thredbo cams can give you a bit of an idea on the east and SE facing slopes.

If you compare a monster snow year like 1965 to this year you will see that there was twice as much snow at this point in time in 1965 and it had gone by 1 December.

Here's a nice trip report from a fellow who's just been out to Jagungal by bike. Definitely still some snow there.

https://huckanddyno.wordpress.com/2016/ ... bike-tour/

Ok, following up on my post last year, it was pretty big - there was about a kilometre of walking on snow at the end of November 2016 on the Main Range when I walked through, but this year, it may be even bigger - very interesting comparison graph for the Spencers Creek snow gauge. May be worthwhile carrying microspikes and snow baskets for walking poles for that stage, especially as some of the snow was very steep - kicking steps. If you are making an early start, the snow may influence your start date.

http://www.snowyhydro.com.au/our-energy ... alculator/

Edit: Interesting article on a similar problem in the USA.

https://nunatakusa.com/Nunatak%20News/2 ... packe.html

The snow line around BHP is currently 1100m but will recede this week to about 1200 or 1300m. Main Range will be covered for a while given another system is due next week which will likely have more impact on NSW alpine areas. At 1300m on a north slope yesterday we we in 2 foot of snow. The southern aspects are deeper and will take longer to clear. I could see Main Ranger yesterday and it was covered pretty well down. Epic season.