11 replies to this topic

[Bogong]

 After a year when southern hemisphere ski resorts seem to have had a run of rotten luck, including:

- Burnt Hut chair at Mt Buller (Victoria, Australia) being fried and melted by a lightning strike

- A quad at Mt Ruapehu (Nth Island, New Zealand) being pulled down by severe icing

- The main access lift, a mixed quad/gondola at Mt Buller (Victoria) suffering terminal death throes and closing 4 months after a major overhaul.

We have another disaster. After enduring 10 inches of rain in a day on a 6 foot snow base, the resort of Mt Hotham was probably the soggiest place in the world. A landslide wiped out the base station of the lift providing access between the ski village and most of the other lifts.

Hotham is the only Australian resort that mostly disregards beginners and specifically targets advanced and expert skiers. It is infamous for it's limited green and blue runs but renowned for it's range of black and dark blue runs. But without the Village chair, the whole mountain will suffer.





Village is the lift second from bottom left. Click here for a better res map. http://www.mthotham....ain/winter/map/

[egieszl]

The whole mountain will suffer? You're kidding right? Look at the trail map and you'll see the loss of this chair isn't a disaster. There is a double chair that essentially parallels this lift and the base of the Village chair is not a dead end.

Also, other online reports say the chair is fine, but the main ticket office was destroyed.

This post has been edited by egieszl: 05 September 2010 - 11:54 PM

[Bogong]

 Ahh, but the quad chair with the buried base station provides the only easy exit to the village for the four lifts on the right of the map. The double chair next to it doesn't go all the way to the valley floor and it is a long and very steep walk up a black run to it. The ski trail down Swindler's Creek valley to the chairlift at bottom left of the map is also blocked with landslide and flood debris, so that's not a viable exit route either.

The resort is now running buses to near the top of the middle lift and then skiers and boarders have to walk 100 yards. Hotham initially tried to ban photos of the location but now they are all over the internet, the resort is trying hard to play down the seriousness. But they can't deny that two lifties were buried up to their necks in mud!    

It will be at least a month before they dig it out and get engineers reports that the lift is still structurally sound and that the hill won't slide any further. The Australian ski season ends in October, so even a rush job wouldn't be finished in time. Then they have to get new Dopp electronics and controls delivered and installed, because the hut that was swept away had all that inside it.

Hotham's only disadvantage is that the town is in the middle of the ski runs rather than at the bottom like in most other ski resorts. This means the road is high above the tree line and exposed to the worst weather. It is closed by blizzards and snow drifts a few times every ski season. The town location also means that if skiers are stuck at the bottom of most lifts, they have to walk out.



^ This is the photo they tried to ban because it was taken by a lift company employee, so the lift co claimed copyright.



^ A recent photo showing how they've cleared up a lot of the debris.

This post has been edited by Bogong: 06 September 2010 - 08:16 PM

[Phalanger]

Mt Ruapehu was a 6 seater.

Horse Hill never really got going and had to do with trying to continue using an old unsupported engine system. It will be finally replaced.

I wonder if a better dam would of helped Hotham and also don't want to know what happened to the toilets just up above it. Maybe that stuff is floating around the valley a bit...

[seilbahnbilder.ch]

Quote

It will be at least a month before they dig it out and get engineers reports that the lift is still structurally sound and that the hill won't slide any further. The Australian ski season ends in October, so even a rush job wouldn't be finished in time. Then they have to get new Dopp electronics and controls delivered and installed, because the hut that was swept away had all that inside it.

And why happend this during winter? Here stuff like that usually happens in spring or summer!

[mikest2]

The Village Chair at Hotham is up and running again

Hotham’s Village Chairlift starting turning again at 11.09am this morning.

Our team have done a fantastic job to clean up the Village Chair load area following the weekend landslip and the former ticket office has been temporarily replaced with a hut for lift operators only. The chairlift (although not directly impacted by the landslip) has undergone an engineering safety assessment and has been cleared for full operations.

This will once again provide direct access to the Village for not only those coming from Heavenly Valley but the Davenport Access trail too. The upper slopes of Blue Ribbon will also reopen today from 12 noon, with access back to the Village via Davenport Access Trail.

Tickets will not be available for sale at the bottom of the village chair. Guests should ensure they have a valid lift ticket before entering the skifield.

Lift Tickets will be for sale from 7.30am at Hotham Central and 8am at Big D, Jack Frost and Hotham Sports outlets including DP Pinnacle.

Hotham currently has an average natural snowdepth of 125cm, a snowmaking base of 178cm and 12 out of 13 lifts are operating across Hotham and Dinner Plain.

The snow conditions are fantastic for Spring and it’s a great time to get good value on your next snow holiday. From 13 September, Hotham lift pass prices will move to value season which means you can ski or ride for only $80 per day (adult), $68 (youth) and $40 (child).

Image: Hotham guests enjoying the snow and sun on the Village Chair shortly after reopening this morning.

07 September 2010

[Bogong]

Wow, I love to be proved wrong!

It's a miracle that they managed to shovel and doze away the mud and get reports from engineers and find a new electronic lift control panel thingy and get it going, all in under a week.

It just shows what can be done when the need is desperate! :)

[Bogong]

seilbahnbilder.ch, on 09 September 2010 - 06:39 PM, said:

And why happend this during winter? Here stuff like that usually happens in spring or summer!

Well it is almost spring down here and a warm, wet weather front swept down from the sub tropics, a long way to our north. Not only did it have a LOT of rain (which has caused widespread flooding in the state of Victoria), but it also heated nearby towns at the base of the mountains which got maximum temperatures as high as 14 degrees ( about 56 deg in U.S. measurement). When the warm rain front got to the ski areas, the temperature was about 2 or 3 degrees (36 - 37 F), so it fell as rain, not snow. 

So the ski resorts got an unseasonal heavy rain downpour, which washed away a LOT of snow and softened the hillsides. That sort of weather happens about once every 10 years. We have a mostly damp, temperate climate in Victoria (a bit like Oregon or northern California?), but on rare occasions sub-tropical weather comes to visit us.

This post has been edited by Bogong: 11 September 2010 - 01:44 AM

[vons]

Village lift looks to be a Poma not a doppelmayr

Attached File(s)

•  hotham.jpg (71.44K)
  Number of downloads: 72

This post has been edited by vons: 11 September 2010 - 08:21 AM

[Phalanger]

vons, on 11 September 2010 - 08:20 AM, said:

Village lift looks to be a Poma not a doppelmayr

It is, but Poma in Australia does not really exist. Normally it's an external contractor who comes in, builds it and is gone. Support after that is much harder. Doppelmayr actually exists with a warehouse and all.

[mikest2]

Just got a couple of better shots of the Village chair at Hotham
 vc 004.jpg (122.24K)
Number of downloads: 95
 vc 001.jpg (201.01K)
Number of downloads: 98

[Bogong]

Mike it's interesting that Mt Hotham succesfully got those pics banned on Australian and New Zealand ski forums through a combination of politely asking, claiming copyright of the photos (because they were taken by a liftie who was on duty) and vague implications that they might withdraw advertising from any site that published them, etc.

By the time they realised that they couldn't censor the internet, they had incurred a lot of ill will. I suspect that their publicity department will be having a bit of "shake up" over summer. Still, it was impressive how they dug out the lift and got it running so quickly.