August 30th 2022: Mountain time

The mountains lured us back again this past week ... and we weren't the only ones to answer the call. Cardrona clocked up in excess of 5100 skiers and boarders on Friday. And I thought we were in for some wind-down spring-like conditions with hardly anybody around. Wrong.

There are a couple of major factors at play here. Firstly, the Australian snow junkies haven't been able to enter Japan for the January to March powder season as they usually do, so they are pent-up. They're here in droves and that's good for everyone really.

Secondly, Mt Ruapehu is in strife. They had to shut TÅ«roa and laid off a heap of staff. The past two "atmospheric rivers" have brought with them warm air and so much rain that the snow pack is the worst I have ever heard of for this time of year on my maunga. We've had some lean years before, but nothing like this.

I flew back from an assignment in the North Island on Thursday and had to queue to put my cases in the fragile and oversize – the line was loaded with skiers and snowboarders heading south.

The third factor is to do with Treble Cone's Saddle Basin. The massive early snow dump created a great base, but landed on warm ground and tussocks. That created a "rotten" layer on the base and that has now led to the entire snowpack forming a kind of slow-slip avalanche hazard. Kudos to the team at TC for making the tough call – slab avalanches of this type can be extremely dangerous and unpredictable (I was involved in one in Japan and it's the scariest thing I have ever witnessed).

While the rest of TC is still open that has added a heap more pressure on Cardrona with some queues at the main access points, but none if you know where to go ... and we even found some powder that had been overlooked for days.

See you at the beach ... Derek

PS We've just had word from DOC that the whale carcass that has washed up between Warrington and Karitane is decomposing rapidly and the Runanga have been able to recover some of the bones already. Bones are being collected and held in accordance with customary protocols by mana whenua as they become available. DOC would like to remind members of the public that it is an offence under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to remove bones from the site without appropriate approval. The plan, at this stage, is to let the decomposition continue at the current rapid pace.