Snow reports-truth or fiction?

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 553, 13 September 1994, Page 5 (Supplement)

Snow reports-truth or fiction?

Believe them or not, snow reports are an inevitable and invaluable part of the ski scene. Whakapapa Marketing Manager Scott Lee has been broadcasting daily ski reports from his office at the Top 'O the Bruce for the last seven years, and still finds himself in the firing line from di sgruntled skiers on a regular basis. "We have a policy of long-termcredibility," said Scott. "Our ski reports are honest and accurate at the time of writing them but there are problems." Ski reports are put together at 6.30am by the field' soperations manager. The temperature and wind readings from the Knoll Ridge weather station are radioed down to the Customer Service Office by the ski patrol who have already been on the mountain for half an hour. Along with information gathered from the grooming crew, it is analysed and compared to the daily weather report for the Tongariro National Park. By 6.45am the snow report is faxed via the Smartfax system to 275 outlets throughout the North Island. These include ski shops, information centres, local accommodation houses and the media. Then it is Scott' s turn. Every five minutes for the next hour and a quarter he telephones radio stations the length and breadth of the North Island. "It's a lot of work but very enjoyable. Most of the DJ's have become friends over the years and we always share a joke or two." The problems begin however, at the time of broadcasting. With alpine weather often changing very dramatically at dawn, with the cloud cover rising or lowering and the wind

picking up or lowering with little warning, mountain conditions may be very different at 8am from what they were an hour earlier. "On a lot of radio stations we get only one time slot so they don't use updated messages we send out," said Scott. "Some radio stations play the pre-recorded reports two or three times during the

morning, some as late as 1 1am. The weather may be quite different by then." "Also the pre-recorded snowphone messages that are promoted by some radio stations are not updated at all throughout the day. And we have had instances where reports have been rewritten - a word missed here or there - that has substantially changed the in-

formation supplied." Now skiers have the advantage of the Whakapapa Snowphone, (07) 892 3833 which is updated as the conditions change, every 10 minutes if necessary, which is probably the best bet for skiers heading up the moun-

tain after 10am. "As for the honesty and accuracy of the reports, - well, there are about 1000 skiers that sleep in the ski club buildings that surround my office listening to the reports as I do them, so they tend to keep me honest."