Epic snow in New Zealand

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

Epic snow in New Zealand
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31 Jul 08 - The New Zealand resort of Mount Hutt has received over a meter (more than three feet) of snow in the last 36 hours and the mountain is currently closed due to blizzard conditions with experts predicting another meter at least before the weather clears.


Earlier this week local workers were working to remove mounds of snow from the base lodge, left by the first storm on July 25th which deposited over 90cm.

Now the resort is waiting out the next blizzard, which arrived on Wednesday and is expected to ease on Friday leaving 2m of fresh snow in its wake.

Road access to the resort is currently closed, and extensive clearing will be required before the resort can re-open, according to http://www.nzski.com.

Earlier in the week a French snowboarder got lost in the out-of-bounds area of Mt. Hutt and had to spend a night outside while rescuers conducted a search before locating him at dawn the next day.

The storms currently pounding the South Island were over the North Island last week, where gale force winds forced the evacuation of 10,000 skiers from the resort of Mt. Ruapehu.

http://www.powderhound.co.nz/methven.html