Australia

Mount Baw Baw

Off season

No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.

Typical snowfall
46cm

A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →

Elevation
1,455–1,566 m
Across
2.5 km

We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified.

Mount Baw Baw, in Australia, runs from 1,455 m at the base to 1,566 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 2.5 km across, with 23 marked runs and 8 lifts (about 5.6 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 46 cm of snowfall a season, 2,841st (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 9th in Australia. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017 (87 cm), brought more than 9 times as much as the leanest, 2015 (9 cm). Snowfall days average −1.6°C at mid-mountain, close to freezing, so the snow is often heavy, and its snow-quality score ranks 8th of 10 in Australia.

How much snow it gets

Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Seasonal snowfall
46cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
9cm
The middle winter of the 12: 43 cm. The best: 87 cm.
World rank
2841
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
9
of 10 in Australia
Elevation rank
9
Highest to lowest, of 10 in Australia. The centre point sits at 1,520 m, 74 m below the national median.
Quality rank
8
of 10 in Australia
Temp when snowing
−1.6°C
Japanese median: −3.6°C
Rain days
43%
Japanese median: 16%
Days over 5 cm
3%
Japanese median: 15%
Wind when snowing
21km/h
Average daily peak, 10 m above ground across a model grid cell; not the wind on ridges or lift tops
Dryness 26
Frequency 7
Freedom from rain 35
Calm when snowing (model grid) 93

The tick marks the median across every Japanese ski area we measure. All four bars run the same way — longer is better.

The quality score leaves out how much snow falls (it uses temperature, frequency, rain and wind).

Runs and lifts

Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Marked runs
23
Run length
5.6km
Lifts
8
Vertical
112m
Top 1,566 m · base 1,455 m

Run map

EasyIntermediateAdvancedOther Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map0.7 km
Steepest pitch21°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs7.8°

Which way the slopes face

North 6%
East 4%
South 29%
West 60%

Only 10% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. The most common direction is west (60%).

By difficulty

Easy 4 · 1.3 km
Intermediate 11 · 2.6 km
Advanced 3 · 0.7 km
Other 5 · 1 km

Lift types

  • T-bar3
  • Magic carpet3
  • Platter2

See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗

Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

The most snow falls in August. September brings as much as July, or more. In amount, September brings 11 cm, less than the median of 23 cm.

7cm
Jun
11cm
Jul
17cm
Aug
11cm
Sep
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 46 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2015 with 9 cm; the biggest was 2017 with 87 cm (9.7 times as much).

9
13
87
75
80
61
48
32
39
46
39
18
’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Snowfall each winter (June–September total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.

Map

The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.

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