Hikers brave freezing conditions in Great Southern to see snow on Bluff Knoll in Stirling Range National Park

The Great Southern’s highest peak was sprinkled with snow on Friday morning, delighting dedicated hikers who braved the frosty conditions as a cold front hit the region. About 15 people made it to the top of Bluff Knoll in the early morning to witness the first snow on the popular peak this year. Harry Rout and Callum Duffield set out for the summit about 6am and were the first people to reach the top. “It was quite surreal being up there by yourself, just surrounded by all this white sort of cottonwool bud-looking stuff,” Mr Rout said. “It was really cool, very quiet when we got there, not too much wind.” Mr Rout said there was a “solid dusting” of snow from about 150m below the summit, and said some areas were as thick as 2-3cm. It was a successful day for the photographer, who hiked to the summit a fortnight ago in the hope of seeing snow but there was only frost. “I actually wasn’t too hopeful today,” he said. “It all depends on the freezing point of the air temperature, I guess, but today it was OK because it was at about 1050m.” Travel blogger Jake Reid made the trip to the Stirling Range from Perth and was able to witness snow for the first time. “It was absolutely epic up there,” Mr Reid said. Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Jessica Lingard said a cold pool of air following a cold front that hit the Great Southern on Thursday night brought with it the right conditions for snow. She described the snowfall as a “light dusting”, and estimated the temperature on top of Bluff Knoll this morning at about -5 degrees. “The cold front overnight did provide the adequate conditions for snowfall, and we did see some snow falling pre-dawn this morning,” Ms Lingard said. “Anything that’s there now is probably going to start melting, now that it’s sort of above zero degrees. “No further snow is expected, we will see some showers in the area, but unfortunately, we just don’t have that depth of coldness all the way through the atmosphere to be able to support snow anymore.” Snow normally falls on Bluff Knoll once a year, usually between July and September, with June on the “outer edges” of the usual season, according to Ms Lingard. She said the bureau had received its highest number of snow reports in 2016 when six snowfall events were reported on Bluff Knoll. The snow comes as Albany reicieved 17.8mm of rainfall overnight, and winds up to 65 km/h in a winter storm. Ms Lingard said a slowmoving low-pressure system associated with the cold front would bring showers across the weekend, with conditions not expected to clear up until the end of next week.