Little snow and a lot of skiers at Perisher Valley give a premonition for a hectic winter holidays at Southern Ski Fields. Photo / Tiktok, benjaminwild1
Little snow and a lot of skiers at Perisher Valley give a premonition for a hectic winter holidays at Southern Ski Fields. Photo / Tiktok, benjaminwild1
The southern snow season has got off to a halting start, with too many skiers flocking to see too little snow.
Gloomy forecasts did not stop snowsports enthusiasts turning up in force at New South Wales’ Perisher Valley this weekend.
Delayed openings and a rush to be first on the slopes led to huge queues at Australia’s largest alpine resort. Windy conditions further reduced the number of lifts in operation.
Footage posted to social media on Saturday showed “nightmare fuel” lines at the ski resort.
Operators confirmed that difficult snow conditions and winds were adding to the queues at the popular resort.
“Yesterday, we saw wind speeds of around 100km/h at the top of the mountain, which limited the number of lifts we could safely open,” operations director Michael Fearnside told news.com on Sunday.
“In certain weather conditions, it just isn’t safe to operate every lift,” he said.
The ski field hoped to have 27 out of 48 lifts ready to run by next week but, with the school holidays fast approaching, there will be plenty of ski trips giving their plans a check.
“Drove up the mountain and turned straight around,” commented another unimpressed ski enthusiast.
Gloomy Kiwi and Aussie ski forecast for school holidays
Meteorologists’ forecasts for an El Niño hot, dry winter, come with warnings for one of the worst Southern ski seasons in decades.
It’s not only Aussie ski fields which have had a disappointing start to the season.
Canterbury’s Mt Hutt which was the first to open for the 2023 season on June 10 was also first to close on Tuesday.
Thin runnings: Opening day at Mt Hutt skifield, 10 June, 2023. Photo / Nicole Hawke, Supplied
The ski field near Methven had already pushed back its opening date and was forced to close again, 10 days later on June 20.
Mt Hutt Ski Area’s manager said that the thin snowpack had taken “a real hiding” and would need to close until conditions improve.
A spokesperson for ski field operators NZ Ski told the Herald that there’s simply not enough snow on Mt Hutt. However, the Queenstown fields were running thanks to snowmakers keeping the slopes open.
As of this week, the Remarkables were open, with most lifts running as normal.
Only a single lift was serving Coronet Peak this Monday.
The Remarkables on Monday June 26. Photo / Supplied, Natalie Urbani supplied
Queenstown local and ski enthusiast Natalie Urbani who was at the Remarkables this morning said that the fields were “heaving” with queues added to by the lack of skiing available elsewhere.
With some more snow forecast for Queenstown at the end of the week, it can’t come soon enough for the ski fields.
Otago is expecting an additional 9000 international arrivals a week over the Australian and New Zealand winter holidays, and 100,000 forecast domestic and international visitors forecast through Queenstown Airport. There could be a lot of skiers competing for not a lot of runs.
