Australia opens for winter
Tuesday June 15, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Temperatures have been low for the best part of a month allowing for man-made snow to be produced.

Perisher in New South Wales was the first to open, on Friday, reporting 1.1m of new snow on a base the resort had been building for over a month with their snowmaking equipment.

It opened a day early as there was the snow and the demand from skiers and snowboarders to get things underway.

"It's been fantastic, we've had so much snow that we opened a day early, on Friday," said a spokesperson from the resort. "If it stays like this we'll have a bumper season."

You Tube video at 8am on Tuesday 15th June, with a round up of conditions in Perisher.

Mt Buller has 4 lifts open with the resort's Bourke Street run reportedly in good shape.

''It's been an absolutely amazing opening weekend and the mountain looks absolutely spectacular,'' Rhylla Morgan, a spokeswoman for Buller ski lifts told local media.

''We started grooming the slopes a few days ago. This morning, when the sun came up, the runs were completely smooth and looked like a carpet.''

Over 5,000 people were out enjoying the skiing and snowboarding over the weekend at Mt Buller.

Mt Buller web camera, 15th June

Mt Hotham has 3 lifts operating in and Thredbo 6 lifts, 4 runs and a basic terrain park.

Falls Creek has 10cm of snow lying too, and 3 lifts running.

Holding and Cox on Falls Creek magic carpetTim Holding, Victoria's Minister of Tourism, declared Falls Creek's winter season open after skiing down the 2.2km Wombat's Ramble, the longest green run in Australia.

He was with Britteny Cox the youngest Winter Olympic skier to represent Australia.

"It was awesome! My one run down a run which will be lit for night sking has great snow cover after five days and nights of snowmaking," said Holding.

For more reports of the snow conditions around the world see the PlanetSKI weekly snow overview.

Temperatures have been low for the best part of a month allowing for man-made snow to be produced.

With 20cm of snow last weekend and 15cm predicted this week, long-term weather forecasts are indicating an above average season.

It is of course far too early to say how the season will progress so it is more wishful thinking than accurate scientific predictions.

But there's nothing wrong with a bit of optimism as the snow starts to fall in decent amounts.

Hospitality providers are reporting strong bookings, with school holiday accommodation almost filled.

PlanetSKI will have a number of reporters in both Australia and New Zealand and will be bringing us reports, pictures and news so keep an eye open for those.

Photographs c/o Chris Hocking; Falls Creek.

Bookmark this page

Related Articles