From Bare to Brilliant: Heavy Snowfall Transformed Our Ski Fields Over the Weekend, Saving the Stoke and the School Holidays
After a sluggish start to winter, a major cold snap has delivered fresh powder across Australia's ski resorts.
While the increasingly chilly weather has seen patches of snowfall over the last few weeks, the High Country's slopes are officially blanketed in the good stuff. With a cold front sweeping across south-east Australia late last week, the sub-zero temps ensured that snow-goers could dust off their gear and finally get involved in the action.
Sweeping across the mountaintops on Thursday, July 2, heavy snowfall was first reported at Mt Buller at 8pm, with the Ski Patrol reporting an average of 17 centimetres by daybreak the next morning. And with snow accumulated down to 1300 metres, the mountain's snowmaking network burst into action to build up the thick cover even further.
"It's great to have snow falling and transforming the resort as we head into the middle of the school holidays," says Noel Landry from Buller Ski Lifts. "Our mountain operations team is meeting Mother Nature halfway and getting the snowmaking across the resort fired up — it's important to lock in every snowflake and snowmaking is a smart way to hold snow on the ski area and maximise the impact of this storm for our guests."
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Over at Mt Hotham, it was a similar story, with the slopes benefiting from a heavy 36cm snowstorm. With the mountain operations crew kicking into gear, the snow guns were loaded and cranked around the clock. Now, the resort is diligently preparing to open various lifts and terrain as the conditions continue to improve over the coming days and weeks.
In New South Wales, the snow reports also brought great news, with Thredbo and Perisher both receiving around 30 centimetres of snow across the weekend. At the former, the much-loved High Noon run is officially open, while a mix of beginner and intermediate terrain is up and running at the latter, including Front Valley, Mitchell T-Bars and Village 8.
Although one of the warmest recorded starts to winter has kept snow-lovers (and kids on school holidays) looking to the skies, the mountains are suddenly looking much whiter. Says the crew at Perisher: "For a couple of weeks there, we were starting to wonder where winter had got to. Then, almost as if Perisher had been listening to everyone's hopes, the snow found its way back."
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Images: Supplied.
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