‘Incredibly challenging’: Mt Buller, Mt Baw Baw end ski season weeks early

Aussie ski resort workers are watching snow “literally disappear” in front of their eyes, forcing two resorts to pull the pin weeks early.

Two Victorian ski resorts will end their ski seasons a month early on Sunday despite snow-making efforts.

Mount Buller, a three-hour drive from Melbourne, was the only resort across NSW and Victoria to have a chair lift operating on opening weekend this year, thanks to snow-making.

But the team’s efforts have been no match for the state’s recent wild weather.

Both Mount Buller and Mount Baw Baw, the closest downhill ski area to Melbourne, will officially wrap up the season at 5pm on Sunday, September 1 – instead of ideally skiing until October.

It is even sooner than last year, when Buller closed early on September 17 and Baw Baw closed early on September 3.

Mount Buller’s Bourke Street snow cam on Saturday morning.

Mount Buller said the strong winds and rain had “dramatically reduced” snow cover.

The resort’s general manager, Alan Arthur, said this year was “an incredibly challenging season” with a disappointing lack of natural snow for Mt Buller’s 100 year anniversary of skiing.

Buller Ski Lifts general manager Noel Landry said they were holding out hope for “season-saving snow” on Wednesday night but 1-2cm of snow was “unfortunately too little, too late”.

“It seems unfair to have had two challenging seasons in a row but I am immensely proud of everyone who have kept striving and smiling and will be doing so until Sunday afternoon,” he said.

Mount Buller's livestreams show snow missing across the resort. This is the intermediate run Standard.

Speaking on ABC Radio, Mount Buller spokeswoman Rhylla Morgan explained it was the winds that were the real problem.

“It has a lot more of an impact than temperature or rain, so those really strong winds have just made the snow literally disappear in front of our eyes,” she said.

“It’s a very difficult thing for us to protect ourselves against and right across Australia when you look at all the alpine areas, unfortunately we’re all in a similar situation. It’s really been a bit of a rollercoaster ride this year.”

Mount Baw Baw’s Hut Roll snow cam on Saturday morning.

Mount Baw Baw attributed its closure on Sunday to “less than ideal conditions” following what it had described as “fantastic” snow conditions in July.

The final weekend of skiing will end much like it started at Mount Buller and Baw Baw, with snow left on beginner runs Bourke Street (Buller) and Hut Run (Baw Baw).

Resort entry fees have been reduced to $44 at both resorts, with Mt Baw Baw making toboggan park access free.

Mount Buller said lift passes would be discounted to reflect the reduced terrain.

news.com.au has contacted Victoria’s Mount Hotham and Falls Creek about how the weather has impacted their operations and whether they will also end the season early.

Research released in June by the Australian National University suggested the length of Australian ski seasons will be slashed by one-third by 2030 even if greenhouse gas emissions are cut radically.

New South Wales fields Charlotte Pass, Perisher and Thredbo, and Victoria’s Falls Creek and Mt Hotham fare better than others under the modelling.

But Ben Lomond, Lake Mountain and mounts Baw Baw, Buller, Selwyn and Stirling will be hit hardest, the research found.

Broadly speaking, the roughly 100-day resort season length will decline by 16-18 days by the 2030s, regardless of emissions.

This week, Australia recorded its hottest winter day, thanks to a remote area in the Pilbara.

A weather station at Yampi Sound in Western Australia recorded a temperature of 41.5 degrees shortly before 3pm on Monday – the highest temperature on official record for an Australian winter.

Three cold fronts could hit the country’s south east.

‘Nasty’: Grim weather set to get even worse

A “destructive” triple whammy of cold fronts will smash through parts of Australia this weekend bringing no respite from the dangerous conditions.

That is in addition to sweltering, record breaking, heat for the country’s central and northern areas with temperatures closer to high summer than the last day of winter.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Jonathon How said three distinct cold fronts were powering through Victoria, Tasmania and southern parts of SA and NSW this weekend: one overnight on Friday and then one each on Saturday and Sunday.

All of them are set to lead to a slew of severe weather warnings for gales, damage to property, treacherous conditions and localised flooding.

Sky News Weather meteorologist Rob Sharpe said after a breezy start to Saturday there might be a lull in the middle of the day but during the afternoon the weather will turn again.

“It’s the overnight windy weather that’s going to be really nasty because that’s when the fronts keep hitting the southeast,” he said.

“The end of spring and the start of winter is traditionally windy season, but this is a very windy event that’s taking place.”

– with Benedict Brook