Early snowfall opens ski resorts hoping for first normal season since Covid
Ski season has arrived early, raising hopes for an industry that has been limping since the emergence of Covid-19 more than two years ago.
The ski lifts have started, snowboarders are back to wrangling T-bars, and children are skidding downhill on toboggans.
Ski resorts are back, buoying the hopes of an industry that has been limping since the emergence of Covid-19 more than two years ago.
The first weekend mostly catered to locals but Perisher general manager Belinda Trembath said she was confident visitors would start to come in bigger numbers.
“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” she said. “In particular, from folks from Sydney and further north – Queenslanders haven’t been able to make it down to the snow and I think there’ll be plenty of people ready and raring to go for this winter.
“And after two tough years, the industry really deserves that.
“This ski season will be one of the more special ones for us after two years of disrupted operations. It’s been tough for our community, tough for our staff.”
Ski seasons in 2020 and 2021 were disrupted by Covid-19, with the government at times mandating closures, adding to a series of lockdowns, indoor capacity limitations, state border closures and other various pandemic-related measures.
Falls Creek posted a $1.3m comprehensive loss in the 2020-21 financial year, as compared to a $94,000 gain the previous year.
“The result shows the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the operations of the board,” the annual report declared. “The pandemic had significant impacts including resort closures throughout the declared winter season.”
Stronger than expected snowfall allowed resorts to start up their ski lifts earlier than expected. The alpine regions of NSW and Victoria have seen 30cm-80cm of snowfall in the past two weeks, with back-to-back cold fronts over the regions creating blizzard conditions.
NSW’s Perisher resort brought forward by a week the opening of its first lift to Friday midday after almost 80mm of snow fell in the past week. Victoria’s Mt Hotham, Falls Creek, and Mt Buller did the same, opening the slopes on Saturday.
Thredbo is due to open next weekend.
However, Ms Trembath said local businesses had been reporting they had been afflicted by staffing shortages squeezing almost every other industry.
“Talking to some of the local hospitality venues, they’re no different to any part of the country and there are going to be some challenges in hospitality staffing.”
Nonetheless, she said she has been “pleased” with Perisher’s recruitment.
“Our focus will be on working hard. Our snowmaking team are ready to go … there’s plenty of snow forecast this week but we’re also making snow wherever we can and preparing as much terrain to open as possible for next weekend.”
The Bureau of Meteorology said another cold front moving into NSW from South Australia and Victoria was due to deliver more snow to alpine regions.
“The good news for ski resorts and ski lovers is that we’re expecting at least 1½ m of snow – heaviest [on Sunday], but flurries continuing all through the week and that could at times lead to blizzard conditions,” said forecaster Jonathan How.
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