Perisher Resort Australia - opens early!

Cooler temperatures and good snowfalls across the New South Wales Snowy Mountains have encouraged Perisher Ski Resort to open early. Perisher will open one ski run on its front valley on Friday and Saturday.

That is three weeks ahead of the official start to the ski season on June 10! Perisher’s Neil Thew says man-made snow has boosted the 20 centimetres of natural snow which fell last week.

“We’ve had about 40 to 50 snow-making guns blasting away since last Tuesday and that’s produced about another 30,000 cubic metres of man-made snow,” he said.

“So there is a good cover on front valley and we thought let’s go, let’s do it. “It’s the earliest that I know of skiing in Australia. It is very exciting.” Mr Thew says the weather is great for skiing.

“We’ve had very, very cold overnight temperatures and it’s been getting up to about 8 or 9 degrees,” he said. “So it certainly won’t be uncomfortable for skiers and boarders. “Overnight when it gets to sub-zero we can make more snow and top up the runs. And there’s another front coming through early next week, so hopefully that brings us some more snow.”

“Being three weeks out, we don’t have them ready to start yet. So all of the management and skeleton crew are out and about trying to get things together. We’re just opening tomorrow and Saturday. And then we’ll see what this front does and we might open again next weekend.”

He says they are donating this weekend’s lift ticket proceeds to charity.

“We’re going to be charging $30 for an adult, $15 for children per day and all the money that we raise through the lift ticket sales will go to charity,” he said.

The EA internship at Perisher Australia starts in June, and no one can wait! See ya'll out in the Snow!

- The EA Ski and Snowboard Training Team