Australian ski resorts report best opening weekend in years

Snow sport enthusiasts have been making the most of good early season snow falls to head to ski resorts in NSW and Victoria on the first weekend of the ski season.

Good snowfall and low temperatures allow snowmaking saw several Australian areas including Perisher and Mt Buller, open a day earlier than planned while New Zealand’s ski areas have had plenty of pre-season snowfall.

Speaking on Saturday (6th June), Richard Phillips from Perisher Resort said more than 30 centimetres of early snow had come down.

Phillips told the ABC “conditions have been great and the crowds have certainly turned up for the Queen's birthday long weekend.

"It has been the best opening weekend for several years, and the natural snow and the extreme cold that we had last week has been great.

"It's good to have so many lifts open, 11 lifts in total so people can spread out."

Susie Diver from Thredbo Resort told ABC News conditions were perfect as thousands flocked to the Snowy Mountains for the long weekend.

Diver stated “it has been a dream start to the 2015 season with blue skies and sunshine, and lots of snow.”

NSW’s Snowy Mountains attracted 645,000 domestic overnight visitors in the year ending December 2014 and tourism marketing agency Destination NSW is hoping the 2015 will see even higher performance.

With New Zealand's ski season making a staggered opening on weekends through June, Mt Hutt was blanketed by 30cm last week - with good drifts of up to a metre in places.

The first ski field to open this New Zealand ski season, with opening set for  Friday 12th June, snowmaking has fired up at Mt Hutt with Ski area manager James McKenzie saying the slopes are “looking good” for the start of the season.

McKenzie stated “the snow’s fallen pretty evenly across the field, and on trails where we’ve previously made snow and there was already some on the ground we can comfortably say we’ve got a base of 40 to 50cm.

“It’s looking awesome and provided it sticks around we’ve got plenty of snow to work with for next Friday’s opening.”

Images: top image courtesy of Mt Buller, lower image shows snowmaking at New Zealand's Coronet Peak.

6th June 2015 - FIRST TRACKS OPEN AT MT BULLER AHEAD OF OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE SNOW SEASON

4th June 2015 - 11 LIFTS TO OPEN AS PERISHER MAKES EARLY START TO 2015 SNOW SEASON

25th May 2015 - WINTER ARRIVES AT QUEENSTOWN’S SKI AREAS

22nd May 2015 - SNOWMAKING BEGINS AT QUEENSTOWN’S CORONET PEAK SKI AREA