It’s proving to be an awesome ski season in the Southern Hemisphere.
Perisher ski resort in Southeastern Australia, which reported 32cm (13 inches) of fresh snow in 24 hours last week, is the latest hill to boast great conditions.
To-date an accumulated 191cm (6.3 feet) of snow has settled across the resort, comprising 71cm (2.3 feet) in June and 120cm (4 feet) since the beginning of July, allowing Perisher to offer excellent riding conditions across its four resort areas.

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Some skiers favor safety over recklessness, and some live in the moment.
Nick Regos, an 80-year-old skier at Australia’s Mount Buller ski resort last Monday apparently still falls into the latter category. After attempting a two-metre ski jump on a black run and breaking his leg, the man was asked by medics why he had attempted it at his age.
“Life’s too short,” he replied.
Living in the moment, the man was flown by air ambulance to Melbourne for treatment, an eventful end to his ski season.

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Australian ski hills enjoyed larger than expected snowfalls last week, continuing a good start to the 2009 season.
Mt Hotham was bombarded with 68 cm (27 in) of fresh snow between Thursday and Saturday, allowing the resort to open more lifts. The Victoria ski hill currently has eight of thirteen lifts running.
Over the border into New South Wales, Perisher reported 70 cm (27in) of snowfall over seven days ending last Thursday. Conditions are reportedly beautiful, with wind-drifts, powder stashes, and smooth groomed runs.
The snow has allowed Perisher to open 42 of the 49 lifts spread out over its four resort areas.
Several other ski areas in Australia and New Zealand also recently reported healthy snowfalls. All of New Zealand’s ski Areas are open for the season, with Lake Wanaka reporting the best opening conditions in a decade.

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Several of Australia’s ski areas opened with little or no snow on June 5th/6th, but that has all changed in the past week with snow falling at most centres, leading to excellent early –season conditions.

Perisher opened its Mt Perisher ski slopes last week reporting conditions for this early in the season, “the best in a decade.”
The resort had received 58cm (almost two feet) of fresh snow since Sunday 7 June and thanks also to Perisher’s $19 million snowmaking expansion, Saturday 13 June saw Towers Run on Mt Perisher open for skiing and boarding.
Ten lifts are currently operating across Perisher Valley and Smiggin Holes and the PlayStation Slopestyle course on Front Valley now contains a 20-foot table top in addition to other impressive features.

There is a nice light, dry cover of snow on the slopes and with more snow expected over the coming days, lowering to 1500m,”

said a resort spokesperson (Perisher village sits at 1720m).
At a second Australian resort, Mt Buller, the Skyline terrain park and half pipe open for the first time this season at the weekend.
“For those who prefer the corduroy, groomer’s pick of the day is Shakey Knees,” said a resort spokesperson.

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Perisher in Australia’s summer snowmaking installation and commissioning project is complete.
The project, which began mid October 2008 in Happy Valley and continued on to the top of Towers Run on Mt Perisher during the early part of 2009, involved installing new pipelines and 68 new energy efficient Techno Alpin automated snow guns, lifting Perisher’s total number of snow guns to 271.
The Happy Valley and Mt Perisher snowmaking expansion adds an extra 10.86 hectares of snowmaking-covered terrain giving a new total of 53.4 hectares.
“With the construction and commissioning phase complete we are now waiting for the temperatures to drop to allow for extensive snowmaking.” said a resort statement.

Why waste time dreaming of a White Christmas when you can simply go out and buy one?
That is exactly what Thredbo, a world class ski resort in Australia, has recently done and they now boast the distinct honor of having the one of the largest artificial snow making systems in the entire Southern Hemisphere.
Currently, their automated snow guns cover over 70 hectares of trails with snow. Many of the popuar Thredbo trails, including True Blue, Little Beauty and Friday Flat, benefit from this new technology.
Just how much is 70 hectares?
Well, let’s break it down. With their current upgrades, Thredbo will be able to create over 600, 000 cubic meters of snow. This is enough to bury more than fifty football fields in more than a meter of snow; enough snow to cancel any game.
This is more than three times the amount of snow that could be created in pre-automated days. Automation represents the most significant advancement made in snowmaking since 1988.
Thredbo also purchased a new addition to their army of snow groomers. This machine, the Kassbohrer 400 winch cat, a monster of modern science, with features such as a touch screen and joytick controls which make it handle more like a video game than the beast that it is. It also has some upgrades to help it minimize its effect on the environment by using the latest in emmission control.
All of these factors put together make the Thredbo snow making system a world class spectacle of man’s triumph over nature and weather.
You would think that it must be expensive to play god like this. Well, you would be right.Over the past four years, Thredbo has spent eight million dollars on automating their snow making system. The upgrades they invested on this year total to just over two million dollars.
Fortunately, this is nothing compared to the continued profits and great reputation that Thredbo will receive as a result of their recent investment.

Perisher ski resort in Australia (now officially rebranded from old name Perisher Blue) has continued to invest heavily in its ever expanding snowmaking system during the southern hemisphere’s summer, as well as in new Snowsports School programs in readiness for winter.
$5.7 million dollars has been spent on new snowmaking infrastructure added to the Happy Valley area and top to bottom on the very popular Towers Run on Mt Perisher, as part of Perisher’s three-year $19 million dollar investment in snowmaking expansions and upgrades. Extensive slope grooming has also been undertaken as part of the program to make snow-riding experiences even better in 2009.
The Happy Valley and Mt Perisher snowmaking expansion adds an extra 10.86 hectares of snowmaking-covered terrain to a new total of 54.3 hectares. 68 energy efficient Techno Alpin automated snow guns have been installed, lifting Perisher’s total number of snow guns to 271.
Two groomers have also been added to Australia’s biggest snow-grooming fleet. These additions will ensure Perisher has over 100 groomed trails in great shape during 2009. As in 2008, 100% of the green house gas emissions of the grooming and bus fleets will be offset with accredited renewable sources from Origin Energy.
A new ski carpet has been added to the Snowsports School Milo Discovery Kid’s area in Perisher Valley at a cost of $170,000 (Australian). In the same area there will be a mini terrain park – the Milo Mini Park, with miniature low to the ground features, to enable introductory freeride tuition.
www.perisher.com.au