Skiers and snowboarders who paid $234 for a ski pass were outraged when huge queues plagued the action at a popular snowfield over the weekend.
Footage from Saturday shows hundreds of people queuing at the main access route of the Perisher resort, Front Valley, with a TikToker calling the situation “Nightmare fuel.”
The long waits to hit the slopes have been attributed to poor weather conditions and a slow start to the snow season, which has created a backlog.
The ski season got off to a slow start in Australia, with a huge queue forming at Perisher Ski Resort on Saturday
“I think I’d just turn around if I saw that,” one wrote.
“I felt sick watching this video.”
Another said, “I considered going but this made it an easy decision.”
“I don’t think my season pass will see much action,” a third added.
“So much skiing this year,” commented another.
A number of skiers and snowboarders also vented about the cost of skiing at the resort given the crowd.
A one-day Sunday lift ticket costs $234. One-day lift tickets for the next two months cost more than $200.
That is without extra costs such as equipment and accommodation.
A giant crowd formed at Front Valley – Perisher’s main access road to the entire resort – due to a delayed opening and poor weather conditions
Michael Fearnside, Director of Operations at Perisher Ski Resort, explained that safety was paramount at the resort and it was decided that the lifts would not operate due to the hazardous weather.
“It’s just not safe to operate every lift in certain weather conditions,” he said News.com.au.
“Yesterday we saw winds of around 100 km/h at the top of the mountain, limiting the number of lifts we could safely open.”
He added: ‘The current range of weather systems has delivered 64cm of snow over the last seven days and the Perisher team are working hard to continue preparing additional terrain and lifts for use during the school holidays.’
The ski season got off to a slow start with slopes on Mount Hotham, Mount Buller, Perisher and Thredbo looking shockingly bare earlier this month.
Every major ski resort in Australia was due to open their runs on June 10, but Thredbo Ski Resort in NSW pulled the plug due to a lack of snow.
However, the resorts themselves are not yet concerned, as minimal snowfall is normal for this time of year, but the forecast of a dry and warm winter nevertheless raises some concerns.
Minimal snowfall is normal for this time of year, but the forecast of a dry and warm winter is alarming (photo, Perisher)
The past two years have seen generous seasons throwing snow over the mountaintops at the end of May, but these seasons have been outliers (Thredbo)
Resorts use June to build their own snow supply so they can catch whatever eventually falls from the sky in time for their openings.
“We generally start getting snow around this time and the areas tend to get some snow over the next few weeks and gradually open their runs in June,” Ski Industries manager, Ben Quane, told Daily Mail Australia.
“If there was no snow it would be disastrous, but most people have invested in good snowmaking equipment. As long as we keep them cold, there will be products for skiers and snowboarders, we just need the cold weather.
“That’s like the insurance policy, you just need a bit of cold weather or natural snow – ideally both.”
These weather conditions, combined with the warm and dry forecast for the 2023 season, indicate that snowfall this year will be less than average.