It’s ski season. It’s school holidays. And Australia’s biggest ski resort is packed.
Videos have shown visitors waiting for hours in their cars to enter and exit Perisher in NSW’s Snowy Mountains, and huge lines of skiers and snowboarders waiting at ski lifts.
One Sydney man on TikTok documented a 2.5 hour wait in his car to enter and 2 hour wait to exit during wild weather over the weekend.
“Think again if you wanna go to the snow,” he captioned the video, which has been viewed 114,000 times.
On Monday, Perisher even launched a new initiative called “PEAK Snow Days” to warn visitors about its busiest days – starting with this weekend.
“We’re classifying this weekend as PEAK Snow Days, with school holiday visitation and weather conditions looking very good for snowfall. With the snowfall, we’re also expecting windy conditions which may interrupt some lifts that we can safely operate,” Nathan Butterworth said, who took up the role of Perisher’s vice president and general manager last month.
Mr Butterworth said small adjustments to Australians’ typical approach to visiting would help everyone have a better time during busy periods.
“We’re fortunate to have many options that are out of the weather during these times,” he said, urging people to keep an eye on their snow reports and ask Perisher staff for suggestions of where to go if lift lines are longer than usual.
“During PEAK Snow Days, we’re up earlier on the mountain to make sure everything is prepared for the busier periods,” Mr Butterworth continued.
“However, we also need our guests to consider changes to their own behaviour on these days, such as exploring the resort away from congregating at Front Valley.
“We’re all snow-lovers here and want our guests to have the best experience they can while at our four resorts of Blue Cow, Guthega, Mount Perisher and Smiggin Holes.”
To avoid car queues, Perisher recommends catching the Skitube (a Swiss designed rack-rail train) between Bullocks Flat and Perisher Valley, or using the Snowy Mountains Bus Service between Jindabyne and Perisher.
Perisher Ski Resort is no stranger to nightmare queues.
Late last month one fed-up skiier shared a video of the jaw-dropping lines at Front Valley, Perisher’s main access run to the entire resort, during a windy day when many lifts were shut.
One unimpressed viewer commented: “drove up the mountain and turned straight around”.
Frustration over the queues is understandable given time is precious — and expensive — on the slopes.
Then there are the additional costs of gear, transport and accommodation for those planning to make a weekend out of it.
A one-day lift ticket for Saturday July 15 is $234.
Low June snowfall forced Perisher and Thredbo to postpone or majorly restrict their opening days this season.
In an online article, skiing website Powder explained how the start of the Australian ski season “was looking, well, a little slow”.
“But now that June’s properly underway, winter’s finally appearing down under”.