The lift queues at Australia’s biggest ski resort were so long at one point on the weekend some skiers and snowboarders chose to walk up the mountain instead.
A short clip shared to TikTok of Perisher in NSW’s Snowy Mountains showed groups with their boards and skis tucked under their arms slowly walking up the slope as a huge crowd of people waited below for lifts during bad weather.
“POV [Point of View]: You pay $200 for a day pass just to walk up the mountain,” text on the video read.
The footage was taken at Front Valley, Perisher’s main access run to the entire resort.
A one-day lift ticket for Saturday was $234.
The snowboarder explained it was an “unlucky day” with only the T-bar lifts open at the time due to wind.
Perisher mountain manager Andrew Kennedy told news.com.au that the winds were so strong their chairlift most tolerant to wind (the V8) was not able to operate.
“On Friday, we had wind gusts more than 120km/hr and on Saturday 100+ km/hr gusts,” he said.
“Staff and guest safety must always be our top priority and we also had 30 other lifts operating.”
As for other videos of huge lines circulating on social media in recent weeks, Mr Kennedy said they weren’t always what they seemed.
“The V8 chairlift is a high capacity, high speed lift capable of transporting significant numbers of people up the mountain so while the line lengths can look long on TikTok, in reality they would be no more than a 10-minute wait,” he said.
“This season, we are really trying to get people to look at the conditions before they arrive, just as they would before heading out for a day at the beach.”
He referenced a new initiative Perisher announced last week called “PEAK Snow Days” to warn visitors about its busiest days.
Ahead of the weekend, Perisher’s vice president and general manager Nathan Butterworth had warned: “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.”
During busy periods Mr Butterworth asked guests to explore the resort “away from congregating at Front Valley”.
He urged people to keep an eye on the resort’s snow reports and ask Perisher staff for suggestions of where to go if lift lines are longer than usual.
Perisher is encouraging guests to use its app as they will send push notifications to advise of terrain that is open when there is big weather events like on the weekend.
Australia’s ski season has got off to a rough start with low June snowfall forcing Perisher and Thredbo to postpone or majorly restrict their opening days this season, and huge queues of traffic on the roads and at ski lifts frustrating snow fans.
One Sydney man on TikTok documented a 2.5 hour wait in his car to enter and 2 hour wait to exit Perisher Valley during wild weather the weekend before last.
“Think again if you wanna go to the snow,” he captioned the video, which has been viewed 152,000 times.
Late last month one fed-up skier shared a video of the jaw-dropping lines at Front Valley during a windy day when many lifts were shut.
One unimpressed viewer commented: “drove up the mountain and turned straight around”.
Another person was thankful for the video, saying they were considering going but “this made an easy decision”.
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.