The urge for Aussies to escape to the slopes for a skiing getaway is as strong as ever, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to local resorts this season despite all signs pointing to a possible nightmare year.
The odds were stacked against the ski resorts even before the first snow fell, as cost of living pressures made Australians tighten their purse strings and risked many ruling out a trip to the snow – a notoriously expensive holiday.
And then came the weather, or lack thereof. Meteorologists warned 2023 could be one of the worst seasons of snowfall in decades, resorts cancelled snow activity on the opening weekend due to low snow, and keen visitors have continued to share grim pictures of the grassy slopes.
Yet, despite it all, visitor numbers on the Australian slopes are looking close to – and sometimes better than – what hey were in last year’s record season.
Across the Victorian alps, alone, some 562,124 people have visited the ski fields so far this season, according to Alpine Resorts Victoria’s official visitor count. This time last year, 689,346 people had trekked to the state’s six ski fields.
A spokesman for Falls Creek told news.com.au visitation was “tracking strongly” for the 2023 season, just behind the record-breaking numbers of 2022.
“When comparing to previous seasons, we have seen more visitors to date relative to pre-Covid numbers in 2019 and the huge 2022 snow season opening one week ahead of schedule,” they said.
“Despite this we are tracking just marginally behind that record breaking season. In fact, the last four weeks have exceeded the equivalent periods for 2022.”
In most recent week-to-week comparison, Falls Creek saw 14,686 visitors in the week to August 6, 2023; in the same period in 2022, the resort saw 13,866 visitors.
The week-to-week comparisons looks just as promising at Mt Buller, which welcomed 27,796 visitors through the week – compared to 26,172 in the 2022 week.
A spokesperson for Mt Buller told news.com.au despite the “lower than usual snow cover” visitation continued to be strong at the resort – a sign, she said, of the “the complete alpine resort experience” visitors were looking for in a winter holiday.
She also said the strong visitor levels despite low snow highlighted that the resort’s “ongoing investment in snowmaking and grooming is key to guaranteeing the best possible skiing and boarding with the natural snow available.”
Although the little amounts of snow available to visitors as a number of resorts has dampened their experience on the slopes, it evidently has not deterred the crowds from making a trek up the mountains.
Many people have shared the comical lack of snow to social media, making light of the dire situation.
Even earlier in the season, footage emerged of glowing queues of tail lights on the road to resorts and of crowds waiting at the foot of patchy slopes for a chair lift to the top.
And though the unusually warm and dry July made for unfavourable snow-making conditions and led snow depths to plummet, it seems the weather is finally turning in snow lovers’ favour.
Meteorologists predict skiiers and snowboarders may finally get the cold fronts they sorely missed over eastern Australia’s alpine regions in July as a number of fronts move across the country’s south-east this week.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines said the second cold front was “waiting in the wings” to deliver even more snowfall into next week.
“There’s a little more cause for optimism in the coming week than there has been over the past four or five weeks, which had been pretty slim pickings,” Mr Hines said.
The first will be a cold front that skimmed over Tasmania on Friday, which is going to “slowly slide north” this week, according to reports from WeatherZone, making temperatures in the east drop below average and bring “some welcome snow showers” to alpine areas.
WeatherZone estimates NSW resorts could see snowfalls around 10cm over the period.
Another cold front is expected to move over southeast Ausrtalia around Thursday, which will maximise the potential for snowfall in the already-cold conditions.
Then, the icy cherry on top, a third cold front is forecast for Friday that could make for good dumping of snow for the weekend – possibly up to half a metre, the heaviest falls on Thursday and Friday afternoons, Weatherzone reports.
But the meteorologists are, as ever, cautious about forecasting snowfall on the local slopes too far in advance, and will be watching this system closely.
Continue the conversation – georgina.noack@news.com.au