Australia's Largest Ski Resort Announces Closing Date

From Monday of this week onwards, Perisher will reduce its operations, only offering service via Village 8, a carpet, and Mitchell & Sturt T-Bars based on demand. The resort’s scheduled closing date is September 29th, but it acknowledged that Mother Nature—which is set to produce windy and wet conditions over the next few days—could throw a wrench in those plans. Last winter, Perisher concluded operations on September 25th.

Thredbo, another large Australian resort, is already closed, alongside numerous other ski areas in the country. Some, like Mt. Baw Baw, haven’t spun their lifts since early September.

The latter half of the Australian ski season has proven difficult. This past August was the country’s hottest on record, and the winter was the second hottest on record, behind 2023. Late last month, Perisher reduced its operating footprint due to warm temperatures, rain, and wind. Spencers Creek, a snow depth measuring site in Australia monitored by SnowyHyrdo, reports dramatically lower snow depth totals than in September 2022. Australian resorts have faced unseasonable conditions for the second winter in a row.

There were powder days, though. Late July saw widespread snowfall at Australia’s ski resorts. “Now’s the time to come—it’s the best conditions we’ve seen so far,” David Clark, destination marketing manager for Mt. Buller and Mt. Stirling, told The Guardian that month. On July 21st, Thredbo reported a 23-inch storm total—eight days later, the Spencers Creek site nearly reached the same July snow depth as 2022 before declining in August.

Warming global temperatures could threaten the viability of winter sports in Australia in the long term. A study published by the Australian National University (ANU) suggested that ski season durations country-wide could shrink significantly, and a study published in Nature in 2018 found that the Australian snowpack had reached a 2,000-year low. The ANU report noted that lower emissions scenarios would reduce the impact on Australia’s winters.

For now, Perisher remains open. In a social media update, the resort services director Andy King recommended that local skiers visit Perisher in the next few days, given the weather forecast, which predicts a mixture of rain and snow on Wednesday, September 25th.

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