The 2015 ski season south of equator has got underway today, Friday June 5th, on two continents – Africa and Australia. South American ski areas are expected to start operating in a fortnight.
Several Australian areas including Perisher (pictured above this week), the largest, and Mt Buller, have opened a day earlier than planned thanks to good snowfall and low temperatures to allow snowmaking over the past week.
Australian always open for the season over the coming ‘Queen’s Holiday’ long weekend but often there’s little or no snow cover. This season is different,
“We are excited to tell you that for the first time in years we will open the season with three lifts operating,” said a statement from MT Baw Baw resort. “We currently have 15cm of natural snow on the ground and 45cm in the our snow making areas.”
Mt Buller celebrated the good conditions by running its lifts free-of-charge to skiers and boarders today.
In southern Africa, Afri-ski ski area in Lesotho officially opened for the winter yesterday but didn’t have enough snow cover. Cold temperatures allowing snowmaking along with natural snowfall will hopefully change that today.
Elsewhere, New Zealand’s ski areas have had a lot of pre-season snowfall in May and June but won’t start to open until next week. There’s been some snow in South America too where most areas aim to open a fortnight on Saturday (June 20th).
