Perisher, Australia, Conditions Report: 4 Seasons in Three Days

Four seasons in three days — I certainly treasured the blue sky moments! | Image: Julia Schneemann

Report from August 21-23, 2024

It’s been a wild three days and I have seen it all: windhold, snowfall, rain, sleet, and sunshine.

However, my biggest takeaway from these three days in Perisher was that the conditions were much better than anticipated.

People naturally like to share the shocking photos and yes, Smiggins is looking rather patchy these days, but if you pick your areas, you will find great cover.

Yes, looking at Perisher Valley, things are looking rather bleak, but it’s not a represenation of the snowcover in the ski area. | Image: Julia Schneemann

Blue Cow’s Ridge Run, for example, is currently entirely white, which, to be honest, was not the case last year. I remember watching the FIS ANC Moguls race and standing on patches of grass on the bottom of Ridge.

Snow cover in Blue Cow is great. | Image: Julia Schneemann

So all in all it’s all about perspective. Is it a bumper season? Certainly not. Is the season over? Far from it. Yes, at the moment it gets to slushy spring conditions by 11:00 and moguls will have formed on pretty much every run. But there has also been a record heatwave in Australia and once this cold front moves in, things will firm up again and hopefully give us more cold nights and firm up the snow and possibly top up the cover with some light snowfalls.

Don’t blink or you will miss the blue sky! | Image: Julia Schneemann

The Perisher snowmaking and grooming crews have absolutely smashed it out of the park this year, making snow as much and as wide as they could.

View to Guthega from the Terminal Chair. | Image: Julia Schneemann

Overall, the resort felt emptier than usual (except on Wednesday when chairlifts were on windhold and everyone was clustered at the remaining t-bars). The drop in season pass sales is evident around the mountain and hotels still have availability last minute. If the snowgods deliver a top up, I think I might head back for some more spring turns.