Snow cover on the peaks behind Parliament House is likely to thin on Thursday and Friday although resort managers at Thredbo and Perisher are shouting from the mountain-top about the best start to the ski season in more than a decade.
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Weatherzone meteorologist Ben McBurney said snow on the Brindabellas was likely to become patchier in coming days although the peaks may receive another sprinkling of snow on Saturday.
“Given temperatures have already risen into the positives [in Canberra] there will be a degree of melt with a lot of snow disappearing on the Brindabellas, although there should be some remaining patches of snow for the weekend,” he said.
But that's in contrast to the conditions at Perisher and Thredbo resorts.
“There’s some great snow cover up there and it’s safe to say Perisher and Thredbo would have about two metres of snow cover at the moment,” Mr McBurney said.
The meteorologist said there shouldn’t be too much of a melt factor on the resorts despite clear skies and warmer temperatures on Thursday and Friday.
“If anything that will just make conditions ideal for skiing over the weekend when compared to the previous weekend when conditions were tough and visibility was low,” he said.
Thredbo and Perisher may even receive additional snowfall on Saturday and Sunday.
“On the weekend we will have a weak front coming through which should lead to some snow fall although it will only be as low as 1500 metres, which means the higher and more exposed resorts like Thredbo and Perisher could see as much as five to 10 cm of snow,” Mr McBurney said.
Perisher spokesman Richard Phillips said the resort was “100 per cent open” and “all systems go” with hopes of more fresh snowfall on Saturday.
“We’ve had a little more than 1.8 metres of snowfall over the past few fronts which is just fantastic for school holiday families,” he said. “That’s more snow than we’ve had at this time of year for many, many years.”
Perisher opened the new Freedom chairlift in Guthega on Monday which allowed snow-goers to see the peaks of Mount Kosciuszko and enjoy new terrain on the mountain.
“We built the chairlift over summer which has been a $4 million process that consumed a lot of our time,” Mr Phillips said.
“The chairlift really unlocks the Guthega area and a lot of new terrain for all levels of skiers and boarders.”
A Thredbo spokeswoman said the resort was “looking awesome” as of Wednesday afternoon, with 100 per cent of the mountain open to visitors.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had 100 per cent of the resort open this early in the season – more than a decade,” she said.
The spokeswoman said the resort was hoping for 10cm of fresh snow on Saturday, but there were hopes for a stronger cold front expected to pass over the resort on July 10.
Corin Forest spokesman Andrew Snell said he was hoping to see a bit more natural snowfall on the weekend although snow-making conditions would be perfect in the coming days with low overnight temperatures.
“We’ve had a great day [Wednesday] with the whole snow play area open and we had a really good night for snow making so there’s a great cover of snow at the moment,” he said.
Mr Snell said the road to Corin Forest was open on Wednesday afternoon and expected the road to remain open to all vehicles on the weekend.
“The road at the moment is completely open and we’ve been working really closely with TAMS to try and keep it that way,” he said.
Mr Snell said the alpine slide run was closed although staff would work to get it open for visitors as soon as possible.
Meanwhile in Canberra, Mr McBurney said conditions could be pretty chilly on Thursday and Friday morning with fog and frost patches expected and temperatures dropping as low as minus 3 degrees.
Territory and Municipal Services advised that Orroral Ridge Road was closed due to wet weather and snow on Wednesday afternoon with no expected opening time listed.