SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Aug. 27, 2024—Massive fall snowstorms set South America’s ski season off on what has been the best winter this century for many centers there, the majority of which opened weeks early in May.Courtesy of La Parva It was a more challenging first month or so in Australia and New Zealand, though snowmaking pulled ski areas there through before the snow finally arrived in late July. In southern Africa, the last remaining commercial area reopened for its first ski season since 2022. 

With meteorological springtime starting on Sunday and the 2024 season beginning its wind down in the Southern Hemisphere, here's an overview of how winter has played out in the different ski nations south of the equator.

Chile

During the Southern Hemisphere’s fall in May and June, jaws were hitting floor with increasing frequency as storm after storm powered in off the Pacific. By the end of May, most of Chile’s ski areas had already opened weeks, in some cases a month earlier than planned. Snowfall totals on opening day at several areas had already surpassed what they typically get in a full season. Opening conditions were described as “the best in years” or even “the best this century.” 

For Portillo, celebrating its 75th season, the issue became too much snow and a planned early opening there was delayed by blocked roads and buried lifts. It did manage to join the early openers in the end, having passed 15 feet (4.6 m) of snowfall by its opening day on June 1.

The huge opening base depths—more than 10 feet (3 m) in some cases—have seen most of the country's resorts through the winter, which is now into its final month for most ski areas there. Although the huge snowfalls ceased once the season began, more moderate snowfalls and consistently low temperatures have marked the season since.

“This season has been exceptional for Valle Nevado,” said general manager Ricardo Margulis. “Last season, we were the first ski resort in Chile to open on June 28, 2023, and it was one of the best winters in our history, with nearly 250,000 total skier visits. Thanks to incredible early season conditions, we were able to kick off [this] season even earlier, opening on May 31. Based on current trends and the strong start we’ve had, we are projecting close to 300,000 skier visits for the 2024 season.” 

The great Chilean season is good news for the North American groups who have increasingly strong interests in the country. None more so than Mountain Capital Partners (MCP), which acquired Valle Nevado in 2023 and La Parva in May 2024, giving it ownership of two of the three resorts making up the Tres Valles or “3 Valleys of The Andes” close to capital Santiago. 

“The partnerships with Ikon, Power, Epic, and Mountain Collective passes have certainly contributed to this increase in international visitors, particularly from North America,” said Margulis, adding that this season “has been particularly strong in terms of volume.” 

Valle Nevado’s hotels, he said, have maintained occupancy rates above 90 percent, with international guests comprising more than 80 percent of total visitors. Brazil is its largest international market, making up nearly 60 percent of hotel guests, followed by the USA, Argentina, and Europe. Naturally, about 70 percent of day visitors are Chilean, and most of the remaining day visitation comes from Brazil.  

Africa

It’s been a tough few years for southern African ski areas with prolonged Covid pandemic border closures and soaring energy costs among the issues faced by the operators of the two commercial ski areas, South Africa’s Tiffindell and Lesotho’s Afriski. 

Tiffindell has not operated since winter 2019 and is currently up for sale. Lesotho skipped last winter due to “disagreements between management and locals.” However, this year it's managed to keep its half-mile-long main slope, learning area, and terrain park features open.  

Although there have been a few snowstorms, snowmaking has been the savior, with overnight lows allowing the ski area to produce enough snow to counter any daytime thawing, up to a point. The snowmaking comes at a cost, though. 

"We have to make sure this business runs itself, and sometimes that's where the problem comes," general manager Puseletso Mahlakajoe told the Japan Times in an interview earlier this month. "Our electricity is very expensive, so there are times when we can't pay a bill that month because we didn't make enough."

Lesotho worked with the Lesotho National Olympic Committee to provide free lessons to 100 local kids during the Paris Games, working on the dream to get more locals on the slopes. "We want those [African] kids to grow up loving skiing here so that we can stop hiring the people from America as instructors," Mahlakajoe added.

Australia

Compared to the Andes, Australian resorts had almost the opposite start to their 2024 season. Most resorts there open, regardless of snow conditions, on the long weekend at the start of June, which is a celebration of King Charles III's birthday. This year, there was almost no snow at that point and a dry, sunny autumn limited the snowmaking opportunities, meaning there was limited open terrain. 

Mt. Buller, which had just taken delivery of its fifth TechnoAlpin SnowFactory all-weather snowmaking unit, was perhaps in the strongest position, opening with roughly a mile of trails. 

Things did not improve much through the rest of June, with overnight snowmaking only gradually allowing about 10-20 percent of terrain to open. 

The big change came in mid-July, five or six weeks into the season when heavy snowfall arrived. Some resorts saw more than 40 inches of snowfall in seven days and conditions transformed. Perisher opened all 46 lifts by the third of August thanks to a combination of natural snow and snowmaking.

Falls Creek benefitted as well. "We've had 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) of fresh snow this past week, and we are so excited to open more terrain thanks to the Summit Chairlift running for the first time this season," said Falls Creek marketing manager Betony Pitcher on July 21.

Since then, most resorts have been fully open, or very close to it, with Perisher and Thredbo among those posting base depths of more than 40 inches at higher elevations.

Perisher vice president and general manager Nathan Butterworth touted the skills of teams at the Vail Resorts-owned properties of Perisher, Hotham, and Falls Creek as the reason for what he called a “truly wonderful season thus far.”

“Australia produces some of the most agile and resilient operators in the world, who are incredibly skilled at maximizing snowmaking production windows in addition to snow farming and grooming,” he said.

Hotham was the first Australian ski resort to host a Freeride World Tour event on Aug. 3. 

Charlotte Pass, Australia’s highest area, had another issue to deal with ahead of the season besides ensuring snow cover: a fire in its sewage processing plant about three weeks before it was due to open for the season. Fixing this problem involved the purchase and rapid construction of bespoke containerized equipment to provide the necessary electrical, aeration, disinfection, and treatment processes required. The project was completed quickly, and the ski area opened about a fortnight later than planned, on July 5, but in time for the busy school holiday period.

Among the season’s standout moments, Selwyn Resort, which was destroyed by bush fires in early 2020 and was rebuilt in the years since, was fully open earlier this month for the first time since 2019. 

That said, with 3-5 weeks of the season left for most Aussie areas, temperatures have been climbing, bases dropping, and the amount of terrain open has been falling back, too. Mt Buller, for example, is back to about a quarter of its terrain still open for its final weeks. Selwyn Resort was forced to close completely on Aug. 25, but hopes to reopen if conditions allow.

Thoughts are turning to 2025, with some capital projects already in the works, including at Perisher, which is replacing a double chair with a high-speed six passenger lift set to open in 2025. Once complete, it will be highest lift-served point in Australia.  

Argentina

Argentina had the same stand-out start to the season as ski areas just over the border in Chile and actually surpassed Chilean snowfall totals. Southerly Las Leñas, for example, located 750 miles (1200 km) south of the capital Buenos Aires, had massive snowfalls in the pre-season period that unofficially measured in the tens of feet. 

However, despite the deep snow, there was not the same race to open early. Only a few Argentinian resorts started their lifts spinning before scheduled opening dates in the latter half of June. One notable exception was Cerro Catedral, which opened a little terrain for the weekend of May 9-11, targeting locals, and in the process making it the first in the Southern Hemisphere to get its lifts spinning in 2024. It then closed again for about a month before its full opening. 

Again, as in Chile, those early season accumulations have sustained cover right through the season. Catedral has been posting the most open terrain in the world for much of the 2024 season with around 100 km (63 miles) of trails and upper base depths of 10 feet (more than 3 m), deeper than lift-served glaciers in Europe and the United States. 

With more snowfall and temperatures remaining low as the Southern Hemisphere approaches the start of meteorological springtime, things are looking good for the final month of the season in Argentina.

New Zealand

New Zealand’s season has been rather below par. With temperatures a little warmer than ideal, what would normally be snow is falling as rain. However, at most of the commercial ski areas, base depths have gradually built up with some of the best snowfalls of the season to date in mid-August. As a result, most of the country's South Island areas now have 80-100 percent of their terrain open and all lifts turning, with Mt. Hutt passing a healthy 80-inch (2 m) base on its upper slopes in the past week. There’s also a big snowstorm forecast for the final days of August, with up to 40 inches (1 m) expected to arrive by Sunday, Sept. 1, the first day of meteorological springtime. 

This coming weekend, the first FIS World Cup event in the country in five years is being held at Cardrona, with the 2024-25 Snowboard Park & Pipe tour kicking off at the resort. 

International stars, including Eileen Gu (CHN), Alex Ferreira (USA), Marcus Kleveland (NOR) and Dusty Henricksen (USA) as well as local talent such as Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, Nico Porteous, Luke Harrold and Lucia Georgalli, are all expected to be competing on courses that include Australasia’s only full-length World Cup halfpipe.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be back into the swing of major events at Cardrona, and welcoming some of the world’s best back to our little corner of the world,” says Cardrona and Treble Cone GM Laura Hedley, adding, “We encourage everyone to come up and check out all the action… and with all these big names in town, you never know who you’ll end up sharing a chairlift with.”

As far as business levels for the season go, a spokesperson for the jointly owned Cardrona and Treble Cone resorts said, “We’re not able to provide specific stats on [business] numbers, but we can say skier numbers are strong year on year.”

On the North Island, lean snowfall has made it a struggle all season for Tūroa and Whakapapa ski areas on Mt. Ruapehu. The two resorts had been operated jointly as New Zealand’s largest area, but financial difficulties partly tied to the Covid pandemic led to a government bailout and the two areas returning to separate ownership. 

Tūroa’s new operators, who have said they’re working on a tight budget and commitment to stay in the black, have managed to open more than two-thirds of the terrain despite the challenging conditions. 

Whakapapa has been struggling all winter and still has less than 10 percent of its terrain open. Management is clinging to the hope of a change for the better in weather conditions as its season typically starts and ends after most other Southern Hemisphere ski areas, often leaving it the last operating south of the equator in late October. So, there is still time.

Report by Patrick Thorne, www.thesnowhunter.com