In the fast changing race to open for winter 2016 in the southern hemisphere we have a winner! El Colorado in Chile decided to open nearly a fortnight ahead of schedule, yesterday Sunday 5th June (and pictured above), after huge snowfalls in the Andres.
The resort reports a 50cm base at resort level and a metre on upper runs. Those numbers may be dwarfed by other areas yet to open, as Portillo to the north reports 10feet/3m of snow in the last week.
It still plans to open on its published opening date, June 18th, however, but other resorts have announced they'll be opening early including La Parva this Thursday and Valle Nevado on Friday.
Prior to this it had seemed likely that Mt Hutt in New Zealand would be the first in the southern hemisphere to open, on its planned opening date also this Friday – and thanks to the different time zones it will indeed get a full day of skiing in before its neighbours across the Pacific open for their Friday skiing.
After an alarming mild first half of May New Zealand's ski areas have also seen big snowfalls of up to a metre and report bases of up to a metre. Mt Hutt says it will have all lifts and runs open on Friday, quite a rare thing for any resort's opening day. Fellow NZ ski areas Coronet Peak and Cardrona are due to open on Saturday.
Ski areas on Southern Africa and Australia also have this coming weekend identified as opening day but here it's a case of relying on snowmaking at present of temperatures keep low enough.