The 2017 ski season has got underway in South America after big May-snowfalls.
In a repeat of 2016, El Colorado in Chile opened at the weekend around a month ahead of the planned mid-June opening date, due to all the snow which feel at the start of last week– which at some resorts totalled around 90cm/three feet of snow in the equivalent of a November snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere.
A second Chilean ski area, Valle Nevado (pictured above) has said it will open in May also. In a Facebook statement the centre's staff said,
"With the last snowfall we already have more than 80 cm and can ensure excellent quality of snow and clues. That's why we advanced the opening of the season for the end of May!"
The earliest official start dates for the southern hemisphere's 2016 season are the week after next when Afriski in Lesotho and Tiffindell in South Africa plan to open on June 1st.
Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand aims to open on the earliest date in its history, and be the first to open in New Zealand, thanks to being one of several southern hemisphere ski areas to start the 2017 season with the assistance of new 'all weather' snowmaking systems such as Techno Alpin's 'Snow Factory' machine.
Mt Buller and Selwyn in Australia have bought similar machines so they can guarantee snow the following weekend (June 10/11) when almost all Australian ski areas open as is traditional for the Queen's birthday public holiday weekend there. This can often be a 'snowless' ski area opening in Australia if no natural snow and too warm for conventional snowmaking, but the two centres hope to avoid that with their new systems.