It's been quite the opening week for Hotham, and other Australian resorts...
The 2025 southern hemisphere ski season is off to a strong start, with Australia blessed by a big snowstorm. Skiing has also begun in New Zealand, Lesotho, and soon South America, while Val d'Isère opens briefly for summer and the last U.S. resorts wrap up this weekend.
The Snow Headlines - June 12th
- Sensational start to Australian season as biggest snowstorm for three years arrives on cue.
- Val d'Isere opens for short 2025 summer ski season.
- New Zealand's 2025 starts early at one area after big snowfall.
- Final weekend of season coming up in California and Colorado, last resorts closing Sunday.
- Skiing and riding now possible in Lesotho as Afriski opens run a week after season start.
- Ski season in South America starts Friday.
There is snow forecast for Australia and rather a lot for Argentina and Chile!
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World Overview
The southern hemisphere's 2025 season proper got underway at the weekend with most Australian areas open after (and during) substantial snowfall (over half a metre in places).
The first small area opened in New Zealand too and Lesotho's Afriski which opened on June 1st said it now has a short snow run available.
The early start of New Zealand was thanks to an equally welcome big weekend snowfall, and the first of the major centres will be opening for 2025 this weekend.
It haw not been such a promising picture to date in the Andes with ski areas in Argentina and Chile delaying opening or saying they're opening this coming weekend but with no runs open yet. Things may change quickly though with big snowfalls currently underway and one resort just announced at short notice it plans to open on Friday.
In the Northern Hemisphere, it's one out, one in, in Europe with the Molltal glacier ending its long 24-25 season and Val d'Isere re-opening for its short summer ski run. There are six other glacier areas open, four in the Alps, and two in Norway.
Five centres are open in the US with Copper's summer hike-to terrain park opening last weekend, but two are due to close for 24-25 this Sunday. You can also still ski on Japan's Gassan Glacier.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
Australia's season got off to an almost perfect start at the weekend as possibly the biggest snowstorm in three years hit the country with ideal timing thanks to a Polar blast from the south.
The country's ski areas had been struggling to open much terrain for opening day on Saturday as the run-up to the season had been often warm and dry with limited snowmaking opportunities, but by Sunday resorts were posting pictures of deep powder descents.
Ski areas posted 20-30cm accumulations daily for three days before the storm began to peter out and sunnier, drier conditions followed.
Perisher, Corin Forest, Mt Hotham, Mt Buller and Thredbo were among the resorts opening on Saturday with Falls Creek following on Sunday.
The sunshine has now returned but it's much cooler than it was on Australian slopes with temperatures still low enough for overnight snowmaking. Resorts have been opening more terrain ahead of the coming weekend and there's now more snowfall forecast.
New Zealand
New Zealand's season got underway on Saturday with Manganui Ski Area, a club field operated by the Stratford Mountain Club, first to open after more than 50cm of snowfall. It opened Sunday too but had to close on Monday as warmer weather brought rain, unfortunately.
The main commercial centres including Cardrona, Coronet Peak, Mount Hutt and The Remarkables are due to open from this Friday or Saturday.
There were big snowfalls across the South Island on Friday/Saturday with Mt Hutt reporting up to a metre there. Since then, it has been mostly dry, other than some lighter midweek showers, with temperatures ranging from -0C to +6, but snowfall has returned now.
Argentina
Several ski centres in Argentina have announced they've started their winter seasons, but they're also stressing they can't offer any skiing yet – it has been too warm and dry.
Leading resorts Catedral near Bariloche and Las Lenas to the south are among them.
The dry, often warm weather has continued for the past week, but there are now signs of a switch to more wintery conditions over the next seven days with potentially some big falls early next week if forecasting models prove correct.
Chile
It had been a largely dry, sunny and often warm week in Chile although cold enough at night for snowmaking to operate where facilities exist.
So far nowhere has opened yet but Valle Nevado announced late on Wednesday that it will make a limited early opening from Friday, the first for 2025 in the Andes.
There's always a chance somewhere else might join them.
That chance appears to have increased with a change in the weather just starting to happen and forecast to continue for the coming week – a switch to more wintery conditions with some significant snowfall expected.
Lesotho
Lesotho's Afriski area has had another week of largely dry, sunny weather with warm afternoons.
Despite announcing its winter season had started on 1st June the resort was coy about detailing what skiing was open, but by last weekend was publishing video that appeared to show a small snow area available to ski, created by snowmakers.
There was some snowfall on Monday/Tuesday leading the resort to recommend no one attempted to visit until roads were made safe and the pass from south Africa remained closed on Wednesday. Since then the weather has returned to predominantly sunny for the rest of this week, with temperatures in the -5 to +5C range.
Northern Hemisphere
The Alps
It's been a largely warm and sunny week in the Alps, the temperatures ranging from 0C to +10C on glaciers, the freezing point up at 3500-4500m. It's looking similar through the rest of the week and the weekend.
Val d'Isere has opened for summer skiing, joining Les 2 Alpes for a second French option; both are open up to the first week of July.
Austria is down to one area open, Hintertux, after Molltal ended its season last Saturday, a day earlier the planned due to weather conditions. Hintertux is posting the most terrain still open in Europe, still around 25km of slopes available.
You can also still at Italy's Passo Stelvio and above Zermatt at the Glacier Matterhorn Paradise, Europe's highest slopes, also accessible from Cervinia on the Italian side. About 10 miles of runs are open there.
Scandinavia
The Stryn and Galdhopiggen glaciers remain open but temperatures have been climbing quite high in the afternoons, above 15C at Stryn.
It's been a largely sunny week although both centres saw a few centimetres of snowfall on Tuesday morning. Stryn has been operating weekend cat skiing on top of its lift-served operation.
The Fonna Glacier remains closed due to ownership issues. It plans to offer some cat skiing later this month, according to reports, but won't run its lift this season.
USA
There are five ski areas still open in the US but barring any last-minute changes, this weekend is the final one (after seven-and-a-half-months of operations each) for Mammoth Mountain in California and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado.
Mammoth's base makes it seem like it could go on a little longer if it wants to but it's getting thinner at Arapahoe Basin and they're stressing this one is definitely the last there.
The summer hike-to terrain park at their neighbour Copper Mountain is still operating though, as is North America's only summer ski area at Beartooth Basin in Wyoming.
Oregon's Timberline is usually the last still open, into August, but its base depth has been dropping very fast, more than three feet in a week from the 10 feet it had lying at the start of the month so it remains to be seen if the current mostly very warm and sunny weather in the west influences that.
As it is conditions are obviously best in the mornings when temperatures are close to freezing, but things do deteriorate pretty fast as the day rapidly warms up. Any cloud cover to help keep things cooler helps! There just hasn't been much recently and not much forecast either.