The 'day of the season' (so far), yesterday at The Remarkables, New Zealand
Where to Ski in August 2026
August marks the peak of the southern hemisphere's ski season before things start winding down in September – springtime south of the equator. In fact, the ski area in one country, Lesotho's Afriski, is likely to end its season before the end of this month, usually the first in the southern hemisphere to close.
A month ago, conditions were not looking good in any of the four major southern hemisphere ski nations, but thankfully July snowfall for most, particularly exceptional in the Andes, means that all areas with the exception of Australia have caught up lost ground and are at or close to full operations. Australian resorts are looking a lot better than a month ago.
In the Northern Hemisphere August marks the final month of summer. Four outdoor resorts are open (and over 100 indoor centres), but it is unclear how many of those will survive the continuing summer heat and still be operating once September starts. In fact, the highest of them, Zermatt Cervinia, just announced they were temporarily suspending summer skiing, except for some race teams training, due to the heat.
Southern Hemisphere
Australia
Alas, July did not bring a significant change of fortunes to the ski centres of Australia in terms of snowfall, following the dire start to their 2026 season in June, unlike the other main southern hemisphere ski nations described below. Instead, Aussie centres endured a month with temperatures averaging 12 degrees above the July norm.
That said, there were a few light to moderate snowfalls and overnight lows often allowed snowmaking systems to fire up, but it has been quite the battle to keep even small areas of terrain open. Things are a lot better than they were a month ago, particularly since the final week of last month.
Of the bigger areas, Falls Creek, Thredbo and Perisher start August with about two-thirds of their slopes open; Hotham is at about 50%, and most of the rest are still at 10% or less. Hopefully the coming month brings some better snow news for them too.
New Zealand
Things are looking much better in New Zealand than they did a month ago after some significant snowfalls at the start of last month were followed by some decent dumps over the past few weeks.
Although bases are not spectacular (typically 30–60 cm/12–24 inches), most of the country's commercial centres report that their terrain is now 80–100% open. As is often the case, Mount Hutt is posting the deepest numbers on its upper slopes, with coverage well over the 1 metre/39 inch mark there.
Argentina
It's a very different picture in Argentina compared to a month ago, with the country enjoying full-on winter from mid-July following a largely snowless first month of the season.
As a result, most Argentinian ski areas are now 60–100% open as August starts, and base depths are up to 2.5 metres/8 feet. Chapelco and Las Leñas were among the resorts that received several metres of snowfall in the final fortnight of last month and have some of the deepest cover as a result, as well as the highest percentage of their slopes open.
Chile
After a dismal start to their 2026 season which saw Chilean centres delaying opening for weeks into July and then only managing a small amount of terrain each with thin cover, a massive snowstorm arrived mid-month that deposited up to 6 m/20 feet of snowfall over a two-week period. That equalled annual average snowfalls at many centres and caused its own issues, with a state of emergency declared and slopes closed due to too much snow after there being too little.
Things are now settling down, and August - and indeed September - should now be great months in the country with all slopes open.
Portillo, which has had nearly 6 m/20 feet of snowfall over the past fortnight, has been completely closed with access roads blocked by snow for all that time. Valle Nevado, by contrast, which has had about 3 m/10 feet, has all lifts spinning and almost every run open as August starts.
Africa
Lesotho's Afriski remains open although 2026 has not been a particularly good snowfall winter, with the centre reliant ever more on machine-made snow and battling daytime highs often getting into double figures. The main run remains open, at least to the weekend of 22/23 August when the resort stages what is usually its season-ending Winterfest weekend. That is usually over the final weekend of the month, so it is not clear yet if the 23rd or 30th will be the final day for 2026.
Northern Hemisphere
It is high summer in the Alps and there are few ski areas able to make it through the ever-stronger heatwaves.
One noticeable absentee for those who follow these things is Austria's Hintertux, which formerly operated year-round but as of 2026 has switched to a September–July season, with no skiing in August.
However, Zermatt (its glacier slopes also accessible from Cervinia) officially remains open, although it announced on the final weekend of July that it was temporarily closing its summer skiing due to the heat.
Neighbouring Saas Fee opened for its 2026–27 season last month and at the time of writing has about 10 km/6 miles of slopes open.
You can also ski at Italy's Passo Stelvio and at the time of publishing this report, the Galdhopiggen Glacier up in Norway is also open for summer skiing. It sometimes closes for a period in August/September too.
In North America, there is only the hike-to terrain park at Copper Mountain open from Thursday to Sundays each week until the 15th. The usual summer skiing option on the Palmer Snowfield on Mount Hood in Oregon is not an option this August, as it closed earlier than usual last month following the poor snowfall winter of 2025–26 in the western US.
Over 150 indoor snow centres are now open across 30 countries in Asia, Europe, North Africa and North America if you want more options to ski in August in the northern hemisphere.