Large snowfalls have been reported in Australia ahead of one of the country's busiest months of the ski season.
Perisher, the nation's largest ski area, recently acquired by Vail Resorts from the US, reported 70ccm of fresh snow in the past 48 hours.
The resort now has 45 lifts operating and has opened more runs including Eyre, International, Sun Valley and Interceptor, as well as linking Perisher Valley with Smiggin Holes.
Other Aussie resorts have had healthy snowfalls too, Falls Creek reports 16cm (six inches) of fresh snow overnight and describes conditions as "awesome" with full ski-in, ski-out access.
Mt Hotham has had similar accumulations.
Base depths are creeping up towards the 1m mark and more snow is expected today although snow showers will ease, whilst temperatures remain well below freezing moving towards August.
The big Aussie snowfalls follow healthy falls in the last fortnight across South America after a slow start to the season there, with some resorts there now reporting almost 2m depths on upper slopes (Catedral in Argentina) and in Southern Africa where roads top the Afriski centre in Lesotho were blocked yesterday by snow.