Vic: Signs are good for bumper snow season

AAP General News (Australia)
04-27-2009
Vic: Signs are good for bumper snow season

By Jeff Turnbull

MELBOURNE, April 27 AAP - The signs are looking good for another bumper ski season.

There has been a heavy dump of snow in the alps six weeks ahead of the traditional
opening on the Queen's Birthday weekend, Lake Eyre is filling up with water and Wangaratta
farmer John Moore is forecasting a heavy snow season.

But on the flipside we are in the deepest recession in living memory, unemployment
is on the rise and the elephant in the room, global warming, are making it that much harder
to take a break in the snow.

Skiing is not a cheap holiday - a family of four is up for around $350 a day just for
lift tickets. Throw in ski lessons, ski hire, accommodation and meals and a week on the
slopes is starting to look like serious money.

But if the predictions of long-range weather forecaster John Moore are close to the
mark, dedicated skiers and boarders - even those without a job - will find a way to get
up the hill.

Mr Moore is predicting a "very heavy snow season" and is comparing it to 2000 when
almost a metre of snow fell in the last week of May and it was the last time Lake Eyre
had water in it.

He has been keeping records since 1978 and says he takes in factors such as ocean currents,
air currents, sun spot activity and the moon and its effect on the tides.

"I look back over past records at when these influences were in the same position -
it's a bit like the hands of a clock," he told AAP.

One long-time Mt Buller skier, who has a house and an apartment on the Victorian mountain,
says the recession will hit the ski industry this year but on the other hand, more people
will opt for a cheaper domestic holiday rather than heading overseas.

"This winter will be a good test for the industry," said the skier, who declined to be named.

"People will be pulling their heads in but if you haven't lost your job then your lifestyle
wouldn't have changed that much."

But Townsville chemist Kevin Galloway, who has been skiing for the past 30 years, won't
be hitting the slopes in Australia - he spends his hard-earned on skiing holidays in New
Zealand and North America.

"The snow overseas is reliable and their worst season is generally as good as our best
season," Mr Galloway said.

"Australian lift tickets are outrageously expensive. This year I spent five weeks in
Colorado where I got a 29-day pass for $US543 ($A753) which included a group lesson."

He said the lift queues were also shorter and the runs longer.

The Australian ski fields can't do much about extending the length of their runs but
they have been investing heavily in their snow-making ability and enhancing the value
of their lift tickets.

This season, Victorian resorts Falls Creek and Mt Hotham have teamed up with Perisher
in NSW to create the season-long Super Pass.

It entitles the holder to ski and board at all three resorts for the entire winter.

They are being offered at a discount to the regular full-season pass price, at $1,099
for adults and are available until May 28.

There are ways of cutting costs for families, especially if John Moore is right and
there will be plenty of snow.

Many resorts offer kids-for-free weeks in off-peak periods.

Falls has an offer from July 19 to August 1 from $1,250 where where mum and dad pay
their way for five nights but the kids - a maximum of two - get free lodging and free
lift tickets.

Falls Creek also boasts the most comprehensive network of snow-making activity in the
Australian alps with mounted water guns and new underground pipes enhancing snow production.

Perisher has been working in the off-season to increase its snow-making with new pipelines
and 68 automated snowmaking guns in Happy Valley, the Towers Run and Mt Perisher.

AAP jxt/tnf

KEYWORD: SKI (NEWS FEATURE)

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