Snow Continues to Fall in Australia & New Zealand
3rd July 2026
Last modified on July 12th, 2026
It has been a poor start to winter with resorts delaying their openings and some just had thin strips of artificial snow. Thankfully that has now changed. UPDATED
It has been a long time coming and to say some natural snow is welcome is somewhat of an understatement.
In New Zealand heavy snow has been falling with some ski areas seeing up to 80cm of fresh snow.
Mt Lyford and Mt Dobson have seen the most snow.
After a delay to the start of its season The Remarkables is now open.
Cardrona is also looking good with 30cm of fresh snow.
“Winter is doing its thing and the snow is showing no sign of slowing down…” the resort wrote on social media earlier this week.
Treble Cone opened earlier this week with 25cm of fresh snow.
“This is the dump we’ve been waiting for. More terrain will come online at Cardrona as the snow keeps falling and snowmaking continues,” said Cardrona and Treble Cone Chief Mountains Officer Laura Hedley.
Mt Hutt reports a base of over 1m.
The Australian ski season has experienced one of its worst starts in decades with almost no snow on the ground at the main resorts of Thredbo and Perisher.
All the other resorts and ski fields suffered too.
Now winter is back on track.
Skiers and snowboarders in Australia have been out on the slopes and resorts are rejoicing.
We reported on the dismal start to the winter ski season in Australia earlier on PlanetSKI:
In Australia average June snowfall is usually around 35cms but it was well below that level last month, with Mount Hotham in Victoria seeing no snow at all.
Across Australia’s ski fields, just two chairlifts were open at the end of June – ‘Easy Does It’ in Thredbo and ‘Bourke Street Express’ in Mount Buller.
That was due to all-weather snowmaking units that can produce man-made snow in temperatures as high as 20 degrees.
Now though things are changing and here at PlanetSKI we’ll keep you posted on the delayed arrival of winter in Australia.
In South America Ski Portillo in Chile opened on July 4th with just three runs on offer and available only to visitors who made hotel reservations.
The resort offers all-inclusive packages for guests that include meals, lift tickets, and lodging.
“Guests with day tickets, season passes, and ticket packs will be able to enjoy Portillo as soon as snow conditions allow us to safely open additional terrain and accommodate more skiers,” the resort posted on social media ahead of its opening.
Valle Nevado is open but has only limited natural snow so far.
Neighboring La Parva is open but described it as a “slow and partial start” in a social media post.
Argentina is faring even worse.
Cerro Catedral is now open but only around 1% of terrain is available.
Cerro Castor is doing slightly better with 15% open.
Do check back…
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