Thank you to everyone who joined us in the 2023 ski season at Ben Lomond Alpine Resort.
Its been a turbulent year for the Australian ski industry but despite the weather working against us, there’s been some great skiing and snowboarding to be had, and some incredible bluebird days. Check out the round-up of all the work we’ve been doing across the season below.
Infrastructure
Our main goal this year has been to provide as much skiable terrain as possible, over as many days as possible. To help achieve this we’ve invested in new infrastructure.
Significant efforts to install drainage over the summer proved to effectively redirect water from the slopes. This assisted greatly and prevented a lot of water from undermining the snow base from beneath, drastically improving the snowpack compared to prior years.
Snowmaking
Following a large investment in state-of-the art TechnoAlpin snowmakers, we’ve been able to make significant quantities of our own snow this year.
Purchased in February 2023, the snowmakers took three months to reach Tasmania by ship from Italy before beginning their journey up to the mountain. We were able to use our snow groomer for the first time ever this year and it made a massive difference to snow base longevity and the skier experience.
With minimal natural snowfall this year, having the snowmakers has allowed us to open on significantly more days than the last two years. It also allowed us to hold onto our snow base for longer after several weeks of marginal conditions that would have previously led to the closure of the lifts. Snow produced by the snow guns and groomed lasted far longer than natural snow.
Unfortunately, snowmaking opportunities have been very limited compared to the previous two seasons. In total this year we’ve been able to make snow on 20 occasions, totaling 2.6 megalitres of water and 93 hours. This is significantly lower than the five-year average of possible snowmaking hours. In 2021 and 2022 for example, we had between 700-800 hours of prime snowmaking conditions. This year we’ve only had 250 hours and many of these were outside of our allowable snowmaking hours. Despite this, the snow guns have already shown the difference they can make to increasing skier days.
Snow Grooming
We were able to use our snow groomer for the first time ever this year and it made a massive difference to snow base longevity and the skier experience.
The groomer compacted and solidified the snow base extending its life by up to two weeks.
The groomer helped to provide safer and more manageable skiing conditions for novices and allowed us to move snow guns to optimise coverage in patchy areas.
The BASE
This year we launched Ben Lomond BASE, our base operations, offering its own ticket office, National Parks pass sales, snow chain hire, winter clothes and gear rental, and a café. Its had a fantastic start with customers from far and wide experiencing its services for the first time.
The BASE helped customers purchase their compulsory National Parks passes and hire snow chains for their vehicles if driving to the top of the mountain.
Staff at the BASE served over 4000 customers and provided a one-stop shop for everything customers needed for a day on the slopes.
With the liquor license expected any day, we can’t wait to be able to provide a glass of wine or beer in the sun.
We’d like the BASE to be a year-round base camp for all visitors to Ben Lomond so keep your eye on our social channels to see how it evolves over summer.
Thank You
Thank you so much to everyone who’s joined us this year. It’s been wonderful to see so many people enjoying the snow, learning to ski, and making the most of our beautiful mountain. We’ll continue to do our best to ensure as many skiable days as possible across this and future seasons. Thank you for supporting our efforts.
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From the team at Ben Lomond Alpine Resort.
