Tasmania’s Ben Lomond Alpine Resort has kicked off its season ahead of schedule after a generous dump of snow left the mountain blanketed in 20 centimetres of fresh powder.
Resort managing director Ben Mock described the conditions as “really good” on Tuesday afternoon, with snowdrifts bringing up to 30 centimetres in some spots.
The early snowfall prompted staff to fire up the snow-making machines and prepare several lifts for operation.
Mock confirmed the Summit T-bar would be running from top to bottom starting today, with plans to have at least three lifts turning by the weekend.
He said crews had the snowmakers running last night to get a fresh layer down for today.
The early opening marks a calculated gamble that has paid off for the resort, which has enjoyed a few similar early starts in recent years.
“We’ve had this a couple of times over the last five years since we’ve had the business,” Mock told Local Radio.
“We had it in 2022-23, not so much in 2024 and we took the gamble and decided to open up on the June long weekend and it’s paid off.”
Visitor numbers are already up significantly compared to last year’s slower start, with Mock reporting a 500% increase in early-season attendance.
“We like to be optimistic and expect a really good winter and we just get what we get at the end of the day,” he said.
“Last year we had our best year since we bought the lift company back in 2021 and with the additional snow making, we had our longest season ever.”
“We got 74 days of lift operations, which is a massive increase from the years gone by. We hope to get up to at least 100 per year, which is great.”
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a chilly week ahead, with lows of minus four today and minus three on Thursday.
Daytime temperatures are expected to peak at just nine degrees over the next seven days.
