Fresh Snow in Australia, NZ and the Andes

Are you missing the snow?

If so, you’d better look away now, because the ski resorts of the southern hemisphere are looking fresh, white and fast – and the locals are having a ball.

As usual at this time of year, Thredbo in Australia is posting some inspiring videos. Here’s the resort’s summary of conditions last week. It features some high-speed carving that will have you howling for your skis…

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There’s a little more snow in the forecast for the back end of the weekend too.

There’s also been fresh snow in New Zealand. This was Mt Hutt near Christchurch on Friday.

And this was Treble Cone near Wanaka yesterday.

Mount Hutt currently has an impressive 117-139cm of snow packed down on its pistes. Treble Cone has 62-85cm of settled cover.

All the ski fields of the South Island should get more snow over the next three days, as a powerful weather system crosses the country. It’s going to be windy, too, and conditions will probably be wild enough to close roads, bring down power cables, and shut resort lift systems. “Significant snow accumulations are expected above 400m,” according the NZ’s Metservice. So conditions will be tough in the short term, but when the skies clear…Oh my.

Meanwhile, check out how Valle Nevado in Chile looked on Sunday, as its excellent season continues.

Meanwhile in the Alps…

Two of our editors are in the Alps at the moment, hiking and biking their way through the Tirol, in Austria. Today, they report a mix of “heavy rain and hot sunshine,” as a spell of summer storms settles over the region.

Mostly, the storms are brewing in the afternoon, and the advice is to get out and enjoy the mountains before lunchtime: but today in the Zillertal, the storms came early, and have cleared to leave clear blue skies, and a fabulous afternoon for a walk above Mayrhofen.

Meanwhile, on the glaciers, the summer ski season continues. This was the Hintertux, near Mayrhofen on Sunday…

For more on summer in the Alps, check out our new Summer section.