The 2024 ski season in South America has got off to an unprecedented start after metres of May snowfall have led centres in the Andes and other parts of Argentina and Chile to open up to a month early for the 20324 season. Most of Chile’s ski areas are now open, at least at weekends and some daily and Argentina’s largest ski centre Catedral near the famous ski town of Bariloche will start its season a fortnight early this coming weekend.
Chile’s Valle Nevado (pictured top last weekend), which reported more than 3,000 skiers arriving for a preview opening last weekend, will also open daily from now on.
“Thanks to excellent early-season conditions and a successful pre-opening last weekend, we are excited to announce daily operations will begin two weeks ahead of schedule,” said Ricardo Margulis, general manager of Valle Nevado, adding “Last year, we were the first Chilean ski resort to open, and it was one of the best winters in resort history with nearly 250,000 skier visits. This year, we anticipate an even better season, expecting around 300,000 visitors, which is about one-third of all snow visitors in Chile,” added Margulis.
Another famous Chilean resort, Portillo, is opening weekends ahead of its 2024 season start on 20/21 June.
Elsewhere in the southern hemisphere Afriski in Lesotho has started its first full-season since 2022, having not offered a full ski run last winter. This week some natural snowfall boosted snowmaking operations and its full length run is back.
Less good news from Australia though where the season begins tomorrow, Saturday 8th, which is a long weekend in the country. Warm temperatures giving limited opening opportunities means only Perisher, Mt Baw Baw and Mt Buller will have any snow areas open. At these three it will be just beginner areas too, the latter two thanks to all-weather snowmaking systems. There appears to be better weather news on the horizon with snow forecast and colder temperatures expected next week.
New Zealand’s 2024 season is scheduled begin in a week’s time. Here too there appears to be little pre-season snow around as yet, although perhaps more than Aussie areas at some centres and again the forecast has promising signs.
