It may be June, but it’s never too late for an epic lift line to emerge. In the land down under, Vail Resorts owns Falls Creek, Hotham, and Perisher. While Australia had a slow start to their season with limited lifts, plentiful snowfall over the past week has let them open more terrain. When the powder comes, people tend to follow.
Benjamin Wild shared a TikTok of the lift lines at Perisher on Saturday. He fittingly chose the Eric Cartman soundbite about lines from Season 5, Episode 6 of South Park: Cartmanland. Many people in the comments were outraged that the day ticket price was $234 Australian dollars for the day, although I’m pretty sure that most people there had an Epic Australia Pass.
@benjaminwild1 nightmare fuel @ perisher rn #snow #lineslinesLINES
In a statement provided to News.com, Michael Fearnside, who is the operations director at Perisher, said that it was the perfect storm that caused the lift lines. Numerous lifts had to be closed due to high winds, with speeds exceeding 100km an hour at the top of the mountain.
Despite 64 inches of snowfall over the past week, Perisher’s terrain is still limited due to a slow start to their season. The closed lifts made their terrain footprint even narrower than what it was beforehand.
I’m sympathetic to Vail in this instance, as it’s early season, the winds clearly factored in, and demand is huge due to the powder mania. In terms of constructive criticism, I will say though that the lift line maze work needs some improvement if that’s what they’re experiencing during peak periods.
Image/Video Credits: Benjamin Wild, Perisher Resort
