After a settled week, New Zealand's ski season is about to get a proper shake-up. A storm rolling in from Friday will bring rain and gale-force winds before a cold southerly change drops fresh snow across the South Island. The Southern Lakes should pick up 10-15cm by Sunday, while Canterbury is in line for the goods - Mt Hutt and the Craigieburns are forecast solid totals, with the north set to cop the heaviest falls of the lot. Ruapehu largely misses out, but Opening Day should be a cracker.
Two days ago, webcams across Australia's ski resorts were showing bare, grassy slopes. Now they're buried in white. A cold snap has dumped fresh snow from the Snowies to the Victorian high country overnight, with Thredbo copping 24cm, Perisher 20cm and Hotham reporting a storm total of 30cm. Blizzard conditions, sub-zero temps and howling winds have made for a proper winter morning - and snowmaking crews are making the most of it while the cold sticks around. Here's how each resort fared.
Hakuba Cortina sits at the quieter end of the valley with 12 metres of annual snowfall and genuinely excellent tree skiing. The trade-off for fewer crowds is modest vertical and a lift system that feels more 1990s than 2020s.
Powderhorn Mountain Resort's long-awaited lift upgrade is no longer just a plan. Crews have finished dismantling the 54-year-old West End double, and work has begun on the high-speed quad set to replace it - a refurbished ex-Elk Camp lift from Aspen Snowmass getting a full rebuild from Leitner-Poma. The new Wild West Express will cut the old lift's notorious 13-minute crawl to just six minutes, arriving for Powderhorn's 60th anniversary season in 2026-27. Here's where construction stands.
LAAX built its reputation on terrain parks and freestyle culture, but the resort's 214 kilometres of trails and 1,918-metre vertical drop tell a more complete story. The question is whether the park-forward identity still defines the experience.
The last piece of Ischgl's 50 million euro lift overhaul is underway. With the Höllbodenbahn and Sassgalunbahn already running since 2025, attention has turned to the Höllkarbahn C2 - a new 8-person Doppelmayr D-Line chair with heated seats, weather hoods and room for 89 chairs across 14 pylons. Helicopters have been hauling out the old towers since May, with a November 26 opening targeted. Here's where the build stands and what it means for the Silvretta Arena.
Australia's 2026 ski season has hit a grim milestone - Spencers Creek read zero centimetres entering July, matching the second-worst start in 72 years of records. A Japanese resort seized the moment, posting webcam shots of brown Aussie slopes to spruik its own snow. El Nino is the likely culprit, but 72 years of data says panic is premature - a storm packing up to 40cm was forecast to hit from Thursday. Here's what's actually going on, and what history says happens next.
Hoch-Ybrig sits an hour from Zürich with 50 kilometres of pistes and none of the crowds that plague bigger Swiss resorts. It's a workable option for families and intermediates who prioritise convenience and groomed runs over vertical or challenging terrain.
Arapahoe Basin runs when other resorts don't - opening in October and frequently skiing into June. But this high-altitude workhorse trades amenities for snowfall and challenging terrain that skews heavily expert.
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