
Charlotte Pass
Australia's oldest and highest ski resort at 1,765m — snowbound in winter, car-free, and 8km from Perisher in Kosciuszko National Park.
Charlotte Pass holds two distinctions no other Australian ski resort can claim: it is both the oldest and the highest, with a village base elevation of 1,765m and a history stretching back to the original Kosciuszko Chalet, built in 1930. The resort is the only ski area in Australia to be completely snowbound in winter — there is no road access between June and October, and all visitors arrive by oversnow transport from Perisher. That enforced remoteness defines the experience: no cars, no crowds, no lift queues, and direct access to the Main Range of Kosciuszko National Park within walking distance of Australia's highest peak, Mt Kosciuszko at 2,228m.
The ski area covers 124 acres across 24 runs between 1,765m and 1,964m, with a terrain mix that weights toward advanced and beginner skiers — 38% advanced and 33% beginner — served by five lifts. The compact bowl layout means the entire village is ski-in ski-out, and the low skier numbers relative to the terrain give Charlotte Pass a character genuinely unlike any other Australian resort. It is also the coldest location in Australia, recording a low of −23°C, with winter temperatures regularly dropping below −10°C.
Charlotte Pass spreads 24 runs across 124 acres skiable of terrain. It leans advanced at 38%, with 8 beginner runs to find your feet and 9 advanced or expert runs when you want to push.
The 2026 season at Charlotte Pass runs from 21 June to 13 September, a tighter window than Perisher or Thredbo reflecting the resort's compact size rather than any limitation in snow. At 1,765m base elevation, Charlotte Pass receives more consistent natural snowfall than any other resort in Australia — the higher altitude converts precipitation that falls as rain at lower resorts into snow, and the average annual accumulation of 2.5 metres holds well into September. The resort sits above the rain shadow that affects parts of the Snowy Mountains, and the Main Range elevation means late-season coverage is typically reliable.
The DayTripper package — which bundles oversnow transport, a lift pass and lunch — is the standard entry point for first-time visitors coming across from Perisher for the day. Overnight guests staying at the Kosciuszko Chalet Hotel or the resort's independent lodges access the slopes directly from their accommodation, with the village's ski-in ski-out layout meaning the mountain is literally outside the front door.
Charlotte Pass sits at the end of Kosciuszko Road in the heart of Kosciuszko National Park, 8km south-west of Perisher Valley and approximately 45 minutes from Jindabyne by road and oversnow transport combined. In winter, the road beyond Perisher closes and access is exclusively via the Charlotte Pass oversnow transport fleet, which departs from the main Perisher centre. Visitors reaching Perisher by car or Skitube from Bullocks Flat can connect directly to the Charlotte Pass shuttle.
In summer, the resort is accessible by a sealed road — a 35-minute drive from Jindabyne — and serves as the trailhead for the 18.6km return walk to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko. Canberra is approximately 3.5 hours by road, Sydney around six hours. The resort's position on the Main Range places it closer to Australia's highest alpine terrain than any other lift-served ski area in the country.
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The International Ski and Snowboard Federation is looking at a major shake-up to its title events calendar. From 2032, World Championships could run not just in odd-numbered years but in every non-Olympic winter too, effectively putting a global title event on the calendar almost every season. The FIS Council has approved the concept following a feasibility study, though an accelerated rollout as early as 2028 is also under consideration.

Mount Buller closes out its 2026 season this Sunday, joining Falls Creek, Hotham and Charlotte Pass in a cluster of closures landing almost simultaneously and roughly a month ahead of schedule. The culprit is stark: Spencers Creek's benchmark snow depth hit 31.2cm on 3 September, just 18% of the 73-year average and an all-time low for this point in the season. Six of Victoria and NSW's best-known resorts will have shut their lifts early within a span of about two and a half weeks.

Tremblant has confirmed a major expansion of its Quebec ski area, with a new Timber Summit sector adding 62 acres of terrain, eight trails and a high-speed quad chairlift for winter 2027/28. It's part of a CAD 42.5 million investment that also includes a new beginner learning zone at Versant Soleil opening this coming season. The project has grown considerably since it was first announced back in 2020, when it carried a far smaller budget and an opening date that never eventuated.

We knew when the Bird Bath Pond Skim showed up on Hotham's Instagram that the season was on its way out. It's been a rough one - I only managed two days on snow all year, at Falls Creek - and now Baw Baw, Selwyn and Hotham have all called it, possibly the worst Australian season I've seen in a decade. Hotham's last day of lift operations is Sunday, 6 September, with a Retro Day, Father's Day après and closing sales before the lifts stop turning for good.

Thredbo Alpine Resort has confirmed plans to replace its 37-year-old Gunbarrel quad chairlift with a new six-seat Doppelmayr D-Line, targeting winter 2028. The AUD 35 million project will keep travel time roughly the same but lift capacity from 2,800 to 3,000 skiers per hour. It's part of a broader investment push that also includes doubled snowmaking capacity at Friday Flat for 2027, with the ageing Kosciuszko Express now flagged as the resort's next major lift replacement after Gunbarrel.

An aerial tram carrying around fifty passengers struck the boom of a construction crane on the route to Pic Blanc at Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday morning, injuring 23 people, three seriously. The cabin tipped on impact before the operator reversed it to right the car. Most of the injured were treated on site, with five taken to hospital in Grenoble, including a pregnant woman assessed as a precaution.

A deadly flood on the Nepal-China border, a decade-old tragedy on Italy's Marmolada, and an unstable glacier right now above a village near Zermatt - three very different mountain ranges, the same underlying story. Warming ice is destabilising terrain that was considered settled for generations, and the results range from catastrophic floods to slow-motion monitoring situations that could go either way.

Tyrol's highest ski area is gearing up to open a full month ahead of most of the Alps. The Pitztal Glacier is scheduled to start its 2026/27 season on Saturday 26 September, running through to 2 May 2027, with the lower-altitude Rifflsee area following in December. High-altitude terrain up to 3,440 metres gives the glacier a head start on snow, though as always, the actual opening extent will depend on how September's weather plays out. Early online ski pass bookings can save up to 30%.
More Charlotte Pass intelligence: snow report, lift system, webcams, resort overview.