Nearly a meter of snow has fallen on the ski slopes of Mt Buller, the deepest snowfall ever recorded for a long weekend of the queen’s birthday.
After two years of confinement, the ski slopes opened a week earlier this year thanks to heavy snowfall that is not usually seen until mid-July or August.
The depth of snow on Mount Buller has reached 76 centimeters, the highest for a queen’s birthday weekend since records began 44 years ago. It was so deep on Saturday that the staff was digging chairlifts in the snow.
Mt Buller has broken his snow depth record at the start of the season. Credit: Mount Buller / Twitter
“It simply came to our notice then [on Saturday] he was digging things up; there’s almost too much snow, ”said Terry Lyons, who has spent every season skiing in the mountains for the past 44 years.
“The cheapest snow is air snow, and we’re getting a lot of it right now.”
When artificial snow is added, the snow reaches an average depth of 84 centimeters. The depth of the snow has reached 92 centimeters at Falls Creek and 82 centimeters at Mt Hotham.
A particularly snowy start to the winter of 2000 brought a little more snow in early June of that year, according to records. But at Mt Buller some melted just before the Queen’s birthday weekend when the ski lifts usually start spinning.
“That’s a record,” Lyons said. “By his appearance, he will not disappear quickly.”