Corin Forest marketing manager Ashleigh Harrow. Photo: Corin Forest.
There’ll be the most snow there has been in years at Corin Forest this season thanks to the arrival of two new “snow factories”.
Encased in shipping containers, the machines are capable of churning out 200 square metres of flake ice every 24 hours – nearly 300 per cent more than the resort’s current snowmaker, dubbed ‘The Yeti’.
They also work in sub-zero temperatures, which the resort says will allow for more reliable cover and a longer snow season.
They’re still undergoing testing ahead of the opening of ‘Pre-Season Snow Play’ later this month, but the huge piles of snow they’re spitting out bodes well for the future, according to Corin Forest marketing manager Ashleigh Harrow.
“It’s kind of like the ice machine in a refrigerator … it produces a bunch of ice, crushes it up and breaks it down into something finer and once we groom it out, it becomes much more snow-like,” she says.
“It’s a different texture to the stuff the snow guns produced – it’s definitely less powdery – but it’s still really fun for tobogganing on, and you can make snowballs out of it.”
Corin Forest normally opens each year at the start of the autumn school holidays or Easter long weekend in April and runs through to late September or early October, depending on the weather.
The skiing areas are open from the King’s Birthday long weekend in June.
While this will remain the same, Ms Harrow expects the snow cover to be bigger and better.
“Over the last few years, weather conditions and a changing climate have made snow production quite difficult,” she says.
The snow factories arriving by truck. Photo: Corin Forest.
“I mean, we still had a pretty great season last year. Our existing Yeti and snow guns have been helping us for years now … but there have been some weeks where inclement weather – extra wind and rain – really reduces the size of the ski and snow play areas.”
Management has had to close the ski area several times in previous years to let the snow-makers catch up. They’ve also had to reduce numbers for the snow-play areas.
“But from the snow we’ve been able to make so far with the factories, it’s looking like our pre-season area is going to be bigger than it ever has been for the last few years, which is really exciting,” Ms Harrow says.
“It’s been a hard time for the ski industry as a whole, but this brings us back to where we were a few years ago.”
According to 2024 modelling by Protect Our Winters Australia (POW) and the Australian National University (ANU), the average ski season across all Australian resorts is expected to be between 55 and 28 days shorter by 2050, depending on what action is taken on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Being craned into position. Photo: Corin Forest.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest long-range forecast, published on 3 April, predicts “warmer-than-average days are very likely” across most of Australia between April and June this year, with cooler-than-average daytime temperatures reserved for parts of the north.
It also says warmer-than-average nights are very likely across most of Australia, with an increased chance of “unusually high overnight temperatures” nationwide.
Visit Corin Forest for opening times and ticket bookings.
