Perisher Blue, New South Wales

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Perisher Blue
Location:	Perisher Valley
Nearest city:	Sydney
Top elevation:	2054m
Base elevation:	1640m
Skiable area:	3076 acres
Lift system:	50 lifts
Snow fall:	1.9m (median)[1]
Web page:	Perisher Blue

Image:Perisher Front Valley.JPG

Perisher Blue is Australia's largest skiing resort. It is located in the Australian Snowy Mountains in the southeastern corner of New South Wales, in the Snowy River Shire, about 600 kilometres southwest of Sydney.

The resort is an amalgamation of the Perisher, Smiggins Holes, Blue Cow and Guthega skifields and many lifts. The base elevation is about 1,640 metres AHD and the summit elevation at the top of Mount Perisher is 2,054 metres. The resort is accessible by road and by the Skitube, Australia's only underground rack-railway. The main skiing period is in July and August, with the official season running from the second weekend in June to the first weekend of October.

Perisher Blue consists of 50 lifts. One eight seater (built in 2003), two high-speed Quad detachable chairlifts, four fixed-grip Quad chairlifts, two Triple chairlifts, four Double chairlifts, 21 T-Bars, four J-bars, four ski carpets, and eight other types of skier and boarder moving devices.

There are four villages that comprise the Perisher Blue resort:

Perisher Valley, Elevation 1,720 m
Smiggin Holes, Elevation 1,680 m
Guthega, Elevation 1,640 m
Blue Cow, Elevation 1,890 m

The run difficulties are graded, 22% beginner, 60% intermediate and 18% advanced.

The resort covers 12 km² and has 148 snow guns covering 4 km². Snow making usually commences in the last week of May.

[edit] Weather

Temperature

Taken at Perisher Valley, New South Wales, 36.40°S 148.41°E.

Average minimum
    Jan   Feb   Mar   Apr  May   Jun   Jul   Aug   Sep   Oct  Nov  Dec    Year 
°C  5.6   5.4   3.9   1.0  -1.0  -3.6  -5.2  -4.2  -2.3  0.4  2.3  4.1    0.3

Average maximum
    Jan   Feb   Mar   Apr  May   Jun   Jul   Aug   Sep   Oct  Nov   Dec   Year 
°C  18.1  18.0  15.3  11.0  7.4  3.5   2.1   2.8   5.2   9.4  13.2  15.1  9.7

Snow

Measurements taken at Spencer's Creek (approx 2 km from Perisher Valley), as these are the only reliable historical readings. Natural depths in the ski resort are similar. All depths in cm.

               Jun.	Jul.    Aug.    Sep.   Oct.   Season 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mean            45.3	107.3	 164.3	 178.0	108.3	120.6 
Std. dev.       42.3	 60.0     64.1    68.6	 72.2	 54.3 
Median          35.9	100.2    153.4   171.0	 85.4	110.6 
Range          188.0	212.6    281.7   252.7	260.9	202.8

Image:Spencers Creek Snow Depths.png