There’s skiing on both the south and north sides of the planet once again as Perisher ski area in New South Wales, Australia opened at the weekend three weeks ahead of its planned opening date of June 8th.

The resort is believed to be the first to open for 2012 in the southern hemisphere. The next scheduled opening is Afriski in Lesotho, Africa, the only commercial ski area currently operating in southern Africa, on June 7th.

Most resorts in Australia and Chile are scheduled to open on the 8th/9th June and most resorts in Argentina and New Zealand over the following few weekends.

Perisher received natural snowfall of 20cm (eight inches) last week and has been able to make around 30,000 cubic metres of snow during sub-zero daytime temperatures in order to open one run in its Front Valley at the weekend.

More snow is expected early this week and the centre hopes to open again next weekend if pre-season conditions remain good.

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