Photo: Mt Cheeseman Ski Area Facebook
Just last week, New Zealand’s Temple Basin announced it wouldn’t operate for this ski season. They revealed there just hasn’t been enough snow coverage nearly two months into the usual operating season for the South Island ski area. Mt. Cheeseman, which is about 60 kilometers away, announced on August 24 it is also waving the white flag on this Southern Hemi winter due to a lack of snow.
“As you’ve no doubt seen via recent updates and the webcams, despite some recent weather systems, we still do not have enough snow to safely and effectively operate the mountain and whilst there is perhaps further hope of snow bearing systems on the horizon we still don’t have any degree of certainty moving forward,” the resort announced on Facebook. “Unfortunately, we have had to make the hard decision to close our ski field operations for the 2025 winter. Due to limited snow, prudent financial management and staff certainty we now need to preserve and look ahead to winter 2026 and also our 100th birthday in 2029.”
Officials at Mt. Cheeseman went on to say that the snow gods could always send a miracle storm in the next few weeks and they may reconsider plans. That’s a sizable miracle, however, based on the current (lack of) coverage.
“The ski area currently has an upper mountain base of 40 centimeters, a lower mountain base of five centimeters, and has not seen additional snowfall since eight centimeters fell on August 19th,” Powder wrote after the news broke. For perspective, nearby Temple Basin has similar snow totals and will see an average snowfall of about 330 inches per year (838 cm).
