As snowfall declines, a key ingredient is keeping the ski season alive

Five years ago the ski lifts at Tasmania's Ben Lomond resort operated for 17 days of the year.

In 2023, that number increased to 60 days and last year it was 104.

The resort's managing director, Ben Mock, who bought the business in 2021, said the change in fortune came down to a key ingredient — snow machines.

"When we started to make snow it turned the business around massively," he said. "We had increases on our first year of around 280 per cent in sales and the following year we saw more of a growth on that of about 150 per cent."

Man-made snow machines greet skiers at Perisher during school holidays.

Almost $1 million has been invested in six snow guns at Ben Lomond.

Without them, Mr Mock said the business would not be viable.

"Snowmaking is an insurance policy for not only us, but all ski resorts.

"We don't know when Mother Nature is going to deliver the goods, but by having the cold weather that we normally get … when there might not be much precipitation or snow in the air, we can compensate that by making snow."

As snow depth decreases amid warming temperatures, snowmaking has become crucial to safeguard ski seasons and the viability of resorts around the world.

Snow cameras painted a bleak picture across Australia's ski fields in late June during one of the worst-ever starts to the snow season.

Visitors took advantage of thin strips of man-made snow on the main runs at Victoria's Mount Buller as well as Thredbo and Perisher in New South Wales.

A snow dump during the first weekend of July helped the resorts resemble a winter wonderland once again.

Barney Davis has spent most of his life working at Perisher, starting as a lift operator almost 50 years ago. He said the improved conditions had lifted spirits.

"We were doing it tough, we had a bit of man-made [snow] and people were still playing and learning and being out on all these snow patches," he said.

"Then along comes this snow and people have come from far and wide and it's terrific."

Mr Davis said conditions at the start of winter were often unpredictable.

"You don't have June the same every year and there's been many years where we haven't had snow until July," he said.

While Australia's snow season is notoriously difficult to forecast, data shows natural snow depth is declining.

The latest State of the Climate report found that snow depth, snow cover and the number of snow days had decreased in alpine regions since the late 1950s.

In 2024, the Australian Mountain Research Facility and ANU found snow cover between 1954 and 2012 had reduced by 30 per cent.

The report, c