AusLeisure

While snow has been scarce over Australia’s alpine region during the opening week of the winter sport season, Thredbo has opened an exciting new experience to attract guests.

Launched to the public last Saturday, the much-anticipated $9 million Thredbo Alpine Coaster is an all-weather, all-year attraction that features as one of a series of major enhancements to ‘future-proof’ the resort and widen its appeal beyond the peak winter and summer seasons.

The 1.5-kilometre track mountain coaster begins with a 410-metre ascent before a heart-pumping 1.4-kilometre downhill track snakes and circles the alpine slopes through snowgums at up to 40km/h with speeds controlled by individual riders.

Advising that the new ride is testament to the resort’s commitment as an all-season adventure destination, Thredbo General Manager, Stuart Diver stated “the Alpine Coaster is a world-class attraction for the Snowy Mountains and will greatly support year-round local tourism.

“It provides a fun new on-snow experience in winter, will build upon our wide range of outdoor adventures in summer and will be a drawcard in the shoulder seasons.”

Other changes guests can expect this season are a result of an expansion of the resort’s snowmaking, grooming and parks-building fleets, specifically the replacement of its pipeline snowmaking gun, three new fan guns near the Kosciuszko chairlift base and two new snowcats.

Thredbo has been addressing the climate challenge to Australia’s ski resorts since 2022 with a rollout of upgrades and six significant developments, many geared towards year-round offerings, and focusing on premium experiences.

Thredbo Brand and Marketing Manager Richie Carroll said the resort’s summer season is growing each year, noting “the number of Australians participating in mountain biking has more than doubled since 2018 and as Australia’s only lift-accessed MTB park, our mountain biking offering has grown significantly.

“We are constantly looking for ways to strengthen Thredbo’s year-round offering.”

Construction on the Alpine Coaster commenced in October 2023 and was completed last month. As part of the construction, the Alpine Coaster has undergone safety testing by independent third-party engineers.

Safety Issues on Thredbo chairlift
An incident in August last year in which three snowboarders suffered serious injuries when they plunged six metres from a Thredbo chairlift after their boards acted ‘like a sail’ during a gale-force wind gust has been detailed in a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The incident, the third time in eight years that a chair has come off its cable in high winds at Thredbo, has raised concerns about the safety of chairlifts at all Australian resorts.

Documents released to the Sydney Morning Herald under freedom of information laws show that days after the incident on the Kosciuszko Chairlift, SafeWork NSW ordered Thredbo to work with the lift’s manufacturer to eliminate or at least mitigate the risk of any more chairs falling off in windy conditions.

The resort says it has complied with all such requirements since the incident while SafeWork NSW says it has been working with Thredbo to install technological solutions that will better manage the effect of sudden strong wind gusts.

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, the agency’s investigation into the 19th August incident found there were few rules dictating how ski resorts should operate chairlifts during bad weather. It advised that more needed to be done to improve the ‘deficient’ Australian standard covering chairlift operations, pointing to Canada as a possible example of how to do things better.

The Kosciuszko Chairlift, which opened in 1990, stretches over 1800 metres and takes skiers from the base of Thredbo to Eagles Nest 560 metres higher up the mountain, providing access to mainly intermediate and expert terrain.

SafeWork NSW noted that an almost identical incident had occurred at Breckenridge ski resort in the USA eight months earlier, in December 2022, when a chair also fell while entering the top station in high winds. However, it was unclear if the lessons from that incident had been discussed with ski resort operators internationally or shared with other lift manufacturers.

SafeWork NSW decided it would not take any further action against Thredbo over the August 2023 incident because the resort had done what was “reasonably practicable” at the time to train staff and maintain the lift, and to operate it in windy conditions.

Images: The newly opened Thredbo Alpine Coaster (top) and one of Thredbo's chairlifts (below).

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