Folks,

Sorry for the lack of posts to date… hope you have been enjoying the winter….

See http://www.perisherblue.com.au/winter/media/release.php?release_id=111

How was your experience of our new snowmaking?

Towers is still looking and skiing great

p

Tourism Snowy Mountains has written the following to the NSW Police Minister to seek to get the issue addressed…. Interested if anyone experienced the traffic jam?

The Hon. Tony Kelly, ALGA MLC

Minister for Police, Land and Rural Affairs

Dear Mr Kelly,

I write to you regarding the traffic chaos in Jindabyne on Friday 31st July, caused by the NSW Police conducting ‘random’ breath and drug testing on Kosciuszko Rd.

The tourism community of the Snowy Mountains raised this issue with the police in a community forum last year and were told by the attending officer that the police were not the problem, but the two lanes into the one lane was the issue. We agree the lane situation needs to be fixed and there are ongoing discussions with both the Snowy River Shire and the RTA on this matter, but yet to be resolved.

It is apparent however that traffic chaos in Jindabyne only occurs on days when Police set up drug/alcohol testing near Snowy Mountains Grammar School. We have suggested alternative locations so as not to cause such traffic chaos, but we have not been listened to.

This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9lR8bGsXoY   proves the police setup is the problem. Today (Friday 31 July 2009) was not the busiest day this season yet it was the first day Jindabyne suffered a traffic gridlock starting from the Police Testing setup.

As you would well be aware, many of the seasonal staff employed by the Snow Resorts of Perisher and Thredbo as well as staff from the National Parks Service live in Jindabyne and make the daily commute to the resorts. This morning, approximately 50 of Thredbo’s Snow Sports Instructors were late arriving to work as a direct result of the police conducting their random breath testing.

One group of staff left their home in East Jindabyne at 8:10am and did not arrive in Thredbo until 9:50am. Normally this journey would take 40 minutes; this morning 1 hour and 40 minutes. This situation directly resulted in them having to refund private lessons because the staff that was allocated to these lessons were stuck in traffic in Jindabyne, and many more of the customers were late to their lessons that were scheduled to commence at 9:30am.

In Perisher some of the Instructors arrived up to 45 minutes late for work and there were three coaches that arrived very late but thankfully all lessons were successfully rescheduled so their day was not completely ruined. We have other staff members and guests who spent up to 40 minutes travelling the small distance from the Lake Jindabyne Hotel to the Snowline Caravan Park, a trip that should take less than 5 minutes.

The NSW Snowy Mountains received more than one million domestic and international visitors to the year ending March 2009, spending 2.3 million nights and injecting $547 million into the regional economy.

Given the importance of tourism to the local community, I would question the manner in which the NSW police are conducting these random tests and the long term impact this sort of blanket testing will have on our ability to attract visitors to the Snowy Mountains. I am sure you would agree that it is unfair to our resort and other staff who miss out on an opportunity to earn a living, and our resort guests who travel great distances to come skiing and snowboarding rather than sitting in traffic chaos in Jindabyne.

I also understand that the NSW Police are trying to ensure that our roads are as safe as possible, and we fully support the random breath and drug testing, the placement of highway patrol and speed checks. However, it is possible to do this without causing traffic chaos and unreasonably delaying people’s holidays and work life. I urge you to find a better solution.

I would be happy to discuss this with you further, and can be contacted at the phone number or email listed below.

Yours sincerely,

Gary Grant

Chair Tourism Snowy Mountains

So, Perisher has spent quite a bit on resort improvements in recent years…..

Since 2003 the following new lifting and snowmaking has been installed…

The Village Eight Express, two new skier conveyors, new snowmaking on Excellorator, Roller Coaster, automation of Front Valley snowmaking, new automated snowmaking to midstation on the Forester Express, Happy Valley, Snowy Trails and Towers Run on Mt Perisher.

We’re currently reviewing our priorities for future development for about the next five years. The general developments that are planned are contained in the Ski Slope Master Plan.

While we’d love to knock over all of the development contemplated by the SSMP in one year… its not possible in an investment or logistical sense. So, we’re revieing our priorties in order to try and make the biggest improvement for our guests having regard to the balance between the need for reliability (snowmaking) and efficiency (lifting) of snow riding.

Having seen what Perisher has done in recent years we’d be interested to know what you think we shoudl do next and why.

nice. its looking good, come on up and enjoy….

That’s right Folks.

The groomers and snowmakers have done a great job over the last couple of days so we plan to open Early Starter, Terminal, Summit and Ridge Chairs this coming Saturday and Sunday for the first time this winter. By the looks of things up there this morning I’d say Excelerator is another week away but Zali’s and Roller Coaster are looking great.

So pack your gear and come on down for the weekend - with Mt P, Zali’s and Lower Rollercoaster its some of the best early season sliding in years.

p

Let us know what you think….