Despite having a jolly good time skiing at Perisher for three days during September 2025, we still think it essentially a long cross-country ski tour on lifts! The vast area covered, the gentle terrain (with a few exceptions), shortish runs and multiple villages spread far & wide simply do give it a ski touring vibe. Not a bad thing necessarily, but it does give an insight into what we think of skiing here….
On our first day, figuring on a full tour of the resort and that we would be able to ski straight from the terminal, we took the SkiTube all the way up to Blue Cow. Was fascinating to be part of a ‘rope drop’ to start of the day’s proceedings. How very North American! A nice slide down to Ridge Quad and the full resort tour ensued. By lunchtime we had skied all of the good stuff on Blue Cow; then across to Guthega for several gorgeous groomers; went back up the Blue Cow terminal then across to centre valley & Mt Perisher to check the new sixer and some sun-softened off-piste out wide. Lunch at the Powder Inn is just passable but we like what they have done with the deck incorporating the old Perisher double chair base. After lunch we slid back toward Back Perisher then across to North Perisher and eventually up the Piper T-bar to check out Smiggins. After some pleasant runs we went to the Front valley via Telemark T-bar, feeling very sorry for the liftie that had to jump up to grab the T-bars for each skier. Tough day for them working on a very poorly designed lift base. It was at this point that we were struck by the numbers of humans. All day we had plopped about with no lift lines, very few other skiers in evidence anywhere, but the Front Valley crowd certainly stood out as being crowded. Overall a good day racking lots of kilometres.
Days 2 and 3 were powder days. Early SkiTube up and to our disbelief, first chairs and tows with no lift lines all morning (no other people in the queue let alone a lift line). We had expected a more enthusiastic local powder hunting crew competing for first tracks so were surprised and relieved to find it otherwise. We spent our time popping in and out of the trees where we could and finding fresh line after fresh line. Glorious, but due to the gentle nature of the terrain, in a muted way.
The Perisher ski lifts are a right royal mixed bag of modern high-speed chairs, ancient excruciatingly slow chairs and surface after surface tow after tow. The surface tows are a blessing and a curse. A curse for a lot of snowboarders and anyone gone soft on a diet of chairlifts. A blessing because on a powder day with high winds when just about everything on Perisher grinds to a halt, it’s the surface tows that get one out to the (relative) goods.
Of the three days we skied Perisher on this trip, each had a period of high winds that shut down much of the mountain. The first day saw the Freedom quad chair at Guthega not run for the whole time. Turns out that doesn’t matter when no one is around because the Blue Calf & Blue Cow T-bars take you to the same high point! And then in the afternoon, most of the higher chairs all shut down due to the wind. The following day it snowed and blew hard and only the frontside lower chairs (so not the Mt Perisher 6 or the Perisher Quad Express) plus Pretty Valley chair ran. Blue Cow and Guthega had nothing running (& Smiggins doesn’t count 😊). We still found some great snow using the combination of Happy Valley, Sun Valley, International, and Eyre T-bars to get out wide. Even poking around Pretty Valley was fun, with the Wine Glass double blue ungroomed and quite sporty on one short steep pitch!
We mentioned the Wine Glass double blue run. Double blue runs are a unique Perisher phenomenon. Not blacks (because not much here is truly black) but with a little more spice than a standard blue intermediate run perhaps, they are quite fun when ungroomed with a layer of powder on them. The steeper ones like Burnum Burnum near the Sun Valley T-bar are fantastic on days of low vision, just a shame they are so short.
One thing that surprised us was the incredible politeness of the other skiers at the resort. From what we could tell, Perisher isn’t known for its polite crowd, but all we saw and experienced was the exact opposite. Case in point was one of the few lines we ended up in. At Guthega, the Freedom chair was on wind-hold, so everyone had to go up top via the Blue Cow T-bar. By mid-morning there was a line up where four separate queue races of doubles ended up merging into one line of doubles. We were gobsmacked, and just a little bit giddy watching everyone alternate, and observing not a single person go alone up a T-bar, all were doubled up no matter the height difference or whether they knew each other. A modern-day ski resort miracle. Be proud Perisher ………. or was it just a Guthega phenomenon.
Après ski beers at the classy & quirky White Spider bar/restaurant, despite being quite a walk from the slopes, were excellent with live music. We tried a few other spots too. Up top in the Blue Cow terminal was passable with its great views and proximity to the SkiTube but was lacking in any ambiance. The old standard Man from Snowy River Hotel, located just across from the SkiTube terminal, was quite good whilst a storm raged outside. A raging open fire, live music and a convivial vibe, it would tick the boxes for most people looking for a relaxed but fun après ski experience.
The SkiTube was a great way to get up the hill. Some early morning trains seem to suffer from being packed with school groups, but regardless of how packed the train appeared, it didn’t translate in any way to the slopes being busy (presumably because they all went to lesson groups that stayed away from our favoured haunts). Away from Front Valley, close to Blue Cow terminal and a couple of important link lifts such as the Leichhardt quad, the entire resort was surprisingly deserted. When departing the mountain, on the platform in the Perisher SkiTube terminal, Lil' Orbits Donuts will rightfully suck you in as the smell of fresh donuts wafts across the platform.
As we left booking accommodation to the last minute (for the purposes of storm chasing!!) we ended up staying, with very low expectations, on the outskirts of Jindabyne at The Station Hotel. Not highly rated by reviewers, and not even a true hotel, for a princely sum two of us stayed in a huge room with five beds and an ensuite. Whilst the room facilities and furnishing were basic, the bathroom was freezing and the rooms themselves not well sound-insulated, for the price paid we found it to be fantastic value in comparison to other accommodation available, and a quite enjoyable stay. A bonus to the location a few kilometres out of Jindabyne were the onsite pub, pizza shop and restaurants. An all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant was inundated with school kids, so we avoided it, instead going for the cook-it-yourself steak restaurant with all you can eat salads, sides & dessert. We had pizza one night too, eating it in the pub over a few beers. Otherwise we self-catered using the expansive supermarket in Jindabyne for supplies.
So overall what did we think?
Perisher has reliable snow (in the context of skiing in Australia) plus a vast easy rambling terrain selection that will delight everyone up to an intermediate level of ability. Advanced & expert should apply elsewhere ……………. unless you like park features, then you just come as well because Perisher does excel in that realm too.
See our thoughts on the resort’s pros & cons via the Perisher overview page.