How can we prevent a repeat of the weekend's car park catastrophe at the snow? Locals have a few ideas

A feeble start to the 2024 snow season finally turned into an absolute belter with nearly half a metre of snow blanketing many of the Snowy Mountain’s ski resorts ahead of last weekend.

But the experience wasn’t without its chaos for many.

The car parks at all of the resorts had filled to bursting by mid-morning on Saturday (20 July), prompting staff to turn visitors away.

The icy conditions also meant many cars slid off the road, resulting in lengthy traffic jams.

“If you’re sitting still on the Alpine Way, turn back. Don’t waste your time,” a post to the Jindabyne Notice Board at midday on Saturday said.

The video showed a continuous line of barely moving traffic stretching for kilometres along the road.

“Car parks in the resorts now full,” said another, posted around midday on Sunday.

Just how much snow was there?

Pete ‘The Frog’ Taylor from forecasting site Snowatch says last week’s snowfall was enough to make up for a patchy start to the 2024 season and, in the space of a few days, bring it up to average levels for this time of year.

Perisher recorded 45 cm of fresh snow, the higher points of Thredbo more than 50 cm, and Mount Hotham around the same at 50 cm.

“The temperature was a bit marginal, but good falls anyway, so all the resorts have been able to open up a lot more terrain,” Mr Taylor says.

“We’re probably now on par with what we would normally have at this time of year.”

So what went wrong?

Jindabyne Chamber of Commerce’s Olivier Kapetanakos agrees the snowfall was “fantastic” and exactly “what us locals absolutely love”.

But with 1 to 3 centimetres finding its way onto the road and quickly becoming ice, it seems a lot of drivers from elsewhere weren’t used to driving in the conditions.

“People who visit the snow infrequently probably lack the skills for snow, and National Parks and Wildlife only requires chains for two-wheel-drive cars, so people with four-wheel-drive cars and tarmac tyres struggle a bit,” he says.

Mr Kapetanakos singles out all-wheel-drive vehicles like Subarus as “probably the worst offenders”.

He also adds it’s not infrequent for the resort’s car parks to fill up, but that a general attitude by National Parks and Wildlife to only accepting visitors in the park “under duress” has led to a lack of investment in solutions.

What are the solutions?

Increasing the size of the car parks is an obvious one, but Mr Kapetanakos says there isn’t much interest from the NSW Government in this.

Over the weekend, there were again calls for the resort car parks to be reserved exclusively for lift ticket holders.

“I really think it’s time for a ‘no lift ticket, no car park’ policy,” one post on the Jindabyne Notice Board read, which attracted 240 likes.

Mr Kapetanakos agrees it’s a common sentiment, but “at the end of the day, the snow needs to be accessible by all”.

The Jindabyne Chamber of Commerce has campaigned for a smart board to be installed in the town that shows live parking availability at each of the resorts, but ultimately, this will only work if there are faster transport options for people to use if there is no parking.

“More car parks is one solution, but exclusive use for buses to get up there would allow more people to get in to enjoy the place without filling up the car park,” he says.

In 2021, the NSW Government kicked off a park-and-ride bus trial which, in its first year alone, connected more than 15,000 people with Jindabyne and the resorts at Perisher and Thredbo.

It’s since been expanded to allow visitors to park across Jindabyne, Tyrolean Village and East Jindabyne and then catch a ‘Park and Shuttle Bus’ to Jindabyne’s Snowy Region Visitor Centre.

From there, the Snowy Mountains Bus Service takes you onto Perisher, Thredbo or the Skitube.

The $23 return fare for an adult ($12 for a child or concession) includes entry into Kosciuszko National Park, and each bus has room for gear, including skis or a board and a day backpack.

“It’s hassle-free and a bloody great deal,” Mr Kapetanakos says.

But to get the most out of it, he also argues the buses should be given exclusive use of the roads at certain times in the morning and evening to help free up traffic and car parks.

“This way, we get a lot of people up there – the ones who are, you know, dead serious about getting up there – and then open the roads up to everyone else from 9 am.”

Either way, he says it’s important for the life of the region that something is done.

“My fear is that the quality of the experience is being eroded by all of these issues, and there’ll come a point in time where it just won’t meet the price expectation, and then people won’t be coming, and that’ll hurt an entire industry, and it’ll hurt an entire LGA [local government area].”