Snow is slowly starting to blanket the NSW ski fields after a slow start to the season left holidaymakers fearful of a second consecutive dud year.
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Thredbo and Perisher have both seen a foot of snow over the past two weeks, with low temperatures allowing artificial snowmaking to kick into gear.
Thredbo Resort's Sophie Leicester said snowfall had been consistently improving since the beginning of the season.
"Temperatures dropped as low as -10 degrees on Tuesday night, allowing 174 snowmaking guns to fire across the mountain and top up the snow pack for over 15 hours," she said.
"Thanks to the recent snowfall and snowmaking operations, Thredbo has opened more terrain for skiing and snowboarding every week."
This was echoed by Perisher Ski Resort's Nathan Butterworth, who said that despite only having 30cm of natural snow so far this season, conditions for snowmaking continued to be favourable.
Snow forecaster Pete "The Frog" Taylor is cautiously optimistic, saying that while the season is definitely better than last year, we still need more natural snow.
"We've had a lot more cold nights that we would usually get," he said, pointing out that people need to stay patient if they want the best conditions.
"At this time of year we don't usually have a full coverage anyway."
Over at Charlotte Pass, installation of a new sewage treatment plant has been completed after the previous one was destroyed by a fire in May.
A representative from the resort said that bookings are down this season but they are hopeful that loyal regulars will return to bolster trade.
Vice president of ANU Snowsports Stephen Kashkarov said despite not yet getting the big snow dump that sets the tone for the season, conditions were much improved on last year.
"Last Sunday I was up at Perisher and they had amazing cover," he said.
"One thing to note is that since they're making most of the snow manually, outside of the big snow dumps it does get a bit icy, pretty hard snow. But overall the conditions are pretty good."
Businesses on the mountains are optimistic after last year's disappointing trade, urging people to visit the snowfields even if they don't ski.
Bruno Borsato, who runs Brunelli's Cafe in Jindabyne with his wife Roberta, said a broader attitude towards tourism was needed to attract people to the area if and when the snow doesn't fall.
"This year it's a little bit different but it's the same in the sense that we don't have enough lifts going, there's not much disposable cash in the pockets of people, the sales of the tickets are down ... it's very tough," he said.
"We are relying too much on one thing - the snow. So what do we have to offer other than the snow?"
Having operated in Perisher for more than 40 years, Mr Borsato said he was confident in his ability to react to slower seasons but that it's not as easy for new operators. He urged serious, casual and non-skiers alike to visit the mountains as the skifields had started to diversify their offerings.
