2016 Snow season kicks off this weekend

Another exciting season of snow sports in Australia is set to get underway, with resorts officially opening this weekend.

Across all the ski and snowboard disciplines, there will be the opportunity to see some of the nation’s and the world’s best athletes in action with events taking place at all major resorts.

The Snowboard Cross ANC Series has expanded this year from the three events at Mt Hotham to include an additional two races at Thredbo. With two of the world’s best athletes Alex “Chumpy” Pullin and Belle Brockhoff winning last year’s ANC Series, all eyes will be on the competition again this year. The Series will kick off at Mt Hotham at the start of August

A week of festivities in Victoria’s Falls Creek is highlighted by the Kangaroo Hoppet to be held this year on 27 August. Running since 1979, the Kangaroo Hoppet is Australia's premier long distance cross country ski race, and a member of the prestigious Worldloppet series of international cross country ski events.

In 2015, the National Mogul Championships attracted Olympic silver medalist and World Champion Mikaël Kingsbury of Canada. Taking place from 30 – 31 August in Perisher, the event is again expected to attract world class athletes and will be headlined by Matt Graham and Britt Cox who are coming off their own strong international seasons.

The Alpine National Championships and National Junior Championships will take place in Thredbo in August and will see Greta Small returning to competition following her knee injury suffered in early 2015. Whilst the Park and Pipe Junior National Championships will be once again held in Perisher providing young skiers and snowboarders the chance to go head to head with their peers in Slopestyle and Halfpipe competitions

A host of other events will be taking place on the Australian slopes across all disciplines. To see the full calendar of events, go to www.skiandsnowboard.org.au/events/

Throughout the season, Ski & Snowboard Australia (SSA) will be introducing a number of new programs and initiatives as snow sports continue to grow.

The National Alpine Skills Assessment is an initiative of the National Alpine Committee and will take place at all five major resorts, and is designed to promote the importance of skill development and also allow athletes, coaches and parents the ability to track development over time. The National Skills Assessment will help identify athletes’ strengths and opportunities for improvement by challenging them to complete a series of tasks. For more information, go to www.skiandsnowboard.org.au/alpine/national-skills-assessment/

SSA has this year implemented the SnowID, a unique membership number providing better integration with all SSA activities including Little Shredders, Snowracer, SSA membership and discipline registration and international registrations such as FIS, WSF and AFP as well as events, programs and accreditations.

A live timing and result database will also be implemented to provide fans the opportunity to track Snowsport event results as they occur. The SnowID will be used to identify all competitors and allow all events and individual results to be viewed via the online database. Initially to be rolled out for Alpine events this season, with the other disciplines to follow.