Vail Resorts agrees to buy Perisher in hope of luring Australian skiers abroad

When self-confessed snowboarding addict Risma Utami planned ski trips from her adopted hometown of Sydney, conspicuously absent from the wish list of destinations were the fields in the nearby Snowy Mountains.

"Europe, Japan and New Zealand are cheaper, you have better quality snow there, more challenging slopes, great accommodation, less waiting time at the lift and more skiing," Utami said.

With climate change threatening Australia's already meagre alpine skiing resources, the Snowy Mountains might not seem an obvious choice for the first international foray by US ski giant Vail Resorts Inc, which last week agreed to pay US$136 million for Perisher Ski Resort.

Perisher is Australia's largest and most popular ski resort, but in a country better known for deserts and beaches, it faces some significant natural hurdles.

The summit of Mt Perisher, at just over 2,000 metres, is nearly 900 metres below the base of Vail's Breckenridge, one of the almost dozen US resorts it owns.

But for Vail, the deal was as much about attracting more well-travelled and well-heeled skiers from Down Under to its US resorts as getting its hands on Perisher's limited, albeit profitable, assets - particularly as climate change bites.