The website for ski resort Perisher crashed on Wednesday morning, following a surge for lift tickets from annual pass holders.
The crash coincided with the latest release of tickets for the ski resort for July 13 to 17 for Epic Australia Pass holders.
Perisher had been staging the release of its tickets for the ski season after neighbouring resort Thredbo had its website crash last month when passes for the entire season were made available for sale at once.
Many Epic Australia Pass holders, who would normally be entitled to access Perisher along with Victorian resorts Falls Creek and Hotham, said on social media they had not been able to access tickets.
Border closures due to coronavirus has led to ski resorts such as Perisher and Thredbo only being available to people from NSW, ACT and Queensland.
This is really shocking @perisher and @VailResorts. Website crashes, when you do get to the cart it crashes again, then reservations "sold" out in <20mins. Can't imagine the experience if you didn't have weeks/months to prepare. Awful!
— Jason Pellegrino (@pellers) July 7, 2020
Some pass holders who were trying to reserve slots said they had tickets booked and were in the online checkout when the website crashed, losing their tickets altogether.
Other pass holders said they experienced multiple website crashes when trying to access their tickets.
"Your website just crashed every single time Epic pass holders try to reserve," one user wrote.
Another said, "[The] website crashes, when you do get to the cart it crashes again, then reservations 'sold' out."
Your website just crashes every single time epic pass holders try to reserve. It’s 2020 guys, why can’t your website scale to a few thousand concurrent users? This has been a shocking experience. Thredbo for me in future years
— Quinton Anderson (@qanderson7) July 7, 2020
All tickets were sold out for the allocated days just minutes after they were available to pass holders from 7.30am.
A spokesman for Vail Resorts, Perisher's parent company, said the resort was sorry for inconveniences experienced by pass holders in trying to obtain lift tickets.
"Due to very high demand [on Wednesday morning], access reservations were immediately booked and are now no longer available for the period July 13 to 17," the spokesman said.
Adding to the demand for the tickets were coronavirus restrictions, which limited the number of skiers and snowboarders allowed on the slopes at one time.
"Due to the COVID-19 safe operating plan implemented across all three of our Australian resorts focusing on the safety of employees, guests and our communities, we are operating at approximately 50 per cent of normal capacity to enable physical distancing measures per current government guidelines," the spokesman said.
"Additionally, we are also combating very challenging snow conditions. Please know that our team is working hard to open as much terrain as possible.
"We thank all of our guests for their understanding, continued patience and kindness as we strive to provide the best possible experience during these difficult conditions."
A lack of large snowfalls in the Snowy Mountains has led to a large number of chairlifts and areas of the resort not being open to the public.
Of the 47 chairlifts and T-bars available to snow-goers, 18 were available as of Wednesday afternoon.
Thredbo's website crashed in June after thousands of people attempted to purchase lift passes at the same time.
Many people at the time reported being on the cusp of booking after hours of waiting, only for the website to crash, sending them to the back of queue.
