Travel restrictions imposed to curb COVID-19 have only made Aussies keener to hit the slopes, if Thredbo Resort’s website crash is anything to go by.

Ahead of kicking off its winter season on 22 June, Thredbo Resort made its lift passes available to purchase online last Thursday, and even created a virtual waiting room to assist with the expected high volume of traffic.

However, the website still wasn’t ready for the avalanche of customers looking to secure their spot on the ski lifts, with many complaining on social media about being kicked out of the queue and experiencing error messages.

Waited 2 hours in the queue to end up at this page. I am due to arrive at Thredbo on 25th June. Can you please advise what I should do? pic.twitter.com/uQrn73tSlw

— Jade Griffiths (@jadegriffiths55) June 11, 2020

Hi Thredbo I started the day at number 800 in the queue, got into the site and then got kicked out just as I was about to enter my credit card. I rejoined the queue at position 18900 and am now at 17600. #nothappyjan

— sherman (@sal_herman) June 11, 2020

The Thredbo ticketing debacle, What a frustrating mess. Spending all day trying to get tickets to only be thrown off the site again and again. Well, after years of skiing at Thredbo, I now have season passes at Perisher. I feel like a traitor, but so much easier.

— Dish (@Dish85897195) June 11, 2020

I logged in at 10:30 and have been inline ever since – but I’m still with 4,000 to go. By my calculations that’ll mean I get to the front of the line at 3am!!! Are you running some reverse AI that sends people who refresh their screens to the back??

— P-Lo Enterprises (@PLoEnterprises) June 11, 2020

I started at 2,500 in queue at 10:30am, got this “it’s almost your turn” message when I was close to the front of the queue. Now it won’t let me in. The line ID doesn’t work. All I get is a “invalid URL” message and it redirects me to the end of the queue. This is ridiculous! pic.twitter.com/zd3sN8mIBK

— ed burns (@edjamesburns) June 11, 2020

I logged in at 10:30 and have been inline ever since – but I’m still with 4,000 to go. By my calculations that’ll mean I get to the front of the line at 3am!!! Are you running some reverse AI that sends people who refresh their screens to the back??

— P-Lo Enterprises (@PLoEnterprises) June 11, 2020

In a Facebook post on Thursday evening, Thredbo Resort said its online shop was back working but, due to the massive amount of traffic, was processing much slower than usual.

“We have been overwhelmed by demand for the first release of the 2020 lift passes. At one point we had as many as 25,000 visiting our online store to purchase lift passes – the largest volume we’ve ever experienced on our store,” the post read.

“We’re operating in unusual times; we’ve experienced an unprecedented amount of traffic, showing that we’re all ready to get back skiing and snowboarding again this season.

“We are working hard to ensure everyone is able to purchase their passes and we appreciate your patience as we accommodate everyone under the new government restrictions. Thanks again for hanging in there.”

The resort then followed up on Friday with a video message from its general manager, Stuart Diver, who apologised for the website crash.

“I understand the past 24 hours have been a very frustrating time for some of you who’ve been trying to purchase passes to ski and snowboard in Thredbo for 2020,” he said.

“I understand your frustrations, and I’m really sorry that our systems did not cope.

“We’ve invested heavily in our website and in our online solutions with external providers, but our systems just did not cope with the volume of users trying to come and buy tickets.”

Based on current limitations, Diver said Thredbo Resort doesn’t have any passes available from 26 June to 19 July.

“I’m hoping that as conditions change and restrictions ease, I’ll be able to release more passes.

“Unfortunately, there are three times the number of you who want to come and ski and snowboard in Thredbo than there are currently available passes.

“Due to government restrictions, we’ve had to just control that capacity, and that means that some of you are going to miss out.”

Diver urged customers to be patient as Thredbo Resort staff continued to work “really hard” answering enquiries.

“We have never seen this level of demand for our passes in Thredbo,” he said.

“We definitely didn’t deliver the level of customer service that I expect from Thredbo, and I’m sure you expect as our guests, over the last 24 hours.

“But, we are working 24/7 to make sure that we do, and that we get back on top of it, and that you are all provided with that level of service that Thredbo is famous for.”

Featured image supplied by Thredbo Resort.