Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Mt Hotham
This post is for all of you who think that Australia is only about kangaroos and deserts and golden beaches. Well, thats not exactly true: there is a little bit of snow to ski on and in fairness, its more than you expect.
Speaking of myself - as a snow bunnie/junkie - I was a bit worried when I was considering moving down under and at the end, I said to myself "what the hell, I'm gonna go to NZ once in a while for a skiing fix". This season, however, it was quite opposite: Australia's having a great season with massive snowfalls whereas New Zealand has not got much so far.
The Majority of Australia's skiing rsort are concentrated within Alpine National Park, a mountain chain in the conjuction of Victoria, NSW and ACT. All of them having an altitude of 1600 to 2000 meters.
Now, a little bit about Hotham; Mount Hotham has always been known as a "serious skiers" mountain, this was in part due to the roads into Hotham and in part due to the nature of the runs at Hotham. Well the road has now improved and is sealed all the way to the village, and the runs, well there are just more of them, lots more! Mt Hotham probably has the most variety of advanced and expert runs of any resort in Australia (40% of its total skiable area!)- http://www.ski.com.au
Its about 4.5 -5.5 hrs drive (depending on road condition) from Melbourne. Its only in the last 60K that you get a feel of winter... (similar to "barikeh e Meigoon" with more trees in the background)
Tree skiing; Not a good idea if its the first run of the season, if the track is not familiar, if the visibility is not good enough and above of all, if you're skiing alone. I know... but its fun to be compulsive sometimes...
Future plans: NZ, Japan and China!
For more photos to follow here.
Speaking of myself - as a snow bunnie/junkie - I was a bit worried when I was considering moving down under and at the end, I said to myself "what the hell, I'm gonna go to NZ once in a while for a skiing fix". This season, however, it was quite opposite: Australia's having a great season with massive snowfalls whereas New Zealand has not got much so far.
The Majority of Australia's skiing rsort are concentrated within Alpine National Park, a mountain chain in the conjuction of Victoria, NSW and ACT. All of them having an altitude of 1600 to 2000 meters.
Now, a little bit about Hotham; Mount Hotham has always been known as a "serious skiers" mountain, this was in part due to the roads into Hotham and in part due to the nature of the runs at Hotham. Well the road has now improved and is sealed all the way to the village, and the runs, well there are just more of them, lots more! Mt Hotham probably has the most variety of advanced and expert runs of any resort in Australia (40% of its total skiable area!)- http://www.ski.com.au
Its about 4.5 -5.5 hrs drive (depending on road condition) from Melbourne. Its only in the last 60K that you get a feel of winter... (similar to "barikeh e Meigoon" with more trees in the background)
Tree skiing; Not a good idea if its the first run of the season, if the track is not familiar, if the visibility is not good enough and above of all, if you're skiing alone. I know... but its fun to be compulsive sometimes...
Future plans: NZ, Japan and China!
For more photos to follow here.
