Jul 2015 Australia Ski Trip Report - Now With Photos

A snowHead

Currently at Hong Kong Airport en route home after a 3 week holiday of a lifetime in Australia, with 2 nights in Hong Kong on the outbound trip.

We loved our first Oz ski experience - at Thredbo (one day) and Perisher (two days) - loads of fresh snow and told by the locals that it was the best conditions in years. That'll do us!

Our Thredbo day was snowy, windy and cold - some exposed chairlifts were awful to ride - but we had a great time skiing fresh snow among the gum trees. There's a pretty decent vertical there of about 600m - so a great day's skiing. Two fast chairs and a fair few other lifts - with queues of only a few minutes on a Sunday - made for a decent area.

Run marking is virtually non-existent - you just seemingly ski where you like and everywhere becomes pisted by skiers/boarders. Fine in decent visibility but not so good to follow a sign saying 'Most difficult route' above the treeline in a white out/howling gale.The 'run' just disappeared - no markers at the sides, no further signs...nothing. Fortunately someone skied past us and we followed them.

Perisher was sunny with excellent packed powder. It's a very extensive area spread over three or four different areas with a lot of lifts. However, the vertical is small - a maximum of about 400m and some fast chairs serving verticals of only 125m. Amazing really.

The other thing we found with Perisher was that there are a lot of very flat runs - and that routes marked as black diamond/most difficult are no steeper than many medium red runs in the Alps. Still, no complaints at the snow conditions and we had two great days. Found some good cruising runs too.

Would say that both areas are well worth a trip if you are in Australia - both about two hours drive from Canberra/5 hours from Sydney. Definitely better than an Alpine glacier, though very odd to be plunged into winter in July.

Will try and post a few pics over the next few days once I get back/organised at home.

The rest of our trip was amazing Very Happy

- we've loved Oz and can't wait to return as there is just so much to see and do. We had such a fantastic time. Hong Kong was excellent and after that we:
- Visited Sydney - lovely city.
- Climbed the Bridge.
- Went mountain biking.
- Visited the beautiful Blue Mountains.
- Dived with sharks (in an aquarium!) - fantastic, the sharks were 4m long.
- Visited Cairns.
- Walked in a rainforest and explored tropical beaches in Queensland.
- Snorkelled at the Barrier Reef.
- Saw a fantastic sunset at Uluru and a fantastic sunrise at KataTjuta.
- Camped in the Outback in a bushman's swag (ie bivvy bag) by the campfire under a starry sky.
- Went on a hot air balloon trip over the Outback at sunrise.
- Visited friends in Canberra - not a lot there (went up a nice viewpoint tower and had a good day at the National Museum) but lovely to see our mates.

Now it's back to work- to recharge our batteries wink

after early starts every day to pack in as much as we could.

A snowHead

Thanks for the report @mountainaddict, I can't ever imagine going to Australia in their winter!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Glad you had a good time. I had a week in the Snowy Mountains a few years back as part of a longer trip to Australia. I preferred Thredbo to Perisher but my favourite area was Mount Blue Cow, the next stop up the line on the SkiTube underground railway. Some steeper, more challenging stuff, slightly better snow condtions and absolutely no queues for the lifts!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Layne After 29C in Alice Springs in midwinter I can't imagine being there in their summer!

Sydney & Cairns were lovely at around 19/20C - really pleasant Very Happy

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LOTA Did Blue Cow used to be separate? All on one pass now.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it mountainaddict. Great work on getting the good weather and snow conditions Laughing

You'll need to Register first of course.

@mountainaddict, Yes, Blue Cow was separate from Perisher-Smiggins and Guthega in those olden days. I still have my Blue Cow day tickets somewhere with a piste map printed on the back.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Nice report. I'm Australian and you've been some places I've never been. Can you believe that I've been to Poland but never to Queensland!

I'm off to Perisher in a couple of weeks so hopefully the snow's still good.

After all it is free

More snow since we were there Raven so (fingers crossed) snow cover hopefully shouldn't be an issue.

As ever, we travelled with an open mind and loved the Oz ski experience. Given some of the 'long way to go for small areas' and 'the snow is rubbish' stuff we'd read before we got there, I'd have to say it all rather exceeded our expectations.

We especially enjoyed the bigger vertical of Thredbo and the Guthega area of Perisher - one of our favourite run names ever has to be Wombats Lament at Guthega! For Perisher we parked at Smiggin Holes - which is great for easy access to the snow.

Stayed outside Jindabyne at The Station self catering complex. Read some negative reviews of it but we really enjoyed our stay - a great set up with its pub/restaurant etc. Warm, comfortable accommodation too.

Right, a few Australia ski pics as promised Very Happy

. The village is Thredbo but all the action shots are from Perisher as the photos are much better than our whiteout day at Thredbo...

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Good to see those shots - always interesting to see other ski areas. Glad the trip was successful; you are evidently very positive about new places and experiences. snowHead

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Ah, Front Valley at Perisher - just as I remember it!

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Yep Pam W - just love to travel/explore & if there's some skiing to be done as well, then so much the better Very Happy

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Most people we've told about the trip have said "Skiing?? In Australia?!" Laughing

Must say, it was all a bit strange to have ski temps of -5C and temps of 29C (Alice Springs) on the same hol!

@mountainaddict, looks epic. Our kid skis regularly at Mt Buller in Victoria this time of year (he lives in Melbourne), and he reports that after a crap last season, this one has started brilliantly

You know it makes sense.

The snow was fantastic thecramps - perfect packed powder on piste and some powder off it. We are easily pleased when it comes to skiing but by all accounts had the best conditions in years Very Happy

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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@mountainaddict, glad you had a great time, I am very jealous. Roll on January.

A snowHead

Great pics, seems like the weather and snow treated you well.

Looks pretty quite. I seem the remember going back into Perisher can get pretty busy.

A snowHead

Cheers thecramps!

First day at Thredbo was a whiteout with strong winds yuppie - fresh snow so still enjoyed it, with a bit of shelter in the trees. It's just amazing to have full-on winter skiing in July.

Overall, it wasn't too busy at all. We skied three days, Sun - Tues, and even on the Sunday (at Thredbo) didn't queue for more than a few minutes. The runs never felt busy. We were parked at Smiggin Holes - so didn't ski down to Perisher much after we'd seen how gentle most of the runs on that face of the mountain are - brilliant area for beginners though, with some fast chairs.

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Jul 2015 Australia Ski Trip Report - Now With Photos

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