Thredbo part 1 (28/8-4/9)

Almost the first thing I did when I got back to Melbourne was go for a week's skiing with my family to Thredbo in the Snowy Mountains. Yes svenskar, there are mountains in Australia lying halfway between Sydney and Australia, and you can (usually) ski there in the winter. And yes after having snow on the ground for 6 months in Luleå I did travel 15,000 kms to ski in Australia.

It was the worst ski season in 40 years, and we were going at the end of the season, which is always marginal. But we were lucky; they had one of the biggest snowfalls of the season a week before we were there, and the nightly snowmaking on some of the runs was able to work most of the time, so it wasn't too bad for the first few days. But it did warm up, with a midweek temperature of +17o in the village! On our second last day some runs were closing as it was all just brown, and rain on the last day meant we couldn't ski anyway. Still, everyone had a good time, and it was great to be away with the family for a week.

On the road

Thredbo is 580kms from Melbourne, about a 7hr non-stop drive. There are closer resorts, about 5 hours away, but friends have an apartment up there so we go the longer way around to the Sydney side of the mountains. It is also the biggest resort, based on an actual village, and has the longest runs and vertical drop.

Snow!

Looking out to Mt. Kosciuszko - Australia's highest mountain at 2228m.

On the mountain, looking to the village

A shot of the slush. It was icy in the mornings, slushy by lunchtime, and running rivers by the afternoon. On the snowboard I was pushing water under me, and it made the same sound as the wakeboarding I was doing in Singapore!

On Thur and Sat nigts there is a flare run down part of the Supertrail (a 2.7km continuous run)

Mum starting off slowly on the Friday Flat

Mum battling the Flat on her own

With a bit of a push up the hill, Paul was able to slide down, screaming

Backwards was a problem though

The view from near the highest lifted point in Aus - 2037m.

Dad made some good improvements over the 5 days- and though I have video I haven't any frames from it. I would mostly be with him in the mornings on skis, and then go off by myself for a bit often on snowboard, which I still prefer.