Postcard from Thredbo: Why I’m back in love with skiing in Australia

HAVING long since ditched Down Under in search of better snowfields, this skier returns - and finds we’ve got it pretty good.

I HADN’T skied Australia for a decade.

I’d first found my ski legs, boosted by the relaxation and warmth after several lunchtime schnapps, 10 years earlier, on an icy beginner slope in the Snowy Mountains.

It started a decade-long love affair that unfortunately ended up feeling distinctly one-sided.

I’d give Australia’s winter a seven-day chunk of my holiday allowance, book a week skiing, and then pray for snow on that one precious week.

Some years, I jagged it, and love bloomed afresh.

Others, I quickly tired of skiing ice, of crowded runs, of unreliable snow conditions.

I was over lugging gear up and down by car and train if I stayed off-snow. Tired of trekking uphill at the end of the day if I shelled out to stay on snow, but there was not enough white stuff for the ski-in, ski-out holiday described in the brochure.

In the end, it was the relationship, not the weather, which turned frosty.

Snow falls for a snowboarder.

I strayed to Japan and New Zealand, smugly speaking of powder and huge falls to my Aussie-bound friends. Until a couple of weeks ago, when I could no longer ignore the siren call of the best snow in Australia for more than a decade.

One day, ski resort staff were bemoaning what looked like a wipe-out season.

The next, entire resorts were open. And it’s been dumping ever since.

Amid flare runs, hot pool parties, long, wide runs and two days largely absent of the dreaded scrape of an out-of-control snowboarder ready to take me out in the lift line, Thredbo proved one very promising first date.

I’d never skied at Thredbo and was determinedly deaf when regulars spoke glowingly (OK, I’ll admit it, at the time I thought it snobbishly) of its alpine village feel, different they insisted, to anywhere else in Australia.

Just how super, I wondered, could that Supertrail be? Turns out, with 40cm of fresh snow on it, and more falling as I negotiated it for the first time, pretty damn awesome.

And long – my ski legs ran out of strength and I was out of breath long before I hit the bottom of the 3.7km run.

All smiles on the ski lift.

Negotiating a new mountain is always fun, and another assumption I’d made – that Thredbo was a mountain for pure skiers (read better than me) was quickly slain.

There’s always a way down from wherever you are on the mountain – whatever your level of ability.

Day one saw us meet at Friday Flat, an easy ski from the village proper and the Valley Terminal, with a shuttle bus available if you’re still unsteady on the snow.

Beginners’ paradise is often a nightmare for anyone else, but it was a quick lift ride out of beginner territory and up for a morning on Merritt’s – Thredbo’s original beginner area, to settle back into those familiar turns.

By lunchtime, my ski-buddy and I, having established that we were the same experience level (rusty intermediate) were headed back to Crackenback. More than once I hung back, savouring that rare sound of nothing but the swish of skis gliding over fresh snow.

Despite there being plenty of people on the mountain, it didn’t feel crowded.

Especially when our guide offered a run down the untracked Rossignol racecourse. I may have missed a few gates (well, all of them), and the time wasn’t the quickest, but I’ll claim a personal best.

A skier carves a path through fresh powder.

By early afternoon, the wind kicking up and snowstorm settling in were the perfect excuse to ditch the skis for the day and catch a drink and some tunes in front of open fire pits outside the Thredbo Alpine Hotel at its hot pools party.

A few hardy souls braved the spa – no mean feat when it’s -8C. I preferred to watch the sun sink as the flakes fell – something that will forever be a novelty for a girl raised on the Far North Coast of NSW.

As darkness set in, another spectacle I’d dismissed for years as a gimmick left me again proven wrong. Thredbo’s weekly flare run is a riot of red as skiers descend the Supertrail in darkness. Advanced skiers can join in, with the $15 fee going to charity.

I watched it unfurl down the mountain under the glow of a yellow Supermoon as I walked through the village (grudgingly acknowledging, yes, there is a gorgeous alpine village feel to the place).

As the 200-plus skiers made it to the bottom, spectators rang bells and the whole thing finished in a blaze of fireworks as first-time flarers were “thrown” according to the 25-year tradition. It was a spectacle I’ve seen nowhere else in the world.

The writer was a guest of Thredbo.

Orderly lines at a kids’ ski class

GO2 THREDBO

Stay

The Thredbo Alpine Hotel. On-site parking, ski hire and lifts almost at the door. Take the breakfast option and fuel up for a day on the slopes at Cascades breakfast buffet.

Lift passes and gear hire from Thredbo Sports Rental – bundle the lot together to save. Get yourself a MyThredbo pass – your lift ticket and hire pass all in one. Load on some MyMoney to save you scrabbling for cash on the mountain.

Eat

For a treat, try Segreto – classic Italian in an intimate setting with sublime service.

See thredbo.com.au

“Like” Escape.com.au on Facebook

Follow @Escape_team on Twitter

Originally published as Postcard from Thredbo: Why I’m back in love with skiing in Australia