Categories: uncategorized
Date: 16 June 2005 22:23:27
Another 20 cm of snow yesterday, and Hotham had its first lift open for the season: Big D. Yesterday afternoon you could see people coming down it on the web cam.
In answer to Tractor Girl - as Ian said, yes there are ski areas in Australia. The Great Dividing Range hugs the east coast, and there is snow in winter on some of its higher peaks. Not that much snow compared to other continents, mind you - there's about six or eight ski resorts in total over NSW and Vic. We spent last season at Mt Hotham, Victoria's premier ski resort, and there was three metres of snow. Good skiing in anyone's language, but you only have to drive 20km and you're out of it altogether. Not like Canada, for instance, where you can drive 2000 km and still see nothing but snow.
It's not a silly question though - most of Australia is desert, even in winter. And you have no idea how many Google hits I got last year for things like "Does it snow in Australia?"
If you're interested in our experience last year there's some photos in the gallery link on the left. Some of my favourites are:
View of the village from Mt Higganbotham.
On the Sun Run chairlift.
Enjoying the snow #1.
Our car.
Summit panoramic.
Checking the temperature.
Enjoying the snow #2.
(You can click the pics in any of the links to get even bigger pics.)
You can also browse through the wiblog archives from July to September 2004 to read about our adventures.