Going Off at the Hoth

Snowaction’s Dave Windsor hit Mt Hotham for a mid-week session of skiing, great eats, and mountain vibes.

Cold yet fickle weather has been the talk of the season so far.  Victoria’s certainly been cold enough, but the snowfall has been less than abundant.  Luckily, the resort and I benefited from a storm at the start and end of my week, yielding 50+cm of fresh.  I started my Wednesday on slick groomers and ended it with a superb powder Saturday – mother nature delivering big time on Friday night with 25cm and the wind blew it all in the right spots. 

I love an Aussie pow day, they’re not the same or as frequent as overseas but it’s great to experience that floating feeling on our home hills.

For mine, the tree lined Windex and aptly named Peach Bowl were the best on ground.  Saturday’s steady snowfall filled my runs and I found fabulous fresh boot deep turns run after run.  They’re both steep punchy blacks with plenty of space to smash a line or take a wider cruise.  Luckily, not many others ventured that way – most opting to turn right off the Heavenly Chair to hit everything from Hollywood to Gun Barrel and Imagine to Black & Blue Snake.  

Despite the challenging start to the season, the resort is now looking really nice. “We had no natural snow to start with or any good temps through May and a lot of temperature inversions with cold temps in the valley and less so up top” explains Luke Ricards, Senior Mountain Operations Manager. “We were really focused to start [snowmaking] in small areas to get terrain open instead of trying to turn everything on to spray snow everywhere. We were really deliberate in our approach about focusing on a lift and the terrain around that lift infrastructure and then go to the next one and the next one”.

Makes sense to me and the proof was in the pudding lap after wicked lap off Heavenly, Village and Road Runner chairs. 

“We love Hotham, it’s a great mountain with lots of black runs, and the kids love it”, Chris from Sydney tells me.  “When you’re not in school holidays in Victoria but still are in NSW then it’s easier to come down here – it’s a lot less crowded.”

I stayed with my mate Richard at Jack Frost Apartments in Davenport Village – aka casserole country. The apartment was cosy and warm and perfectly located in the same building as Snow Monkey ski shop (thanks for the tune boys).  Bus stop 6 is right out the door and access to the slopes via Davenport Access is across the road.  And if that’s not enough, upstairs is the Jack Frost Restaurant & Bar which has a cracker modern menu, the Korean-fried cauliflower is awesome, and you can’t go past $1 wings and 2-for-1 (or 6-for-3) cocktails from 4 – 5:30pm.

Miss Mary’s is another fave, serving up awesome fusion fare (amazing dumplings) and wicked cocktails.  It was hard to stop at three Purple Lychee Disco Sours, or was it four?  Either way, gin never tasted so good.  And the beef rib massaman at the Dinner Plain Hotel downed with a frosty draught was yet another perfect end to a perfect day.

For something different, we hit the silent disco at Frankie Café, located at Big D.  Dancing with headphones seemed normal enough, but once off it was super weird watching people boogie in silence.

On mountain, you can’t go past Hoff Hut at the top of Black Snake.  Serving up hot soups and pies and an array of bevies.  It always draws a happy crowd who create a great vibe; especially sipping Glühwein while listening to resident DJ Guy spinning house tracks.

Huge thanks to all the crew out at Hotham from groomers to lifties, hospo to house keeping, patrollers to ski techs, retailers to bus drivers – you’re very much appreciated. 
As always, Hotham delivers big time, both on and off the snow.  Becky from Adelaide sums it up perfectly: “We love Hotham, it’s big and fun and we always have a great time”.  I couldn’t agree more.   From abundant black and blue runs to great dining to unique activities, “The Giant” has something for everyone and with more of the resort opening it’s definitely worth a visit.