Reach Your Peak | Hotham Magazine | FULL VERSION

REACH YOUR PEAK

I. LOCALS, LEGENDS & LEGACIES V. $4.4M IN NEW SNOWMAKING

II. FAVOURITE SLOPES & SECRET STASHES VI. THIS YEAR’S MUST HAVE GEAR

IV HOTHAM’S HOTTEST KIDS

VII. HOTHAM’S BEST RESTAURANTS

Cover image: Skier Drew Jolowicz This page: Drew hiking back out of Dargo Bowl.

Welcome to the new Hotham magazine. In this first issue, we’ve tried to capture the unique spirit of our mountain on the page, and introduce you to just a few of the people who help to make it such a special place. We’ve also tried to convey a sense of the grandeur and majesty of the Victorian Alps in Winter. Of course, we can’t really hope to make a mountain out of a magazine, and nothing will ever compare to the feeling of being up here on a fine Winter’s day, with a clear view to Mt Feathertop and beyond, snow on the ground and in the snow gums, with time on your side and the world seemingly at your feet. Belinda Trembath, General Manager of the Mt Hotham Skiing Company, knows that feeling better than most >>

CONTENTS 5

Welcome

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Anatomy Of A Mountain

12

60

Ski All Day, Party All Night

63

Onsen & Day Spas

Reaching Their Peak

64

Clothing & Equipment

22

Hotham's New Snowmaking

67

A Dinner Plain Tale

25

All in the Mills Family

48

Haute Country Cuisine

26

Beyond The Boundaries

50

Dining Guide 2016

30

Hotham Women On Top

52

In Praise Of Spring Skiing

34

Peter Zirknitzer

Drew Jolowicz's Chosen Line

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57

Hotham’s New School

68

Mount Hotham Trail Map

70

The Mountain Unmasked

72

Ski Aspen @ Hotham

77

Australia’s Highest Airport

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40

Hotham Road Gap A Legacy Reignited.

WELCOME Editorial Team :

Alexandra Rouse

Anthony O'Shea Michael Belfrage

Creative :

Think Vevey Photography :

Mark Tsukasov

H

otham has been a big part of my life for decades now. I first skied up here as a teenager with school, and I’ve now worked for the Mt Hotham Skiing Company for the better part of 20 years, the last ten as General Manager.

Before that, I was a ski instructor and worked in marketing, and would have done whatever it took to build a life up here and spend more time in the mountains with my colleagues, friends and family. We have a home in Dinner Plain where my husband and I were married. My own children have grown up in the Hotham Ski & Ride School and the Team Hotham Race Club, and as a family we’re still finding new ways to see the mountain through fresh eyes and not always fresh legs in all four seasons, riding, skiing, running, relaxing.

Yet, even after all this time, I think my most vivid memory of Hotham is of the very first day I ever saw these mountains in all their wintry glory. I remember catching my breath as we arrived in the village above the tree line on the Great Alpine Road, with the layered silhouettes of the surrounding peaks stretching away in every direction.

And I recognise now the same sense of awe and wonder in the faces of first-time Hotham visitors every season. People are always telling me – with a touch of disbelief in their voices, even as they’re standing right in front of me here at Hotham – that they didn’t know Australia even had mountains or snow like this.

I take an even greater pleasure now when I see those same awed first-timers making their first tentative turns on snow or, later on the same trip or the next one, moving more steadily into new terrain. And I love nothing more than when we receive a note from someone who’s returned to sea level after their first visit to Hotham telling us how they can’t wait to come back to conquer more of the mountain, it’s all they can think about. I know, because it’s happened so many times before, that I’ll see those same people in the village together years later, laughing in a bar or at a restaurant or, better yet, I’ll see them out on the mountain skiing or riding confidently by me.

Hotham is my mountain, and every Winter it’s also my home. I know for many others Hotham may only be home for a week or a weekend each year, but I also know it’s a no-less-special part of people’s lives as a result. It’s their home mountain. And it will be your home mountain from the very first moment you arrive.

If Hotham is already your mountain, I think you’ll recognise yourself and be reminded why in this magazine. And if it’s not your mountain yet, I’m looking forward to welcoming you here this winter. Hotham is a mountain you can grow up on as a skier or snowboarder, even if you’re already grown up, and it’s a mountain you will never grow out of.

Enjoy!

Belinda.

Karl Gray Andrew Barnes Tony Harrington Brent Bignell

Contributors :

Alexandra Rouse

Anthony O'Shea Belinda Trembath Buff Farnell DJ Eddy Karl Gray Katya Crema Michael Belfrage Michael Ryan Rachael Oakes-Ash

Hotham Magazine is an annual publication.

Published by Mt Hotham Skiing Company (ABN 60 004 294 697) All rights reserved. No material may be re-produced in part or in whole without written consent from the copyright holders.

Distributed across Australia by Think Vevey. The publisher does not accept responsibility for unsolicited material.

Printed : Offset Alpine Printing.

This magazine is printed on PEFC certified paper, meaning that it originates from forests that are managed sustainably.

PEFC is the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes. PEFC is an international certification programme promoting sustainable forest management.

Major Partners :

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ANATOMY OF A MOUNTAIN

WORDS Anthony O'Shea

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“Slate, granite, schist and gneiss… the home of big mountain skiing and riding in Australia.”

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t Hotham is a state of mind. It’s also an incontrovertible physical fact, a place where a unique sequence of geological and environmental forces and factors have combined to create a mountain-scape and ski area like no other in Australia and few others in the world.

While the Australian Alps are, on the whole, defined by their sweeping high plateau and – ahem, clearing our collective throat here – let’s say undulant terrain, Hotham and its surrounding mountains stand apart. Our mountain home is a heaving monument, a massif of slate, granite, schist and gneiss, dramatic cliffs and couloirs, daunting pitches and jaw-dropping steeps, shaped by fire and ice and the elements, pristine, precipitous, and 6

more than 500 million years in the making.

Whenever we’re here, whatever we’re doing, the mountain itself constantly reminds us that this is a high stakes, high alpine environment, the home of big mountain skiing and riding in Australia. It’s a place of character and consequence, the soul of Australian skiing, a landscape that will bring out the best in the best of us, in any of us, but demands our respect and attention always.

You’ll know it when you’re walking home on a blizzard night through blinding sideways snow. Or when you wake to see a shaft of early sunlight striking Mt Feathertop the morning after a storm. You’ll know it when you’re standing under a cloudless, cobalt blue sky

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Clockwise from left: 01 Hiking the ridgeline. 02 White Sallee (eucalyptus pauciflora), here literally snow gums.

03 Above the clouds on an inversion day. 04 Rimed ice and snow. 05 The Hotham massif. 06. Puking!

in our mile-high village on an inversion day, with darker weather unfolding a thousand feet beneath you, an ocean of roiling clouds filling the valley. And you’ll know it whenever you’re clicking in or dropping in, turning down into the fall line or just getting your gear together for a day’s skiing or a hike beyond the resort boundary…

Every morning you’re at Hotham, whether it’s your first morning or your 500th, whether you’re learning to ski on Summit Trainer or tearing into Mary’s Slide, you’ll have a few butterflies in your stomach, perhaps a little catch in your voice or your breath, and that feeling only adventure brings: a trace of fear mixed in with the kind of excitement you feel when you know something good is about to

happen. And every afternoon or evening, as you come in off the mountain or toast the day with friends, that nervous smile you were holding in this morning is now a giant grin, and you can feel the mountain smiling with you, welcoming you in.

Don’t be fooled. The mountain won’t remember you in the morning, and those butterflies will be back again. But so too will that sense of place, the sense of grand adventure, the rush of gravity, the pursuit of happiness and, at the end of your day or your holiday or the season, a sense of accomplishment that will never leave you, memories you’ve made, and fun you will never forget.

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THE BIRTH OF A MOUNTAIN There is still debate about exactly how and when the Australian Alps, including Mt Hotham and nearby Mt Feathertop, came into existence. Some geologists maintain they arose only a few million years ago, while the majority now believe, based on evidence collected over the last 30 years, the Alps as we now know them were born between 100 million and 60 million years ago. This account takes the majority view. However, the raw geological material that makes up Hotham pre-dates the formation of the Alps by several hundred million years.

THE PALEOZOIC ERA 550 million years ago The area that is now South-Eastern Australia was at this time a deep ocean dotted with volcanic islands, similar to the western Pacific today.

THE CAMBRIAN PERIOD

520 million years ago Basalt lava erupts onto the deep ocean floor, creating what are now the oldest rocks in the alpine region.

440 million years ago Vast areas of the ocean floor are covered by a thick blanket of sand and mud, which over time becomes the sedimentary rocks – sandstone and mudstone – which still form much of the Australian Alps today.

THE ORDOVICIAN PERIOD

360 million years ago A series of mountain-building events – the collision of several small tectonic plates – folds these sedimentary and volcanic rocks, the sandstone and basalt, lifting them out of the sea to form land, moving blocks of crust hundreds of kilometres along large faults.

Rocks buried deep in the crust are heated to temperatures above 650°C, metamorphosing into slate, schist and gneiss. Huge volcanoes erupt ash and lava over the newly-created land, and large bodies of granite are lodged in the crust. Some of this granite is more resistant to erosion than the rest, forming plateaus and ridges with large blocks, or tors, of rock jutting out of the Earth.

THE SILURIAN & DEVONIAN PERIODS

340 million years ago After the last episode of folding, South-Eastern Australia is largely covered by mountain ranges, but these mountains have not survived and are not the forerunners of the present-day Australian Alps.

Over the next 200 million years, not much happens, geologically speaking. Australia is part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, lying in the interior of the landmass surrounded by India, Antarctica and Zealandia (a now largely submerged continent stretching from New Zealand to New Caledonia).

THE CARBONIFEROUS & PERMIAN PERIODS A geologically quiet time

The mountain ranges formed in the preceding 200 million years are slowly worn down to a low-lying plain, and very few rocks of this period are preserved in the alpine region.

THE MESOZOIC ERA 250 million years ago The Earth enters a global ice age. At this time, Australia is close to the South Pole, and ice sheets cover much of southern Australia. Although glacial deposits are preserved outside the alpine region in Victoria, any such deposits within the Victorian Alps have since eroded away.

THE TRIASSIC AND JURASSIC PERIODS

130 million years ago Stirrings in the deep mantle cause magma to move upwards into the lithosphere (the Earth’s outer shell), heating and expanding the crust, and forming a dome-shaped plateau running along what is now the East Coast of Australia.

100 million years ago Gondwana begins to break up, with India moving west and Antarctica drifting south. Eastern Gondwana also starts to split along the line of magma upwelling described above, and Australia begins the long process of breaking away from Antarctica and Zealandia.

A rift valley, similar to the Rift Valley in East Africa today, forms as the Earth’s crust stretches and weakens and the valley floor drops away along a series of faults.

Zealandia moves eastward, with the Tasman Sea flooding into the gap, while Tasmania moves a short distance southward below a smaller, east-west fracture, forming the shallow Bass Strait.

The Australian Alps and the entire Great Dividing Range are left behind as remnants of the original plateau, with a steep seaward side and a gentle slope toward the inland.

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THE CRETACEOUS PERIOD The formation of the Australian Alps

Unlike the European Alps or the Himalayas, formed when continents collided, the Australian Alps were formed by the coming apart of the ancient super-continent Gondwana.

Gotcha meets Keogh’s above the Extreme Skiing Zone

THE CENOZOIC ERA 65 million years ago The Tasman Sea and Bass Strait are by now in their current configuration and the Australian Alps are probably not much higher than they are today.

Since this time, erosion has carved deep valleys into the plateau and rounded off many of the weaker landforms. In New South Wales, most of the alpine area is now one large tableland. By contrast, in Victoria the rock formations are in places more resilient and the erosion more aggressive, producing many smaller plateaus separated by rugged valleys.

THE PALEOCENE PERIOD

Hotham’s singular skiing terrain is literally etched into the surface of the Earth.

50 million years ago Over the last 50 million years, basalt lava has continued to erupt episodically over much of the alpine region, spewing from small volcanoes, flowing across the landscape and down into the valleys. Many of the high plains around Hotham, including the Bogong, Dargo and Nunniong High Plains, are covered in basalt.

THE NEOCENE PERIOD From 25 mya

Several minor uplift episodes in the last 50 million years have also altered the course of rivers in the Alps, tilting and faulting and in some cases reversing their flow, sending them in new directions.

2 million years ago Most of the last 2 million years have been a time of global ice age, with ice caps forming on high ranges around the world, as well as at the poles.

In Australia, glaciers formed only on the very highest parts of the Alps (above 2000m) in the vicinity of Mt Kosciuszko. However, much of the Australian Alps outside the small glaciated area was still affected by cold conditions during the Pleistocene, indicated by peri-glacial features such as block streams, terracing and frost-shattered boulders, all of which required ice to be present in rocks and soil for much of the time.

THE QUARTENARY PERIOD The Pleistocene Ice Age

Current While the weather appears to have had the last word in more recent millennia, the Earth moves in patterns or at random over tens of millions of years, and the seismic shifts likely haven’t finished yet.

THE HOLOCENE EPOCH

The Rock & Roll Era: On the 4th of May 1966, just after 5:00am local time, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake was recorded at Mt Hotham, causing windows to shatter in the ski village.

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Tectonic shifts, continental drifts, volcanic eruptions and geological metamorphoses have all played a role in the creation of the Australian Alps, but ultimately it was the weather, and more than 60 million years of erosion by snow, ice, frost, rain and wind, that has carved the Hotham we know and love out of the Earth.

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Razorback and Mt Feathertop from the Great Alpine Road.

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REACHING THEIR PEAK Katya Crema | Alex "Chumpy" Pullin | Greta Small

Our mountain ambassadors talk about their rise and how they came to call Mt Hotham home.

Katya Crema in perfect spring conditions, Dargo Bowl.

KATYA CREMA

Passion, Adventure and Discovery

Reaching out to friends and family back at home in Aus after qualifications in Sochi 2014 Olympics.

WORDS Katya Crema

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kiing has me hooked. I find it challenging, intense, fast, and adrenaline-fueled. It has always been able to capture my imagination, push my physical and mental limits, and take me well out of my comfort zone.

It brings people together over an appreciation of the mountains, and a love of outdoor adventure.

Everyone has a unique story to tell about what makes them passionate about skiing. My story started early, and is ever evolving as I continue to discover more about myself, and this sport.

My first introduction to skiing was on a tiny set of red plastic skis and plastic strap-up bindings at the age of three; a far cry from what you’ll find three-year olds skiing on these days – mini 60cm parabolic skis with sandwich construction and shiny edges. My dad plonked a fluoro yellow Carrera helmet on my head and held me tightly in between his legs as we darted down the slopes in any kind of Aussie-winter weather… It didn’t matter, I was skiing. Since that moment, I’ve been in love with the sport.

I began my competitive skiing career as an alpine racer at the age of 12, juggling the intense demands of high school and competitive sport.

I was lucky enough to live up on the mountain during winter from years seven to 10, which meant I could train in the mornings, and go to school in the afternoons. Any kid’s dream really! This was a huge stepping-stone in my

development as an athlete. I travelled around the Aussie ski resorts with mum or the team from race to race, and then later competed internationally on the FIS circuit in Europe and North America. I won my first Australian National Championships titles in slalom and giant slalom at the age of 16. I was madly excited with the result at the time, and would say this taste of success fuelled my desire to take the sport to the next level.

Alpine ski racing was a great starting point to my career, where not only did I develop the technical skills required to be a competitive ski racer, but also learnt what it would take physically and mentally to be one of the fastest skiers in the world. In my final year as a junior in Alpine, at 19 years old, I decided to give the wild and wonderful sport of Ski Cross a shot. I had watched a few World Cup events on Eurosport, and thought I would test my skills in a head-to-head racing environment, complete with huge jumps, rollers and berms. I made the switch to Ski Cross in the 2007/08 season, lining up for my first World Cup event in January in Les Contamines, France. I was absolutely terrified leading into the race, yet managed to come out unscathed and wanting more. Life on the World Cup circuit was challenging yet rewarding. Long winters away, living out of a suitcase, and a constant struggle with language barriers and cultural differences was quite the learning experience for a teenager.

Chasing back-to-back winters for 14 years in a row felt normal; even Christmas Lunch over 13

Skype before training was a standard. It was all worth it with the bigger picture always in mind, the dream of one day becoming one of the best skiers in the world.

At 21, with the unwavering support of a huge number of people around me, a life long dream came true. I made my first Australian Winter Olympic team at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. I definitely left things to the last minute when I qualified for the Games just three weeks before the Opening Ceremony at my last possible opportunity, a World Cup in Lake Placid. My entire family (all 18 of them) had already booked flights to Vancouver, and I hadn’t even qualified yet. Talk about competing under pressure?! Looking back, I think I was more nervous for that qualifying event than I was for the Olympic race itself!

I finished in 15th place in my debut Ski Cross Olympic event in Vancouver. It was a personal best result at the time, and a highlight of my career. Having my entire family and some friends in the crowd cheering me on was an experience I won’t forget.

Four years later, I made my second Australian Winter Olympic Team, and placed seventh in the Ski Cross in Sochi 2014. Four years on, I had matured as an athlete and was able to play to my strengths and weaknesses. I was determined to achieve a goal rather than just participate. My big moment came in the quarter-finals when, driven by survival instincts, I decided to lay it all on the line. I had one final chance to stay in the race and I went for it. I took a risky inside pass on my two opponents in the final berm, and made up ground over the last jump, crossing the line in second which earned me a spot in the semi finals.

I achieved a major goal which was to be in the final eight of the race. I went on to finish third in the small final, seventh overall. It will go down as the most memorable moment of my career, and a great way to finish off years of dedicated training, and a hard-earned Olympic campaign.

After retiring from World Cup Ski Cross competition in 2015 at the age of 26, my passion for the sport is still strong and I am keen to take my skiing in a new direction. While I absolutely loved racing and all that was riveting about competing at the top level, I feel there is so much more to learn, more to discover and more to experience in the mountains. Backcountry skiing and touring is where my heart lies now.

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ackcountry skiing offers me something that I can’t quite capture anywhere else.

It’s the sense of exploration, adventure, challenge and freedom all combined into one unique experience. It is being immersed in the mountains, and having a true connection to nature that runs deep. It’s the feeling of arriving at the top of an ascent, clicking in and taking in the expanse of untracked runs, knowing you deserve every moment of it.

My partner Liam and I decided it was time to

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up-skill and learn more about backcountry skiing. On a warm spring weekend in September 2014, we packed our touring gear, avalanche equipment and daypacks, and headed to the Snowy Mountains for the Avalanche Skills Training 1 course. Over the two day introductory course, we learnt all about snow pack, concave and convex slopes, terrain traps, mountain weather, how to use a beacon and probe; even the correct technique to dig a snow pit. Since then, we have put our skills into practice both overseas and at Hotham. While ski racing was such a huge part of my life, the last two years have really opened my eyes to the more adventurous prospects skiing has to offer.

01 Being chased by three

fierce competitors in

a World Cup Ski Cross in

Kreischberg, Austria

02 Elated to be through to

the semi finals in Sochi

2014 Olympics..

03 Some things never

change. As keen about

skiing as I was back

then.

04 Katya’s family cheer

her on at Vancouver

Olympics, 2014.

Being based at Hotham over the winter, the mountain gives us the opportunity to ski varied and challenging terrain. Often it’s hard to resist the urge to throw my 185cm race skis back on and hit the groomers on a crisp bluebird early morning for some fast top to bottoms down Imagine and Snake Gully at first light. At the same time, ducking out the back to Avalanche Gully or Dargo Bowl and committing to a long steep descent with fresh powder turns and a solid hike back to the top is just as rewarding. We are spoilt at Hotham – the opportunity to explore challenging descents, rugged terrain and natural features is in our own backyard. The only limit is your creativity, imagination and preparation.

The local crew at Hotham have been incredibly welcoming, and are a great bunch to ski with. I am learning more and more about this mountain every day. No one is afraid of a 6am early rise, even after a few cold beers at Zirky’s the night before. The Hotham vibe is all about making serious tracks during the day, and having some fun in the evening with people who share a common passion.

Giving back to the skiing community is important to me. Being the Alpine Athlete’s representative for Ski & Snowboard Australia gives me the opportunity to stay involved with the sport and offer my racing experiences to young development athletes who too are aiming big. I am also passionate about inspiring young females to stay involved in the sport, whether that be racing, freestyle or snowboarding. I love being a coach of the Chicks with Stix program, a grass-roots organisation that was founded in 2010, with the aim of providing much-needed encouragement and opportunities for girls who ski and snowboard.

Off the snow, I have a new-found passion for cycling, both road and mountain. Whether it’s climbing Hotham on the road bike or exploring the mountain bike trails on offer down in the Valley, Hotham sure is a fun and versatile summer destination.

Ultimately, what draws me to this mountain is the people, the excitement of seeking adventure, and the prospect of facing a new challenge every day. I look forward to yet another adventurous season on the slopes at Hotham.

HEADING OUT OF BOUNDS? Backcountry skills and avalanche training sessions are available through Hotham’s Ski & Ride School. Contact snowsports@hotham.com.au

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Backcountry skiing and touring is where my heart lies now...

We are spoilt at Hotham - the opportunity to explore challenging descents, rugged terrain and natural features is in our own backyard.

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ALEX "CHUMPY" PULLIN With two Snowboard Cross World Championship titles and nine World Championship podiums under his belt, Hotham Ambassador Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin is remarkably down to earth despite success at such a young age.

WORDS Alexandra Rouse

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humpy, 28, realised the potential of turning his love for snowboarding into a career after placing in a few international events in his early teens, but thought a professional snowboarding career was probably just a pipe dream. His parents taught him to have a realistic view of his career to achieve what he wanted and the next season at Hotham he won both the junior and the open men’s divisions of the Australian National Snowboard Cross Championships in perfect conditions, at just age 15.

This milestone proved to him and his competitors that he was the real deal and he still remembers the drive back to his home town of Mansfield where it sunk in that professional snowboarding was his future.

“I loved snowboarding and competing from a young age, but it was tough to know if I was capable of making a professional career in the sport when living in Australia," says Chumpy. “It’s probably the one moment I remember clearly feeling so good, driving home with dad and feeling like I’d love to do this sport for as long as I could.”

Since then, Chumpy has had numerous career highlights, and has become one of Australia’s most accomplished winter athletes. He works hard preparing for his events, training and competing in Northern winter destinations and training at his home mountain at Hotham in the Southern winter while his competitors take a break for summer. A typical training day for Chumpy is getting up early to check out the snow conditions, then after stretching and warming up, heading out for a few runs through the trees or out on the ridge on Hotham’s Gotcha chair before heading to the Rider Cross course. His training on the course involves trying out different racing techniques, practicing his starts and lots of laps. He follows up with an afternoon gym session or mixes it up with a fun activity like Frisbee Golf in Dinner Plain.

In preparation for race events, Chumpy visualises where he wants to finish and breaks his goal into steps. “It’s an ongoing process of refining myself, my equipment and just my whole strategy every event to give myself the best chance to win. My one real goal is to feel 100% ready at every race, even when things aren’t falling in my favour. From there all I can do is keep it simple, take it one run at a time and listen to my instincts.”

His competitive edge also boils down to his equipment and his loyal board tuning team, including Chumpy’s father Chris Pullin, who has always tuned his son’s boards and has a lot to do with the design of his custom made boards. Which is just as well, when you grow up with parents who own one of the bigger ski and snowboard stores in Victoria.

“He works on the tuning side of things just as hard as I work on my riding,” Chumpy said of his father and of the guys he works with to make his boards the best they can be for each season. “Snowboard Cross has gone down the 16

path much like surfing, with riders choosing to work with a board company to create the best boards for their riding.”

Chumpy’s snowboard sponsor, Apex Snowboards based in Austria, handmake boards to his specifications. They consider his riding style and what he’s looking for to optimise his performance; stability at speed, flex for pop, side cut turn radius, nose and tail profile, and the list goes on. “Then I just need to test a lot,” he said. “It’s a really cool process and is also pretty exciting when I step on a design that feels great.”

But beyond all of this hard work in which he’s made a successful living out of snowboarding, Chumpy remains a snowboard bum at heart. He still loves freeriding with mates, getting fresh tracks and driving “fast, big drawn out turns all the way to the bottom of the valley”.

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is success has simply given him more opportunities to do what he loves at some pretty awesome destinations around the world.

One of his more memorable experiences was snowboarding on an active volcano in Chile that he describes as ‘crazy watching it smoking and glowing red at the top’.

Currently fifth in the world rankings, Chumpy’s feeling optimistic about heading back to a few places he’s competed well at in the past. With events in Switzerland, Russia, South Korea and Spain early in the year, he has his eyes set on working towards winning the World Championship title in 2017; the satisfaction and feeling of holding the award at the end of the tour driving him on.

Chumpy says he also draws inspiration from his friend Damon Hayler. Chumpy and Damon met when Chumpy was 15 at a time when Damon was really shaping the sport in Australia. They spent years travelling and competing together, and now live in the same neighbourhood and surf together.

In addition to surfing, Chumpy’s other great passion is music. He plays guitar and may just put out a new album with his band Love Charli.

And what does he love most about Hotham?

“The terrain is steep, with lots of fun natural features to play around with.

You don’t even have to ride a lift to get your first run! Usually I’ll work my way over to Gotcha in the hope of finding some of those text book, ridge line turns when there’s some fresh snow… It really does feel like you’re surfing a 5-6 foot wave. The real key for me is the Snowboard Cross course down Road Runner. It’s always been such a great mountain to train for me,” he said.

Chumpy laying over a few fresh turns on Sun Run, 2015.

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GRETA SMALL Hotham ambassador Greta Small is a rising star of international alpine skiing. At just 20 years of age, Greta is quickly establishing herself in disciplines traditionally dominated

by Europeans and North Americans. Greta has been a star of the ski racing scene in Australia since her early teens.

Her dedication to the sport has seen her honoured as the flag bearer at the 2012 Youth Olympic Games. At the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Greta competed in all five Alpine events – Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super-G, Downhill and Combined. From there, her growth as an international athlete has surpassed all expectations.

How has the 2016 Northern winter been going?

As soon as I got the all clear to start skiing in early December, I flew straight to Austria to start back on snow. It was a very slow progression of technical skiing and drills for over a month before I started easing back into gate training. I wanted this season to just be about training and coming back stronger for next season when I’ll be ready for a full racing comeback! In February, I went to Lillehammer, Norway for the 2016 Youth Olympic Games to assist the Australian team. The energy of the team was amazing. It was great to connect with the young athletes in our team and share my experiences having competed at both YOG and a senior Olympic Games.

What are your goals for 2016 and beyond?

First I need to fight back to regain my Top 30 World Ranking, which I lost after my injury, although the plan is to better that ranking! Next season, I am looking forward to competing at the World Championships in St Mortiz, Switzerland and starting back on the World Cup tour.

Beyond next season I have the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, Korea, and then the 2019 World Championships in Åre, Sweden.

Who are some of the people you love skiing with and why?

I love skiing with people who make me laugh and smile, no matter whether I’m training or off somewhere powder skiing!

You’ve been skiing at Hotham for most of your life, can you tell us your favourite area to ski?

As a kid I loved skiing on The Orchard off piste, ducking and weaving between the snow gums. Then I got a bit bigger and couldn’t duck under some of the branches anymore! Now my favourite run is always first tracks down Snake Gully when it’s nice and fast.

What are some of your earliest skiing memories, and when did you realise you wanted to make skiing your profession?

I always had a passion and love for skiing at an early age. But my love of competition really kicked in when I competed in the Victorian Interschools for the first time. I was in Division 5 (for kids in Grade 4 and under) and I placed 16th against kids who had been racing in clubs for years. Up until that point, I had never been in a ski school or coached ever, I just skied. The following summer holidays, I had a mini introduction to ski racing in Europe. I saw the World Cup racers and I thought ‘I want to be the fastest skier in the World too; I want to win a Crystal Globe.’ I have been chasing that goal ever since.

Tell us what a typical training day looks like for you up at Hotham?

I arrive up at Hotham Central at 6.30am to do some warm up exercises and get ready before early morning training at 7am as I usually drive from home in Porepunkah. Then we have a course inspection/warm-up run prior to starting gate training. I like to get eight runs in the gates and then have a break. After that I might go back out and work on some technical skiing, lunch and then home for a gym session.

You were out with injury for much of 2015, what happened?

I had an unfortunate crash at the end of my 2015 racing season in Japan. I tore my ACL, MCL and partial meniscus – the unhappy trio – which meant 9 months off skiing and more than a year before a full racing comeback.

What sort of fitness and training have you been doing off the snow to get you back at a competitive level?

Anybody who has ever suffered from a serious injury will know you have to work twice as hard to get back to being even close to where you were before. I lived in Canberra for six months so I could rehabilitate and train at the AIS. I would start training at 8.30am and finish at 5.30pm, sometimes later, six days a week. Rehab alone is a full-time job.

I was so lucky to have such a fantastic support team around me for my knee rehab, everyone did their part.

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Where do you get your inspiration and motivation from?

My inspiration always comes from skiing and my love for my sport.

Motivation can come from anywhere and the smallest things; I know there is always someone who is working harder than me so I push myself harder.

You’ve skied all over the world, what other ski destinations have been memorable for you?

Val d’Isére, France is my favourite overseas resort. I love that you can ski all day and never ski the same run twice and the town is just magic.

I grew up holidaying in Val d’Isére and try to make it back there for a vacation ski when I can!

How do you set goals when you’re pushing yourself in a ski racing season?

My seasonal goals are usually made well in advance of the season starting; I have to know what I am working towards during the off season when a lot of the hard work goes into training on and off snow.

And when it comes to race day, I know my goal is to ski as fast as I can on the day.

What have been some of your biggest achievements – skiing & personal?

My injury has given me a lot of perspective on my ultimate goals in Alpine Skiing and a chance to reflect on what I have achieved so far in my short career. I have represented Australia at the Youth Olympic Games, four World Junior Championships, two Senior World Championships and an Olympic Games, plus I had a World ranking of 19 all before the age of 20. It was an honour to be chosen as the Australian flagbearer at the 2012 Youth Olympic Games and also to be selected at the Sochi Olympic Games as an Ambassador for the Youth Olympic Games.

What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced skiing at a World Cup level?

The biggest challenge that continues to face me is not having a full time ski coach to travel for races and training. Currently Boyd, my father and ski technician, travels with me full time for competitions, but that is not enough to be really competitive at this level of racing. I would ultimately love to have a full-time coach and travel and train with another national team which would give me the support I need. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the funds to make that a reality at this stage.

Outside of skiing, what do you get up to?

Outside of skiing and training, I like to chill out, watch movies, sketch cartoons or read a book, but sleep is my favourite!!!

Greta with Mt Hotham Race Squad

Gold in Australia New Zealand Cup FIS Slalom, Hotham 2014

FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slalom, Hotham 2014

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Buff Farnell and Drew Jolowicz hiking before the lifts open.

NEW SNOWMAKING I SUMMIT

MOUNTAIN-MADE

NEW SNOWMAKING I LOWER CANYON

The biggest news at Hotham this year is the $4.4 million investment in expanded snowmaking coverage, which will ensure Hotham is more snow sure than ever before from June through to the end of September.

NEW SNOWMAKING I LOWER IMAGINE EXISTING SNOWMAKING

EXISTING SNOWMAKING

WORDS Michael Belfrage & Anthony O'Shea

HOTHAM SKI AREA

*Snowmaking in Summit area to be completed for 2017 season.

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he new snowmaking infrastructure installed at Hotham ahead of this winter is state-of-the-art, but snowmaking technology didn’t come down in the last snow shower. The first snow cannon was invented and patented in the US back in the early 1950s. In 1952, Grossinger’s Resort in the Catskills in upstate New York (the heart of the Borscht Belt) became the first mountain in the world to make its own snow. Since that time, and especially since the 1970s and 1980s, alpine resorts around the world at all latitudes and all altitudes have embraced snowmaking technology to supplement natural snowfall and provide a better season-long skiing and snowboarding experience.

There’s a lot that goes into developing an effective snowmaking plan and ensuring any resort builds a reliable, efficient, economical and productive snowmaking system. The many factors that need to be considered include the resort topography and layout, available water and storage area, prevailing winds, high traffic areas, and the most important terrain on the mountain to have open and when. Environmental issues, including loss of native vegetation and rehabilitation of any areas disturbed, also need to be taken into account.

Hotham was a relatively late adopter of snowmaking infrastructure compared to the other Australian resorts. This gave us the advantage of being able to capitalise on improvements in technology and operational learnings and innovations that other resorts may not have had available to them at the time they installed their snowmaking.

In earlier generations of snowmaking technology, snowmaking quality depended in large part upon the skill of the equipment operator. By the time Hotham developed a snowmaking master plan in 1998, automation (in the form of more condition-sensitive and remote, computer-controlled snow guns and infrastructure) was allowing snowmakers to operate with much greater precision. Automation became the focus of the Hotham snowmaking plan, and has been our reference point in building a system over nearly 20 years that allows us to take advantage of changes in conditions in real-time and capitalise on every window of opportunity to make snow, short or long.

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The latest stage of the Hotham snowmaking master plan was commenced over summer 2015/16, expanding the existing snowmaking areas to include Lower Imagine, Lower Canyon and The Summit. This will ensure more trails on Heavenly Valley, the great intermediate terrain serviced by the Roadrunner lift, and the Beginner terrain in The Summit area will all be serviced by snowmaking throughout the entire season.

Those ‘Lamborghini Yellow’ Snow Guns.

In the early stages of the snowmaking master plan, Hotham decided to align with TechnoAlpin, an Italian company that was relatively small in 1998 but has since grown to be one of the largest suppliers of snowmaking equipment worldwide. TechnoAlpin has always been ahead of their competitors in Research and Development when it comes to making snow in marginal conditions, and Hotham became one of the R&D sites for TechnoAlpin and one of the first southern hemisphere resorts to install their equipment.

Even in 1998, TechnoAlpin equipment included automation, weather stations on each fan gun appliance, and heated fan blades for dealing with icing conditions. And as an example of the learnings from their long experience in the field at Hotham and elsewhere, mounting fan guns on towers has proved to be 20 to 30% more productive in any window of snowmaking opportunity.

So when can we make snow?

The critical working tool of a snowmaker after all the water storage, water lines and pumping at high pressure, electrical reticulation and gun infrastructure has been installed is Wet Bulb (WB) temperature. This is the combination of ambient air temperature and relative humidity.

“Wet Bulb temperature effectively tells us how much room is left in the air to add more moisture,” says Len Dobell, General Manager of Operations at Hotham. “It’s generally accepted that snowmaking can start when the wet bulb temperature is -2 degrees. But in low humidity, we might be able to make snow at up to +3 degrees.”

THE MAGIC NUMBER FOR SNOWMAKERS.

“The ideal Wet Bulb temperature for optimal snowmaking conditions is -3 degrees ambient air temperature and 50% humidity. That’s a WB temperature of -6.4 degrees.”

air temperature degree c°

6 4

Whenever snowmaking conditions prevail, the team of snowmakers at Hotham starts the system running and the fan guns start producing snow. The team then patrol the equipment to monitor where the manmade snow is falling, the quality of the manmade snow and any changes to weather parameters.

2 0 -2 -4 20

30

40

50

60

70

80

relative humidity (%) We can make snow when the Wet Bulb (WB) temperature (a combination of ambient air temperature and relative humidity) goes below -2° WB.

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The manmade snow is usually allowed to sit for 24 hours in a pile – sometimes known as a “whale” – before it is groomed into the places where it is required over the mountain.

Manmade snow has proven to be resilient to skier and snowboarder traffic and in less-thanoptimal warm or wet weather conditions.

So next time you are out on the mountain enjoying perfectly groomed lines of corduroy or consistent snow cover on some of your favourite runs, now you have a bit of an insight into how it all came about and the amount of work the snowmaking crew undertake most nights or whenever the “Wet Bulb” temperature allows them to make that white gold we all live for.

The TechnoAlpin fan guns get the thumbs up from Len Dobell, Hotham’s General Manager – Operations.

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Nigel’s tips to improve your skiing and snowboarding 1. Get a lesson/guide so you are comfortable on our steeper terrain and a whole new world will open up to you. I have never seen a crowd on Mary’s Slide and sometimes you can have it all to yourself.

HOTHAM’S SKI AND SNOWBOARD MASTERCLASSES RUN 10AM AND 1.30PM DAILY IN PEAK SEASON. visit: hotham.com.au/masterclasses Read more on the Mills boys in Hotham’s New School page 36

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The Mills family in their second home of Vail, USA. From left, Carter, Andrea, Nigel, Cody and Charlie.

2. Stand on your ski or board correctly. This basic position on your skis has your upper body facing slightly downhill with your hands always in front where you can see them. You should balance on your downhill ski by rolling your knees and hip slightly uphill (skis on edge) with your upper body balanced over the downhill ski. Check your position by lifting your uphill ski off the ground while staying in position. Try to make some turns keeping your body pretty much focussed down the hill and turning your legs. On your board, a strong stance is when your shoulders, hips and knees should all stay in line with your board and the pitch of the hill with even weight on both feet.

Once you have a good basic position on your equipment you are ready to make more dynamic and faster movements.

3. Smooth, round dynamic turns. No matter your level of riding you should try to make the tail of your ski or board follow as close a line to the tip as possible depending upon the terrain. Put your equipment on edge enough to prevent the tail from washing out and travelling sideways too much.

Riders who look good are usually creating the right angle with their body at the right time in the turn to create a nice arc in the snow. This body position is referred to as angulation. These skiers and snowboarders have a dynamic movement pattern to their riding so that they are in constant motion, moving and flowing down the hill linking their turns from one to the other.

Nigel and wife Andrea demonstrate the ideal ski body position.

ALL IN THE FAMILY To say Nigel Mills loves his job is an understatement. The Director of Hotham’s Ski & Ride School has made skiing his entire life, so much so that his three teenage boys have never seen a summer.

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e hope they don’t figure out what they are missing, Nigel said, but then, they probably don’t really mind either, since the whole family, live and breathe snowsports, splitting their lives between Hotham and Vail, Colorado every year.

All three of his boys are avid skiers and snowboarders and two were born in the USA. Carter, 15, is a five-time Australian National snowboard cross champion in his age group and trains with Hotham Snowboarders Inc. Charlie, 17, is a park skier who loves to go upside down, slide the rails and spend time with his friends in the park. Cody, 12, the youngest of the Mills brothers, is already honing his park and all mountain skills and can be seen ripping around Hotham and Vail with his friends. Nigel’s been instructing skiing for over 30 years and his wife Andrea is also an instructor in Vail and Hotham.

“I was at uni, then on my first ski trip in 1980 I got the bug and that was it. It’s 64 winters in a row and counting” Nigel said of working back to back seasons in Canada, France and Austria before moving to Vail and Hotham in the late eighties where he’s been ever since. “Best move I ever made” he said of coming to Hotham, where he’s headed up the Ski & Ride School since 1994 overseeing 170 ski and snowboard instructors. This includes 16 level four Australian Professional Snowsports Instructors (APSI), the highest Australian snowsports qualification as well as three national demonstration team members on staff. This takes years of training and teaching hours to accomplish, making Hotham the most accredited Ski & Ride School (per instructor) in Australia.

These pros never stop training and progressing. They take training sessions before and after giving lessons as well as after-hours Movement Analysis sessions and study for exams.

Instructing is a very professional vocation these days and the APSI is at the vanguard of teaching and skiing progressions.

“You can never get so good at any sport that lessons and improving are not an option. As with every sport the better you get the more fun it becomes. Why does Rory Mc Ilroy practice his putting? I work on my skiing all the time and my goal is to ski consistently in all conditions, which is easier said than done in Australia,” Nigel said of his own goals to keep on progressing in the sport.

“Progressing opens up greater terrain to ride as well as your enjoyment in differing conditions. Powder can be frustrating but once you have mastered that smooth confident rounded turn it’s so much fun.”

Hotham is the kind of place where one actually gets to implement what they learn in lessons and practice on easier

slopes. All those weight transfer drills, edging exercises and practice of short and long radius turns are preparation for the kind of skiing and snowboarding you’ll need to unleash at Hotham. It’s not just for looking the goods on the slopes, like when you feel completely upstaged by the eight year old who just ripped down and beat you to the chairlift, and it’s not just for keeping up with your friends as they politely tell you they’ll just meet you at the bottom.

It’s the type of terrain at Hotham that needs you to apply your learnings to give you the most enjoyable mountain and riding experience. Lots of steep, sometimes narrow runs with conditions that change throughout the day require even the best rider to up their game.

“Skiing at Hotham is always an adventure as there are so many spots off the beaten path that hold good snow for a long time after a storm,” Nigel said. At Hotham you could easily start off the day hitting a foot of fresh snow off the Gotcha chair where a solid, centred stance is essential for perfect turns. After a few laps there, you might head to the trees near Lindsay’s where you’ll need to activate your short dynamic turns, well balanced stance and quick feet which are necessary to dodge obstacles. Then you head over to Heavenly Valley for some big, fast carving turns, a dynamic well-angulated turn gripping the groomed snow with your edges at speed. As it gets a little warmer after lunch, fun bumps start to appear on the runs and you find yourself using well-steered turns and extension-retraction techniques to drive through the bumps.

“If you think you are good in the bumps, watch some of our level four guys and girls who make it look so easy.” It’s these top level instructors who coach Hotham’s ski and snowboard Masterclasses that focus on the tactical implementation of different ski disciplines used for different terrain rather than just drills and exercises.

“Having a week of Masterclasses or any lessons will always make your experience that much better. You may not become Ingemar Stenmark (holds the record for most World Cup wins with 86) but it’s the person with the biggest smile who wins,” Nigel said.

And on that matter, it’s got to be the Mills family who are winning with the biggest smiles as they get to ski and snowboard two thirds of the year AND get paid to do it.

But it’s not all cold and snow though, between northern and southern winter seasons and school for the boys in the USA, the family takes a break with beach holidays in Bali, Thailand, Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Sounds like the perfect life to us! — Alexandra Rouse

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BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES WORDS Buff Farnell PHOTOGRAPHY Andrew Barnes & Karl Gray

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I

first met Bill Barker some years back at Hotham. I was going cross country skiing to Dinner Plain with a Russian girlfriend and she had no cross country skis, so we dropped by the General Store at Hotham, which at that time had a ski hire and even a controversial independent ski school.

I walked into the ski hire and looked for staff. There was noone in sight, so I yelled out. Still nothing. I went downstairs to the bar and the bar guy said yep Bill’s up there in ski hire.

I went back in and looked over the counter and there was a guy asleep on the floor with massive long dreads, a worn out pair of Levis and Sorel snow boots with no laces. His name was Bill or bad boy Billy Barker and he became a best mate.

We skied around the world in Fernie, Red Mountain, Big White and Whistler in Canada, India, Europe and Japan.

We rock climbed together at Mt Arapiles and other crags of the world. Bill’s a solid bloke who I trust with my life on the end of a rope or watching me as I scoot down a fresh steep bowl of powder. We’ve always had each other’s backs when it gets wild, and of course we’ve skied a lot together at Hotham. It’s our home, we know her in a very deep and intimate way. We know where powder collects after a storm from the northwest, and we know where it all ends up when a southerly wind whips its evil way. We both love the whole experience of living up on top of a mountain and feeling the wrath of the storm, and then going in deep when the sun rises.

When I first met him, Bill loved parties. In fact, he may have loved parties more than skiing. Well maybe not, but he funded his survival at Hotham for the first few years with minimal work, winning Pool and Dart comps at the General Store so he could buy Beer and Bananas. I just skied. I tried not to work too much, just washed dishes, tuned skis at night and skied by day. Bill and I both skied for legendary Hotham photographer Andrew Barnes.

Barnesy saw us skiing, he liked our style so he asked if we could ski for his camera. We did, and we still ski for him now. It’s a beautiful thing when minds meet like that and we can get together after not seeing each other for a few years and it’s just unspoken: we know what to do, we both know what he wants when we’re a kilometre away on another peak and he waves and we ski down through rock bands and cornices; it’s a symbiotic ski art we share.

Now Andrew Barnes is a full-time Paramedic who shoots photos with us when he can. He also runs a website and Facebook page called East Gippsland Outdoors, beautiful nature photography and action sports. Bill is now head of Hotham Ski Patrol. And me? Well I still ski for film makers and photographers and do some light entertainment work with my buddy DJ Eddy.

Now this is not meant to be a potted history of our skiing at Hotham; I just wanted to set the scene. We came to Hotham for adventure. It’s a little harder to get to, it’s steeper than any other mountain in Australia, and it gets great snow.

That’s what drew us all up here. I’m sure it’s also why a lot of you guys come to Hotham. I know that because I clock your smiles after the first ride up Heavenly Valley on a fresh snow day. I hear you yelling, and I see your tracks.

Well not too many, because I like getting in first, but I’m 28

also happy to share the snow up here in the cathedral that is Hotham. We all get thirsty, and we all need water. It’s the same with fresh snow. And once it gets cut and squashed, we need to leave the lifts and head out into the mighty bowls and ridges of Hotham’s side country.

Hotham is unique when it comes to access into bowls and valleys: we start up high and then slide, the hike comes later. And unlike many areas, it’s better to hoof it out than use skins, just plug steeps, whether you wear snowboard boots or ski boots, to kick steps up the steeper ridges and bowls. It’s the most direct way and can be shared by all.

I remember skiing with Jeff Sweeney, the legendary big wave surfer and snow-wear designer for Quiksilver a few years back. We had come down one of the Two Micks, a classic Hotham cross fall line run with great wind lips and snow pockets. We finished our run in the Swindlers Valley and stopped for a breath and to look back up at where we’d just been. Jeff looked up and down the valley and said “Whoo, the soul factor is through the roof out here.”

Andrew Barnes laughed, and Bill and I just nodded.

Y

ou don’t have to go far out of the resort up here to get the feeling you need to wash off the grime and problems of everyday life. I remember so many days rising in the dark to my alarm and meeting with Andrew and Bill as we walked up the road in the dark with snow pelting our faces, only to drop down into the valley and find feather quilts deep of fresh snow and trees to give us definition. We would ski for hours with Barnesy yelling out into the wind for us to come in tight, or get air into a glade, or power into a pocket of fresh. Then we’d hike out and find it was 3.00 in the afternoon and we’d been in another world. Like I said in the intro to this story, Barnesy, Bill and I have skied all over the world. I’ve skied and alpine climbed in the Indian Himalayas, spent many winters in St Anton and skied in Japan, Canada and the USA. Bill now runs a guiding company in Gulmarg in Kashmir India called Bills Trips (funny name hey?).

Barnesy has skied all over the USA, toured through the Grand Tetons and Telluride and lots of backcountry in Australia, but I’m writing this because I think we all feel like Hotham is our home. Home always smells good, it feels right, and when it’s a place with such wild peaks and deep snow, I always have my best days here, the days I remember, the days I play over in my mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s spring and the snow has changed, or if there’s ice; it’s still wild and I’m glad I made the choice to come up into the big peaks and share some time with my ski partners and the friends I’ve made up here.

I only get to ski with Bill a couple of days each winter now because he has to run the ski patrol and make sure you guys are all ok when you tweak your body parts. Bill has everybody’s back now. And Barnesy still shoots through in his Suby when he can and we all get to shoot together. It’s still the same adventure; the mountain sits and waits and we ski. So if you see me on the chair out there, let’s have a chat and maybe ski a run or two for fun and Auld Lang Syne.

Best, Buff Farnell.

Previous Page:

Tells a story of Hotham’s

vast side country and

beauty. Skier: Buff Farnell

Clockwise from top left: 01 Buff in the trees with a

loaded beanie.

02 200cm+ in the Dargo

Bowl 1991.

03 "This is the reason I ski at

Hotham. I can escape."

04 Buff (left) & Bill getting

ready to go backcountry

in the years before socks.

05 "Love this shot flying

flowing down a steep

valley behind Davenport."

06 Bill Barker classic deep

Hotham fresh. Worth

hiking for.

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HOTHAM WOMEN ON TOP I have a confession to make. I used to loathe skiing with girls. Silly me thought the only way I could improve my skiing was to chase the testosterone down the hill and throw all my technique out the window in the process. First one down wins.

WORDS Rachael Oakes-Ash

W

hat on earth made me think that a) chicks don’t rip and b) being first means you ski better? I now know the error of my foolish ways but back then I was on a mission, taking up skiing as an adult and then choosing it as my subject of choice as a journalist meant I had to learn, and learn fast.

If only I knew what gifts the female skiing fraternity (or sorority) had to offer. My first inkling of how big and badass women skiers and boarders can be was at Hotham on a week long women’s ski improvement camp when I took a morning off from the tuition and met up with Andrea Binning. That’s a big mountain bad ass skier right there.

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Andrea had conquered the peaks of Alaska with their sheer vertical faces and awe-inspiring spines. She had won world championship extreme skiing competitions and she had even been in one of the most terrifying slab avalanches caught on film and lived to tell the story.

There she was skiing down Hotham’s renowned terrain with me tumbling in her trail. No male posse of skiers had ever made me ski so hard and she was just on a down day. She would have left the men I knew in her wake like she left me.

Clockwise from top: 01 Andrea Binning.

Avalanche survivor

and big mountain

legend.

02 Greta Small Slalom

training at Hotham.

03 Hotham local Lydia

Turnbull skiing

Australia Drift.

As Australia’s most successful big mountain extreme skier, male or female, to date Andrea also provided me with some serious rubbed off kudos when I name dropped back in the women’s week group that afternoon. The women I was skiing with were tough and Andrea’s name went a long way to them accepting me despite my skiing ability, or lack of it.

Thanks to my job I have gone on since then to ski with some of the best the world has to offer of both genders, including our own Anna Segal (X Games gold, silver and bronze medalist, FIS world champion and 4th in the Sochi Olympics slopestyle), Natalie Segal (Freeride World Tour athlete) and Torah Bright (needs no introduction). Just saying.

I’m also just going to put it out there that Australian women have done ‘all right’ on the world circuit, including Zali Steggall, Alisa Camplin and Lydia Lassila who became household names.

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Of course Andrea is not the only impressive female athlete to have called Hotham home.

Alpine racer, Greta Small, competed for Australia on every event of the women’s Alpine program at Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.

Did I mention she trains at Hotham?

There comes a moment in every skier’s life, male or female, when they realize that they can move down the fall line and not die. That moment when you trust your body enough to fall forward not cling backwards, when you have enough technique in a turn on a steep gradient to know the best way is to flow with the mountain not against it.

It is at this moment that the mountain opens up to you and you can start to conquer the entire hill. I learnt that at Mt Hotham on the steeps of Mary’s Slide. If you ever wondered what someone like Andrea was doing hanging

Mary’s Slide was named after Mary James (nee Wallace) a champion skier in the 1930s and 40s who was allegedly seen falling and sliding on her back down the slope.

out at an Australian ski field, then just hit up Hotham’s Extreme Zone and throw yourself down Lindsay’s, The Chute and even Mary’s.

Like life you can fight the run you find yourself on (provided you’ve chosen within your ability) or you can trust in technique, knowledge and experience and let the flow begin. At your pace.

Once I stopped fighting my own gender in my head and went with them not against them I realized that I loved skiing with most women more than I love skiing with some men.

I used to hate the sweeping generalisations and stereotypes thrown at both genders even when I was throwing them myself. But there is something about sharing an outdoor adventure with others you share the same chromosomes with. There’s no need to explain, literally.

Of course there are always exceptions and I still like the thrill of pushing myself to keep up with some of my male and most of my female friends and I love the thrill of passing them even more.

Though on a powder day I don’t care what your gender is. If you’re not ready in time for the first chair then I will just leave you behind.

Rachael Oakes-Ash – aka Miss Snow It All – is an award-winning author, humourist, documentary maker, columnist and travel writer. Keep up with Rachael’s take on all things alpine at snowsbest.com, or on life in general at elephanttruths.com

DO YOU #SKILIKEAGIRL? Join Hotham’s Ski & Ride School for The Friday Afternoon Club, a weekly women’s ski/snowboard fun and improvement session every Friday afternoon in winter. For intermediate and above riders.

Or get involved in Hotham’s Women’s Week specially designed ski/ snowboard instruction program for women only. Guaranteed to improve your riding and a great way to explore Hotham’s beautiful mountain terrain with some new friends. hotham.com.au/womensweek

Joti Jaffrey on the Cross Cornice.

PETER ZIRKNITZER When we discuss ski resorts the world over, we talk about the terrain, the vertical, the number of lifts. We quote depth of snow in a season or the highest lifted point, but these stats don’t tell the real story of the places we love.

WORDS Karl Gray

T

he destinations that excite and inspire us were crafted by some unique individuals whose passions and drive create the soul and character of our favourite places. Hotham is one such place and the people, the pioneers who built it are the heart of the mountain. It’s these characters who give it its spark.

One man, his family and their passion for Hotham has helped shape our mountain home since the sixties. We are talking about Zirky, or Mr Peter Zirknitzer to those who don’t know him. A man with a quick smile, easy manner and a quirky turn of phrase who has been sharing his love of life, skiing, a beer and a laugh with Hotham for over fifty years.

Peter is a child of the Austrian Alps, where skiing and ski racing were daily winter activities and the passions of his childhood. “We didn’t have any flat land to play soccer, so we went skiing.” Ski instructing became an attractive option for young Peter, as he freely admits he was not much of a carpenter, even after a three year apprenticeship, and really all he wanted to do was go skiing.

It was ski instructing and a ship that brought Peter to Hotham in the late 1950s and after weeks at sea and, finally, a walk in from Blowhard with 3 pairs of skis and a travel bag, he arrived. He started to leave his mark on the place immediately through his students and exploits, including jumping the road gap, which to him was just part of the daily commute between lessons.

It wasn’t too many years before Hotham and Australia had Peter hooked, or more likely it was a young Gippsland girl, Heather Mactier, whom he married and started the family we know today. The two of them began building the Zirky’s complex, which started life as a ski hire and snack

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bar in 1970, and soon grew into a little bar before some guest rooms, a night club, a boutique and apartments were added.

Peter, Heather, their children and now grandchildren’s Hotham story is in a very real sense the Hotham story; a story of friends, a passion for the mountains, a passion for family, a good sense of humour and most importantly a desire to have fun. From his students in ski school to patrons at the bar, you won’t find many without a Zirky quote; his humour and turn of phrase have kept us all smiling over the years.

Chatting about skiing on the chair one day, Peter quipped “I have never met a happy jogger, or a happy teetotaller,” so forget running, go skiing.

Let us redefine the measures of a ski hill. The measures will be the great stories you have heard, the tales of crazy exploits, the good times and great people.

This quick tale of Zirky has us thinking of all the great people who make this mountain community and define our Hotham as much as we define ourselves as part of Hotham. We tip our collective hats to you Pete and thus the only responsible way we can possibly close a story about Peter is in his own words.

“If you didn’t enjoy it you weren’t normal, you know what I mean, I love it each time I go out, and you make a couple of turns and you really think you’re quite lucky to be here and to do that. I have had so much fun skiing overseas and in Hotham with so many friends. I have had a very blessed life, I must say, being able to do this. You know it’s the only sport I can do reasonably well… you don’t want to see me swimming…”

Peter Zirknitzer, ‘Zirky’

Clockwise from top: 01 The Zirky’s complex has come a long way from a ski hire and snack bar in 1970. 02 Peter Zirknitzer. 03 Zirky in his younger years.

01

03

02

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HOTHAM’S NEW SCHOOL On any given day at Hotham, you can find at least one of these young star skiers and snowboarders bombing around the mountain, jumping and jibbing in the terrain parks, lapping the Rider Cross course or playing on the natural features for which Hotham is renowned. With an average age of 13½ and blessed to be born into Hotham families, we wanted to ask these guys and girls a few questions to get a glimpse into their world.

The following questions are taken from a scholarly article written by educational theorist Hugh Emerson in 1987 entitled “10 questions every parent should ask their child”, although we’ll admit they only came to our attention when they appeared in a more recent issue of Surfing World magazine.

Gus Broersen 12 Skier Freestyle Champion Mt Hotham Freeski

Courtney Bartlett 13 Snowboarder SBX Champion Hotham Snowboarders Inc

Jessi Bartlett 9 Snowboarder Racing Champion Hotham Snowboarders Inc

What five words do you think best describe you?

Gus: Friendly, happy, active, determined and motivated.

Courtney: Fun, imaginative, focused, crazy, approachable.

Jessi: Fun, cool, calm, active and sporty.

Charlie: Outgoing, sendy, funny, stylish, persistent.

Carter: Motivated, stoked, persistent, outgoing and energetic.

Bailey: Confident, inventive, adventurous, creative, skibum.

What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you?

Gus: Living at Hotham every season.

Courtney: Being crowned Victorian Champion for Snowboard GS and second in SBX at Interschools in 2014. Also third in the Victorian Interschools SBX 2015.

I can’t wait to see what I can do this year!

Jessi: Becoming Australian Champion in GS at Australian Interschools last year.

Charlie: Going on a safari in Africa was the best experience of my life.

Carter: I think it would have to be winning the ANC boarder cross race at Hotham last year.

Bailey: Back flipping over the Great Alpine Road at Mount Hotham!

Charlie Mills 17 Skier Inversion Specialist Free Rider

Carter Mills 14 Snowboarder SBX Champion Hotham Snowboarders Inc

Bailey Johnson 16 Skier Road Gap Expert Free Rider

What are you most grateful for?

Gus: That mum and dad decided to start managing The Lodge at Hotham!

Courtney: To my family for giving me the opportunity to be at Hotham for term 3 every year and train and compete with HSi. Also for my puppy Daisy.

Jessi: My family and friends.

Charlie: The health of my friends, family and myself.

Carter: That I get to snowboard almost every day on some of the best mountains in the world.

Bailey: Huge backflips on fresh powder days, park laps with friends, and sunny days.

What do you think your life will be like in the future?

Gus: Adventurous.

Courtney: My life will be amazing I’ll either be a famous snowboarder or living on the beach with my friends.

Jessi: Hopefully I’ll be getting paid to snowboard!

Charlie: Ski. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

Carter: Hopefully pretty similar to what it’s like now, back to back winters.

Bailey: Travelling the world skiing, with friends and doing crazy stuff.

What bums you out more than anything?

Gus: When you just can’t land your trick.

Courtney: A rainy day.

Jessi: That it’s not winter all year round.

Charlie: People with a bad attitude.

Carter: People who aren’t stoked to get out on the hill when it’s a beautiful day.

Bailey: Rain, long lift lines, and injuries.

How would you change the world if you could?

Gus: I’d make it snow all year round at Hotham.

Courtney: I would stop terrorist attacks and war.

Jessi.: I would make everything perfect, I would make no war, for no babies to die when they haven’t even been born yet, and most of all I would bring my dad back.

Charlie: Everyone would speak the same language.

Carter: I would definitely have to Stop global warming.

Bailey: Snow 365 days of the year, so that I could ski at Mount Hotham all year round.

Of all the things you learnt in school, what do you think will be the most useful when you’re an adult?

Gus: I learnt to do a back flip off the playground equipment Courtney: Never give up Jessi: I think that P.E will help me when I am older because it makes me stronger and more courageous.

Charlie: How to do taxes. Just kidding, they don’t teach you that in school.

Carter: Not to give up and to commit to things.

Bailey: Calculating the velocity while going down a slope in physics, so I’ll always make the gap.

If you could make one rule that everyone in the world had to follow, what rule would you make? Why? Gus: Be kind to each other so that everyone can get along.

Courtney: Everyone has to be happy. I hate it when people are grumpy; it’s just so awkward.

Jessi: NO WAR! why?? Because it kills me seeing on the news every now and then when innocent people are hurt or killed.

Charlie: Everyone must go skiing at least once a month.

Carter: Don’t wear crocs because it would just make everyone’s lives better.

Bailey: If you didn’t get the shot, it doesn’t count (plus it’ll make for a cool post on social media)!

If you could travel back in time three years and visit your younger self, what advice would you give yourself?

Gus: When I was 9, life was fine... (I think I’m too young to give myself advice) Courtney: Do your homework.

Jessi: To understand that you don’t just do things straight away, you have to learn how to make yourself strong and courageous.

Charlie: Just do it. No matter what it is in relation to, just go for it.

Carter: Sell my BHP shares.

Bailey: Send it for the boys (and girls).

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If you were an animal what would you be?

Gus: A monkey and swing from tree to tree.

Courtney: A puppy because they’re little, cute and everyone loves them… like me.

Jessi: A Bull.

Charlie: An eagle.

Carter: I would be a bear because I’d get to live in the mountains and sleep half the year.

Bailey: Chameleon, just because they are cool as hell.

MT HOTHAM RACE SQUAD - TEAM HOTHAM. Dedicated to the promotion and encouragement of competitive alpine ski racing. Team Hotham offer programs from the youngest Grommets, 5-7 years to Race Masters, 18-80 years. mhrs.org.au

HOTHAM SNOWBOARDERS INC. Not-for-profit SSA Pathway development snowboard club with school holiday and weekend programs designed around the core principles of snowboarding and having fun. HSi ride the whole mountain; park, powder, groomers as well as race training sessions for Snowboard Cross and G.S. hothamsnowboarders.com.au

MT HOTHAM FREESKI. Not-for-profit freestyle skiing club, recognised as an accredited SSA Elite Pathways Program. With world class coaches, the club specialises in slopestyle, Ski Cross, moguls, aerials and big mountain disciplines teaching skiers to become confident and competent in local competitions, Interschools, State and National events. mounthothamfreeski.com.au 39

B Backflip

HOTHAM ROAD GAP

On Sunday 19 July 2015, Hotham woke to a perfect winter sunrise. The darkness dispersed and the strong early season base gradually turned from deep grey to vibrant pink with the sun’s first light. The view over the valley towards Mount Feathertop was particularly striking. I was out early, shooting on the lower face of The Cross with my partner Liam and local legends Buff and Drew.

Little did we know that Hotham’s road gap legacy was about to be reignited…

WORDS Katya Crema PHOTOGRAPHY Mark Tsukasov

Bailey Johnson reignites Hotham’s road gap legend in 2015

A LEGACY REIGNITED. As the sun was rising, 16 year-old Bailey Johnson was getting ready to take on Hotham’s infamous road gap jump. At around 7.30am, Bailey performed a huge, layed-out backflip over the Hotham road. As luck would have it, Hotham photographer Mark Tsukasov was on-hand to capture the shot that later the same day sent social media spiraling out of control. While most Aussie skiers have heard stories or seen pictures of the Hotham road gap jump, very few have witnessed it in person. It is a Hotham legacy filled with history, big personalities and often grandiose storytelling.

Bailey’s father Rick captures the backflip from another angle (you can see Rick on the side of the road in the photo on the previous page)

BAILEY JOHNSON Bailey Johnson has serious family history on the slopes of Hotham. Having spent every winter on the hill from birth, he is as ‘local’ as they come. “My whole family skis; even my granddad still skis up at Hotham. The family has been involved at Hotham for about 60 years. My dad and his dad built Swindler’s Lodge.”

Bailey’s jump reignited a little something in everyone. He inspired the die-hard skiers, the locals and the weekend warriors. His story inspired me to research and write this article!

“We went out at about 11pm the night before and shoveled the jump. We had to keep an eye 42

out; we kept ducking every time we saw lights.”

When morning came, the conditions couldn’t have been more perfect, but the young crew of three was on edge. “We all jumped it one time each and cleared it. And then someone from Lift Operations showed up on a skidoo and tried to get us to leave and shut down the jump. That’s when Mark [Tsukasov] rolled up with the camera in the back of his car and I just went for the backflip.”

The striking photo is instantly recognisable, and says a lot about Hotham. The bridge is the symbolic entrance to the village; the ice has been freshly cleared from the road; Bailey’s father Rick is in prime position ready

to capture his son’s memorable performance.

And Bailey himself, body outstretched, eyes focused on the landing, not a hint of fear in his body expression. The well-orchestrated montage contrasted with Bailey’s spontaneity encompasses so many elements of the Hotham identity.

You could say the black and white photo hanging on the wall at Zirky’s Bar was one source of inspiration for Bailey. “It has kind of been a dream of mine ever since I’ve been at Hotham really. I’ve seen the photo about 50 times, that was probably some of the motivation, seeing that was so awesome, I wanted to do it myself.”

ZIRKY Peter Zirknitzer, known to most simply as ‘Zirky’, is one of Australia’s most iconic mountain characters. He first arrived at Hotham in 1963 from Austria with three pairs of skis, a suitcase and a long walk ahead of him from Blowhard to Hotham village.

The famous black and white photo of the Hotham road gap jump perched on the wall in Zirky’s Bar brings back memories for Peter. He claims that his regular commute over the road was merely a daily routine. “Instead of walking across, we just jumped. We always had to take the skis off, so we just put a couple of branches on the edge of the road for a little take off. There was still the poma lift going up the summit and we worked below the road. We just hopped across. It was nothing special really.”

Zirky admits the famous photo on the bar wall jumping the Porsche is not actually of him.

“We framed it up and put the car there. But the photo is not actually me, funnily enough. We all jumped it… there were about six guys. We were all instructors.”

Peter Zirknitzer jumps the Great Alpine Road between lessons.

At 82 years of age, Peter can still be spotted each morning launching himself down Hotham’s long gullies. He is a die-hard skier whose passion for Hotham runs deep.

RICHIE BIGGINS Richie’s road gap jump photo will forever be legendary. On a pair of 210cm straight GS boards, a violently fluoro one piece and a classic set of Raichle red and yellow rear entries, his style in the air symbolises an era.

Richie began his early racing career skiing at Hotham. “My parents were complete mad skiers and used to take us up to Hotham when we were young kids. That’s how we got into those winter adventures.”

Richie got into alpine racing through Steven Lee, one of Australia’s best alpine ski racers. “I did slalom and giant slalom and then got into downhill through Steve, who was focusing on the speed events.”

There are not too many alpine racers who could pull off what Richie did.

He claims that he had some good teachers, and was taught by example.

“I remember when Steve Lee was courageous enough to teach Alberto Tomba how to do 360s in downhill training on his downhill skis.”

When Richie considered hitting the jump, he consulted his buddy Dave Spiers for some advice. Richie admits he was more nervous about getting the speed right than about the jump itself. “Jumping the road was one thing; working out where we were going to jump the road was another. The challenging part was working out speed, the type of jump we needed to build, and ensuring we were actually going to get over the road and land it. It could have all gone really wrong, landing on the road. We pushed a bit of snow onto the back bit of the road… but that wasn’t really going to do much good. You certainly would have broken a leg or two legs landing on that flat bit of road.”

Richie confessed he only hit the jump once, and would never jump from where he jumped again. “I think it’s too dangerous. It goes down in the history books as one of the craziest things I have ever done.”

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Richie Biggins jumping the road in 1990.

Richie recalls skiing all sorts of terrain as a developing athlete. “We used to go in bumps competitions and get big air. At Hotham it was park and pipe skiing down the natural gullies.”

David Speirs planned his jump over the road for weeks.

DAVE SPEIRS Dave Speirs is another Australian ski personality and contributor to the Hotham road gap legacy. Like Bailey, Dave is from a freestyle background. The discipline of moguls captured Dave’s imagination from an early age. Looking back on the sport, Dave recalls how it has progressed over the years since the time he was competing. “I think the event size and the courses themselves have changed dramatically.

Mogul jumps and landings in the 1980’s and 90’s were minefields.

You could either land in the right spot or land in a hole. Whereas now, we actually calculate and measure the average landing slope over a chopped prepared landing, which enables athletes to jump highly technical tricks that they never would have been able to execute on those older style courses.”

Dave has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to freestyle skiing. As an Olympic mogul coach and current Event Manager for the Australian Winter Interschools Championships, he has seen the sport progress over the past three decades.

Dave’s story behind the Hotham road gap jump is captivating, and like Bailey, was inspired by a legend of the past. “I was at Hotham when Richie [Biggins] jumped the road which was incredible really. Richie had the idea to get a snowcat and build that jump. He decided to build it in an area where they couldn’t get the cat close to the road because it just would have fallen onto the road. So he had to deal with not only a vertical drop but also the extra 10 meters in distance from where the jump was built to the road. And it was huge. Huge, huge, huge!”

Dave recalls that he was one of many who saw Richie get carted up to the top of the summit that day, and come in at high speed. “Then he 44

just hit it right on, and landed two meters past the edge of the road. And it was a fantastic jump. I have spent the last few years reminiscing with Richie from time to time.”

Richie inspired Dave to go big in the mid 90s. Dave had the lift company, the local police and Vic Roads all on board that day. “I had the road closed. We had to watch the weather, and I liked that spot near the bridge; I wanted to treat it like a stunt.”

While the image captures a single moment in time, Dave had this planned for weeks. The entire day was mapped out to absolute precision.

“I built that jump with the cat, we salted that whole in-run because with the sun, it was catching direct sunlight. Also, we had an aerial World Cup coach to do some speed tests on it prior to jumping it.”

Dave had three freestyle athletes he was coaching to Olympic qualifications at the time that he wanted to expose to the jump. “They were minors at the time, so obviously the responsibility of getting the speed right and the take off point right was on me and wasn’t just something that you could ‘wing’. So the weather cleared, we managed to build a return track from the top of Hill Valley, it was pretty visible and noticeable what we were doing so we attracted quite a crowd.”

Dave is well aware of the importance of having the right skills and strength to hit a jump of such high consequence. “It’s one of those things that when I saw [Bailey] jump this year, it was pretty cool to see. But if you don’t manage it… any type of mistake from that height is catastrophic. And Richie was such a high-end talent, he was able to manage it.”

THE LEGACY CONTINUES. With an identity shaped by steep gullies, long alpine vistas and strong snow falls.

A distinctive character steeped in pushing boundaries, brought to life by local personalities and their passion for the mountain, these stories reaffirm our decision to call Hotham home during the Aussie winters and we look forward to the 2016 season, and to hanging out with good crew with a deep passion for the mountain and for adventure. — Katya Crema

Team Hotham race squad on dawn patrol

Hotham Heights Chalets

Buff Farnell breaks the seal on a powder day

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Chalky cord awaits the sun rising over Swindlers Valley

Katya Crema earning her turns

Blowing smoke on a bluebird morning

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HAUTE COUNTRY CUISINE WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan (second from right) with the Yama Kitchen team

M

y wife Jeanette and I have been working and running businesses in the North East of Victoria for over 12 years now, both in the valleys and in the snow fields. It is a wonderful place to live and work – four distinct seasons, amazing scenery, great walks, great rides, great produce and wine, and in winter, access to the wonderful skiing at Mt Hotham.

The alps are often seen as being a separate entity from the valleys and plains of the North East, but we see them as all part of the same vibrant and scenic High Country region and food scene. Next time you drive up to Hotham via either the Snow Road or The Great Alpine Road, keep an eye out for all the producers, wineries and farm gates, and you will realise the abundance of food and wine on the doorstep to the mountains.

So when the opportunity arose to open a new venue at Mt Hotham, this time with our good friends and long-time collaborators Hamish and Rachel from Tani in Bright, we couldn’t help but get excited.

We wanted the new restaurant to be different from either of our existing restaurants, but we still wanted it to showcase the unique qualities of the region’s produce. And the opportunity to do this at our favourite ski area was also a big attraction. We are all big fans of Mt Hotham, and we wanted to create the sort of restaurant

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we would enjoy going to ourselves on the mountain– something that was fun, definitely not fine dining, but with a serious focus on quality produce, wine and beer from the local area. And now with the newly-designed bar at Yama, this is truly the venue we would be happy to frequent ourselves. You may well see us enjoying ourselves at the bar this winter.

Australians are becoming far more knowledgeable and sophisticated about produce and dining, and they rightly expect their food and drinking options to be as good on their stay in the mountains as they are when dining in any part of the city.

They also increasingly expect their food and beverage options to reflect their surroundings, to have some connection with the producers and growers of the area, and the local venues at Hotham are certainly rising to this demand.

The North East now has many high quality restaurants, and it is good to see Mt Hotham reflecting this trend as well. The Bird is a great venue for a casual lunch with a terrific drinks list; Zirky’s offers both casual bar dining and formal fine dining; and it’s hard to pass up the pork knuckle at the Arco Ski Lodge Bavarian restaurant, especially when teamed with their selection of excellent schnapps.

A stay at Mt Hotham, while predominantly about your time on the slopes, is also about dining and entertainment, and Hotham definitely delivers on this front.

MICHAEL RYAN Michael Ryan is one of regional Australia’s most respected chefs and food writers. With partner Jeanette Henderson, he is the owner of Provenance Restaurant in Beechworth, a perennial award winner: two chef’s hats in The Age Good Food Guide year after year; winner of Best Regional Restaurant in the same publication and Regional Restaurant of the Year in Gourmet Traveller; and Michael himself was named Victoria’s Chef of the Year by The Age in 2014.

In Winter 2015, Michael opened Yama Kitchen & Bar in Hotham Central with Hamish Nugent and Rachel Reed from Tani Eat & Drink in Bright. Together, they have literally raised the bar on the quality of drinking and dining options at Hotham. Happily, as Michael notes here, operators all over the mountain and in Dinner Plain are taking up the challenge and adding to the region’s growing reputation as a great food and wine, dining and drinking destination.

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DINING GUIDE 2016

THE BIRD

Modern Australian | Mt Hotham 03 5759 3503 Seriously good food, craft beers and great coffee bring a little bit of Melbourne culture to Hotham. Get there early for the best breakfast on the mountain or get there late for lunch when the crowds have gone. Enjoy après with DJs and a great selection of beers and beverages on the deck as the sun goes down behind the Summit. Open 7.30am to 2.30pm daily and 3pm on the weekends. Closed Tuesdays for breakfast.

YAMA KITCHEN & BAR

Asian Fusion | Mt Hotham 03 5759 3456 With three Chef’s hats between them, Yama is a beautiful collaboration between the creators of Provenance Restaurant in Beechworth and the creators of Tani Eat & Drink in Bright. Yama Modern Australian | Mt Hotham features delicious sharing dishes of finger 03 5759 3523 licking Korean fried chicken, steamed pork buns, sticky pork ribs, red cooked duck legs, The complete dining and entertainment venue. okonomiyaki and tofu dishes as well as killer Well known for its nightlife, The Genny also has cocktails. Open for lunch 12pm-3pm Friday fantastic food for the whole family at affordable to Sunday, dinner 5:30pm - late Monday to prices. Grab breakfast, lunch, dinner, take away Sunday. Those in the know make sure they pizza or a smoothie from their morning juice bar. book early for dinner.

Open 9am - late daily.

THE GENERAL

SWINDLERS

ARCO SKI LODGE

Pub Food | Mt Hotham 03 5759 3436

Bavarian | Mt Hotham 03 5759 3941 Serving big hearty German meals and beverages, the mouth-watering menu features soups and giant Bretzels, their famous pork knuckle, freshly made schnitzels, German sausages, vegetarian dishes and a great kids menu. Specials every day. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily 8am-late.

LAST RUN BAR

Modern Australian | Mt Hotham 03 5759 3796 A warm and comforting dining atmosphere with a family friendly dinner menu available.

A real alpine feel with delicious steaks and produce. Happy hour from 4pm-5.30pm and dinner 5.30pm-9pm daily in winter.

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Ideally located next to the Village chairlift, Swindlers is great for a quick lunch or dinner of pub fare with cheap beer jugs and drink specials. Watch the footy on the big screen, play some darts or have a drink with some of the locals as this a favourite night spot with regulars.

GRAZE AT RUNDELL'S ALPINE LODGE

Modern Australian | Dinner Plain 03 5159 6422

A genuine alpine venue where you can settle in, warm up by the big fireplace, sink into the big lounges, grab a local wine and some great local food with Italian inspiration and enjoy the rustic alpine charm. Open for lunch 12pm to 2:30pm Saturday, dinner 4pm to late daily in winter.

STONES THROW AT HOTEL HIGH PLAINS Gastro Pub & Pizza | Dinner Plain 03 5159 6324

ZIRKY’S RESTAURANT, BAR & BISTRO

BLIZZARD BREWERY

Zirky, the man and his family-run venue are icons at Hotham. Known for their gracious European hospitality and pride in delivering a quality experience, Zirky’s is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and après every day of the week from 7am to late.

Hand crafted beer brewed from the freshest, purest snowy mountain spring water. Brews on tap include Powder Pale Ale and the Avalanche Amber Ale matched with gourmet antipasto snack platters of cheese, Harrietville smoked trout, salami and olives. Also local wines, tasting Pub Food | Dinner Plain paddles and brewery tours available. Open 11am 03 5159 6462 to 10pm daily in winter.

Modern European | Mt Hotham 03 5759 3518

Brewery | Dinner Plain 0417 335 548

Relax in front of one of three fireplaces with quality food, drinks and entertainment. Enjoy local wines from an extensive beverage list and delicious food from the menu featuring local produce.

DINNER PLAIN HOTEL

MOUNTAIN KITCHEN

Cafe Deli | Dinner Plain 03 5159 6560 Homestyle gourmet cafe deli serving great coffee, delicious snacks, breakfast and lunch using the best in regional produce complemented by great beverages. Dine in or take away, open 8am-5pm daily in winter.

Open year round with bistro, bar, open fireplaces, live music and dinner specials throughout the week. Open daily for lunch and dinner.

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IN PRAISE OF SPRING SKIING Everything the resort brochures always say about spring skiing is true: the longer days, warmer weather, ‘more forgiving’ snow, uncrowded slopes, great deals on lift passes, rentals and accommodation, afternoons spent in the sun on the deck with your family or your friends, shootin’ the sh... breeze, mixing it up with a bit of bushwalking, tennis, bike riding or book reading, perhaps an epic board game, or some other stock-shot, photo library, quality time with the kids (eek!)… all true!

Sun rising over Swindlers Valley.

H

owever, all those package holiday spring skiing commonplaces and euphemisms tend to undersell the quality of the snow itself.

Many of the best days of skiing and riding in any Australian season are in September. In the last few years especially, Hotham has come into its own later in the season, when we’ve reaped the rewards of months of accumulated snowfall and snow-making.

And it’s not just the amount of snow that remains and in many cases keeps falling in September; it’s the quality of the snow. Or, to be more precise, it’s the quality of the skiing surface.

In many parts of the world, the keenest skiers and snowboarders look forward to skiing and riding spring snow with almost as much relish and excitement as they welcome a mid-season snowstorm.

CORN SNOW In the US, they call the thawing spring snow ‘Corn’, which when you remember what they use to sweeten their sodas and situation comedies, is undoubtedly meant as a compliment. Corn is the granular snow that results from a cycle of overnight freezes and daytime thaws. It’s like wet sugar.

If you time it right, or you know how best to follow the morning sun around the mountain, skiing or riding on corn snow is one of the greatest pleasures in snowsports. The right amount of sun transforms an early icy surface into creamed corn, fast yet forgiving. Suddenly, your edges are tracing perfect arcs in the snow and you’re rebounding effortlessly from one turn into the next, and then another and another, playing the slope like a piece of pretty music, poetry in motion, unconscious competence.

FIRN SNOW In Europe, where spring skiing is even more revered, they call it ‘Firn’ snow (pronounced Feern), and you’ll see advertisements for Firn Snow Weeks, Firn Snow Holidays, and competing claims from rival resorts about whose firn slopes are really the more legendary.

Many Austrian resorts rope off their finest firn slopes early each afternoon, before they’ve been entirely tracked out or troughed up. They 52

let them melt back to a silky smooth surface under the afternoon sun, ready for the next day’s thaw, when they’ll be re-opened mid-morning or whenever the firn snow window is right given the snow conditions, the angle of the sun on the slope, and the prevailing weather.

Technically ‘firn’ is the name for snow that has not only been through the overnight freeze/thaw cycle (this younger, granular snow is called ‘névé’) but is actually left over from previous seasons (‘firn’ is a Swiss German epithet meaning ‘last year’s’). Firn snow is typically found on a glacier, where it freezes, thaws and recrystallises into a substance denser than snow (or névé), and skis like soft ice, at an intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice.

HERO SNOW In Australia, we tend to call the easy skiing spring surface that prevails sometime between the icy white lava of the early runs and the wet slush of the afternoons ‘Hero’ snow. The term is also used whenever conditions are easy at other times in the season and is usually applied in the sarcastic or pejorative: referring to that clown over there who’s rebounding effortlessly from one turn to another, playing the slope like a piece of pretty music, he’s having himself on, he’s a mug lair, thinks he’s a hero, but it’s just hero snow. Insert sneer here.

But who said skiing wasn’t meant to be easy? At Hotham, we like our mountains hard and our snow soft, or really however else it comes. And when you time it right, the best spring snow is like Goldilocks snow, not too hard, not too soft. Just ripe, and ripeness is all, which as we understand it means more-or-less ‘timing is everything’. True dat.

Of course, too much sun too late on a spring day and it can all go to water, at which point you can either pull out the fat boards and make like you’re water-skiing or wake boarding out on the mountain, or you can revert to our first paragraph and retire to the sun deck, the day spa, the pump track or the tennis courts at Dinner Plain.

Enjoy. Until the same time tomorrow. Our season’s a long time over come October. You really don’t want to miss out on September.

— Anthony O'Shea

Coen Bennie-Faull relishing some Hotham Hero snow.

SEPTEMBER PLENTY

Long-term average natural snow depth (since 1988) in cm Typical Weekly Snowmaking Production (since 2010) in '000m3

140

105

70

35

0

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

We do most of our snowmaking early in the season to build a base for natural snowfalls and to open as much terrain as early as possible. Then, as the season progresses, Mother Nature tends to take the lead and the base is usually at its deepest in late August, with plenty of snow and great skiing deep into September.

Next Page: Spring snow storm by Georges Seurat. September 2015.

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An iconic shot of Drew skiing the Cross.

HIS CHOSEN LINE Drew Jolowicz is the star of many of the skiing shots we’ve used in recent years on billboards, brochures, social media and videos. Drew, 33, was born and raised in Bright at the base of Mt Hotham and has been skiing at Hotham for almost his entire life. His parents were involved in the snow industry when he was young and Bright provided easy access to the mountains and lots of time on snow. Over the years, Drew has seen many changes at Hotham and more recently has had to overcome an horrendous accident that nearly ended his skiing career. Now skiing again, Drew knows as well as anyone where to find the best spots to ride on any given day and he can usually be found first in line as the Heavenly Valley chair opens early for first tracks. Michael Belfrage spoke to Drew about his skiing life, his motivation, and picked his brain about where to find the best lines at Hotham.

boot pack up to Wendix before dropping into Heavenly Valley. From there, I will usually head towards Purgatory Spur, Twilight Zone or the Canyon in search of powder! Once freshies become hard to find on Heavenly Valley, it’s time to move onto the extreme area, where runs such as Mary’s Slide, Lindsay’s or The Chute are next on the hit list! After two to three powder filled laps in the extreme area, it’s time to finish the morning off by heading over to Orchard/Keoghs in search of freshies on One Tree Hill.

Hotham’s marketing team got to ski Baldy Hollow with you last season, but you’ve been skiing this line with your mates since you were young...

It’s a great run! You can generally find good snow in Baldy two to three days after a snowfall. You can ride the ridge on the skier’s right, whilst the skier’s left offers a great fall-line pitch all the way to the valley floor. Baldy Hollow is situated outside Hotham’s resort boundaries and funnels down to the Great Alpine Road. To get back to the resort, you can either hitch a ride or bribe one of your mates with beers to sacrifice a powder run and come and pick you up.

We bet you know a lot of secret spots?

Ha Ha, I’ve got a few, but I can’t reveal them all! I’ve already given a fair few away!

There is no better feeling than going fast on skis!

How long have you been skiing, what are some of your fondest early memories of Hotham and what are some of the changes you’ve seen in the time?

I’ve been skiing for 29 years (wow that makes me sound old!). I can remember catching the school bus to Mt Hotham on school skiing days.

Mornings would consist of lessons and race coaching, leaving afternoons for free skiing (which usually meant building jumps!). It was great getting a day off school to go and ski with your mates.

You’ve skied all over the world. What other ski destinations have been memorable for you?

Outside of Australia, I’ve been lucky enough to ski in Japan, North America, Canada and New Zealand. In 2011, I spent three weeks heliskiing in the mountains surrounding Haines Alaska. Haines is a small fishing village at the top of Alaska’s ‘Inside Passage’. It can only be accessed by boat or seaplane and offers arguably the best big mountain freeriding in the world!

Hotham’s ski lifts and infrastructure have seen many changes over that time. However, Hotham’s amazing natural terrain has always been there.

The mountains there are renowned for receiving huge amounts of stable maritime snow that enable big lines to be skied soon after a snowfall.

Although skiing in Alaska was definitely memorable, it was also a huge learning curve. The weather can be highly variable, so you need to have time and patience. The size and scale of the terrain takes some adjustment (everything is bigger than it seems!), whilst managing ‘slough’ (moving snow) can also be intimidating.

What are some of your favourite areas at Hotham? Inbounds and out of bounds, groomed or hiking…

One of Hotham’s unique characteristics is there is terrain on all aspects, meaning you can usually find good snow somewhere. On powder days, areas such as Heavenly Valley and Gotcha are definitely the places to be.

When the sun is shining and the grooming is good, runs such as Snake Are the best lines always the hardest to get to, requiring you to hike?

Gully, Imagine or Race Gully are also favourites.

No, not if you have a helicopter! Ha ha, no seriously Hotham has some incredible side/backcountry terrain. With a little hiking or touring Mt Hotham also has some amazing terrain just outside the resort you can access some great lines. Generally a little extra effort will be boundaries. Places like Eagle Ridge, Avalanche Gully and Dargo Bowl rewarded with fewer people and more untracked snow. (to name only a few), offer great backcountry skiing, days after a snowfall.

How do you set goals when you’re pushing yourself in the side/ backcountry?

Who are some of the people, past and present, that you love skiing My goals and objectives have definitely changed as I’ve got older. with and why?

I tend to look for smoother lines and better snow nowadays. Skiing It’s been great getting out and skiing with Buff Farnell over the past few aggressively is still the goal, but I definitely place a greater emphasis years. Buff’s clean style and longevity in the sport is something I really on safety and being able to participate for years to come. Becoming a admire. parent has also changed my mindset. Knowing when to push it or tone it down is important.

Brad Watterson is another guy I really love riding with. Our powder senses seem to be the same! On the good days I can always find him Your daughter Madison recently turned 2 and tried her first pair at the bottom of Heavenly Valley waiting for first chair, and we always of skis this year, Will dad be teaching her or putting her in ski seem to end up in the same spots searching for freshies! school so he can go off and ride with mates?

Finally, when I get the chance, Tom Costa is another guy I love to go skiing with. Tom’s been one of Australia’s leading free riders for many years. His skiing is super smooth both on the ground and in the air!

Let’s say it dumped overnight at Hotham with perfect wind conditions, where do you head out for the best freshies?

When cold temperatures prevail, Hotham’s best storms have a northwesterly flow. A powder morning usually starts with a quick five minute

Madi loves the snow already! She had her first laps on the Summit Trainer last season (aged one at the time!) We weren’t sure if she would like it but as we went to leave she kept saying ‘more, more’. Learning the right technique is important, so I think we will put her in ski school.

It won’t be too long though before my mates and I are chasing her around the hill!

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The fateful drop, Drift Cliffs, 2012.

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Perfect cord on Hotham’s Summit, 2015.

Hotham back country.

The feeling of sliding around on skis and the fresh alpine air is what keeps me coming back for more.

You started out skiing in Hotham’s Race Club, then switched to freestyle skiing. What motivated the switch?

I started out racing when I was young and I didn’t really get into freestyle/park skiing until twin tips came along. I can remember getting my first pair of twin tips and thinking how cool it was to be able to ski and land tricks backwards! At that time skiers like JP Auclair, JF Cusson and Mike Douglas were the major innovators and well ahead of their time!

From there it was time to move away from icy park jumps and get into more backcountry freeriding where the snow is softer and the landings are more forgiving! I really enjoy getting out and exploring the great backcountry terrain Hotham is famous for.

What’s been the heaviest skiing situation you’ve been in, what happened and how did you handle that?

I’ve had a few heavy moments over the years. Definitely the worst injury I’ve had was blowing my knee on the ‘Drift Cliffs’ at the end of the 2012 season. The ‘Drift Cliffs’ are located outside the resort boundaries in a particularly steep and difficult area to access. The line I chose requires a lot of snow to make it skiable and it had been some years since this had been possible.

Unfortunately, the impact of the landing caused me to lose balance, which put my knee into a weak position completely rupturing my ACL, PCL, MCL and tearing both meniscus.

It’s amazing how quickly situations can go wrong and I am forever grateful for the hard work Ski Patrol, Lift Ops Crew and the Medical Centre did that day. Bill Barker and his team did an amazing job coordinating my retrieval. Having someone of Bill’s experience and professionalism on the scene was definitely reassuring.

I wasn’t sure whether it was going to be possible to ski again. Luckily I had a brilliant surgeon reconstruct my entire knee and after four surgeries and 18 months of rehab I was cleared to ski again!

What have been some of your biggest achievements – skiing and personal?

On a personal level, getting married and becoming a parent are definitely at the top of the list!

In terms of skiing, getting to experience Alaska at its best would definitely rate right up there! Alaska’s terrain is regarded by most as the pinnacle of freeriding and getting to fly around those mountains and tick off some of the ‘classic AK lines’ is something I will always remember.

Outside of skiing, what do you get up to?

Chasing my daughter around keeps me fairly busy these days! I also do a lot of biking around Bright and I am also a very average fisherman! Other than that, I can be found painting lots of houses in the summertime to help fund our family’s snow lifestyle.

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DJ Eddy

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WELLNESS AND REJUVENATION FOR SKIERS AND SNOWBOARDERS

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he raw beauty and serenity of the alpine region naturally inspires one to shake off the city stress, and leave inhibitions behind.

Crisp fresh air, endless views, icicles in windows, spectacular sunsets and crackling fireplaces create utter tranquility and the majesty of Hotham’s mountains powdered with snow echo a zen-like silence.

This makes the alpine region of Mt Hotham the perfect location for a wellness retreat that can bring many therapeutic benefits after a day throwing yourself into skiing and snowboarding.

White Spa, located in the centre of Hotham overlooking the ski runs, offers massage and skin care treatments that help restore the body back to optimal condition by stimulating circulation and easing muscle tension.

Just outside of Hotham, surrounded by mountains and gumtrees of the high country, Dinner Plain’s Onsen Retreat + Spa features a Japaneseinspired 40 degree outdoor Onsen perfect for bathing and restoration after skiing and snowboarding. The Spa also offers beauty and body treatments, massage, an indoor pool, gym and group fitness classes for a complete wellbeing experience.

You can’t beat bathing in the Onsen while fat snowflakes fall all around you and melt as they hit the water. Bliss!

THE ONSEN RETREAT + SPA AND WHITE SPA Visit hothamholidays.com.au/spa

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CLOTHING & EQUIPMENT PHOTOGRAPHY Brent Bignell

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From Top to Bottom: a. Rossignol: Soul 7 (Black/Yellow) $1,449 (with bindings) b. Nitro: Slash 25 Pro backpack (Electric Blue) $189.95 c. Burton: Southside Pant (True Black) $229.95 d. Anon: Helo 2.0 Helmet (Black) $159.95, e. Arc'teryx: Sabre Jacket (Venom) $679.99 f. Arc'teryx: Delta LT Jacket (Admiral) $119.99 g. Oakley: Flight Deck XM (Matte Black / Prizm Torch Iridium) $229.95 h. Nitro: Team Exposure Snowboard 157cm $699, i. Oyuki: The Shnig (Tattoo Red, Samurai Sepia, Samurai BW) $24.95 j. Dragon: Heather Beanie (Grass) $19.95 k. Burton: Folsom Jacket (Maui Sunset) $299.95 l. Dragon: MountaineerX (MatteBlack/Silver) $300 m. Le Bent: Definitive Le Base 200 Bottom (Heather Grey) $99.99 n. Dakine: Vault 25L (Goldendale) $169.99 o. GoPro: Hero 4 Silver $599.95, The Strap (Hand + Wrist + Leg Mount) $89.95 and 3-Way $119.95 p. Burton: Empire Mitt (One Love) $89.95 q. Nitro: Anthem TLS Snowboard boot (Blue Denim) $369 r. Union: Contact Pro (Black) $449 s. Le Bent: Le Definitive Light (Grey/White) $39.99 t. Le Bent: Definitive Le Base 200 Crew (Black) $99.99

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From Top to Bottom: a. Rossignol: Temptation 95 (Blue) $1,149 (with bindings) b. Kjus: Gemma Jacket (Atlanta Blue) $1,049.95 c. POC: Synapsis 2.0 (Hydrogen White) $299.95 d. POC: Retina (Bohrium Red/Bronze Silver Mirror) $239.95, POC: Cornea (Chromium Pink/Bronze Blue Mirror) $279.95 e. Eisb채r: Selina Lux Crystal Hats $129 f. Wind X-Treme: Wind Wool (Red, Pink) $39.95 g. Arc'teryx: Atom LT Hoody (Silver Lining) $299.99 h. Olang: Ritmo OC (Beige) $289 i. Helly Hansen: Warm Pant (Pink Glow) $99.95 j. Kjus: Formula Pant (White) $649.95 k. Peak Performance: Waitara Zipped Hood (Mosaic Blue) $349.95 l. Astis: Ridge Hand Beaded (Black) $329 m. Astis: Chimborazo Hand Beaded (Black) $275 n. Helly Hansen: Warm Freeze 1/2 Zip (White/Pink Glow) $99.95 o. Arc'teryx: Delta LT Jacket (Flamenco) $119.99 p. Rossignol: Pure Pro 100 (Black) $649

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A DINNER PLAIN TALE Dinner Plain, or DP to those who live in and love this little alpine village, has a way of unexpectedly grabbing hold of you and weaving you into its tale. If you have been here, I might be telling your story, as I am definitely telling you mine.

WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY Karl Gray

DP

is a mountain town. To find it, just head into the mountains. We have a nice big grandly-named road coming right past the door, or entrance as houses have doors, towns don’t. This grand road… The Great Alpine Road... not to be confused with the great one by the beach, will carry you to Dinner Plain, 13km down from the road’s highest point, Mount Hotham. There it is nestled into a nook in the eastern edge of the Alpine National Park, and at 1580 meters, DP sits in the snow through winter and as a cool mountain retreat through the heat of summer.

It’s a mountain town, and with the lower oxygen, clearer nights and a tendency to want to strap things to our feet or just look out across the wilds of the high country, it changes those who come and stay. You could throw some blame at the open nature of the village, the big fireplaces and ready availability of a good local red and great food. Maybe it’s the missing oxygen. But it gets into your blood, hooks you in and you become forever more a mountain person, destined to approach the world in a new way.

This village, our village in the high country, started life as an idea and is now turning 30. Back in 1986, a group calling themselves Dinner Plain Pty Ltd, a very direct if not imaginative name, came together.

Dinner Plain Pty Ltd purchased a parcel of land then called Rundells Paddock, a name that lives on at Rundells Alpine Lodge, with the paddock a bit more refined now, but so is Dinner Plain, refer to previous mention of food and wine.

The architect of the group defined the style of the town drawing inspiration from the alpine environment and the mountain huts of the region, and to this day the unique style of timber, stone, corrugated iron and the green grey tones of the snow gums defines the village’s buildings. This has since led to the development of the Australian alpine style and an unexpected difficulty for the uninitiated as they make their way home after being caught by one of those longer than expected après gatherings, “was I staying in the grey-green house with the timber and stone, or the green-grey house with the stone and timber?”

As with all mountain environments, Dinner Plain still has the wilds of the rugged country that visitors need to be on the alert for. DP is prey to packs of prowling children building kickers and igloos, hunting for hot chocolates with single-minded determination and the extra couple of Schnapps that crept up on you when your guard was down. Again I would blame the altitude.

With a mountain life, grand vistas and visits to the Onsen in town, we are imbibed with insights. So we of Dinner Plain practice balance and a holistic approach to life, with activity and experience, in harmony with the pleasures of a King Valley Sangiovese, Bright Amber Ale or beautifully crafted meal at one of Dinner Plain’s many eateries. Ah yes, regional and seasonal, you might have guessed eating well is a way of

life in DP, as is enthusiasm for our activities. It all flows together here, from ripping around on skinny tyres or your fat ones, challenging the bitumen or the dirt. To chasing the kids up and down the Cobungra platter in DP as they scream along on skis for the first time with zero intention of turning, but every intention of increasing parental blood pressure. To you embracing your inner child and screaming yourself as you hurtle down the tube run or grinning like someone with low-oxygen induced euphoria, laying out some cranking big turns down Imagine at Hotham, you know your well-earned pleasures are awaiting you in DP to complete a well-rounded day.

To paint a more detailed picture try this: take a posse of high country cowboys who smile only on the inside, a luxury SUV driving pack wearing once a year white jeans and ski bums in hoodies all together on a working cattle station deep in the Victorian mountains. Mix in commentators cheating like it’s a sheep station, grown men with one too many Schnapps, thinking they are still 16 trying to run 100m and getting 20m, and a game of flying frozen chooks, and you have the great Dinner Plain Easter tradition of The Geebung Polo match, very much styled after its namesake poem.

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ow to speak to our diversity, variations and passions. Take your imagination to the frozen tundra of Alaska and the Iditarod, if maybe a good bit warmer and around a village not through remote wilds, but this is just splitting hairs. With that image firmly in your mind, let’s talk dogs. You love your dog, I love mine, but did you know that an enthusiasm and passion for dogs increases exponentially, and once you have four, six or eight dogs and sometimes more, this goes off the edge of all reasonable graphs — so we won’t speak of it — we have reached what we call pack level. The only logical thing to do now is to hook them together, grab a sled and hold on tight.

In DP we call this the Sled Dog Challenge and for a wild howling week in winter, the dogs run, the people slide with grace and in ways only gravity decides, along the frozen trails around the village.

DP is a village of trails, a town lost among the snow gums, a blanket of snow and the Dargo mist, as if Lost Horizon and Shangri la were written by A B Patterson. We don’t have a monastery and Tibetan lamas of course, but we do have larger gathering halls where people converge with philosophies, insights and stories both metaphysical and practical to be rationalised, declared and contemplated. With tales of exploits and achievements, the details laid bare with a flurry of excitement around the stone hearth across crackling coals.

To my fellow Dinner Plainians, I salute you, to those yet to join us, let the good food, big fireplaces, wild events, low oxygen and mountain life welcome you to join us in our little alpine village up in the Victorian high country.

Cheers, Proost, Santé, Salute, Skål, Kanpai, you get the idea.

Previous Page Top to Bottom: Dinner Plain's signature alpine style. Snow bird.

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MOUNT HOTHAM TRAIL MAP

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LEGEND

BEGINNER

INTERMEDIATE

ADVANCED

EXPERT

SKI LIFTS

QUAD CHAIRLIFT

TRIPLE CHAIRLIFT

DOUBLE CHAIRLIFT

T-BAR LIFT

PLATTER LIFT

CARPET LIFT

HOME TRAIL

SNOWMAKING

SNOWSPORTS

TICKET OFFICE

MEDICAL CENTRE

SKI PATROL

SLOW ZONE

EQUIPMENT HIRE

TERRAIN PARK

OFF PISTE

UNPATROLLED

EXTREME SKIING

GUEST SERVICES

HELI PAD

FOOD OUTLET

SHOPPING

PUBLIC TOILETS

SNOWCAM

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THE MOUNTAIN UNMASKED Revealing Hotham’s fabulous Extreme Skiing Zone Trail maps and aerial photographs don’t do justice to the thrill of skiing and riding our steeps. The only way to really lift the lid on the Extreme Skiing Zone is to drop in on the morning after a storm.

The Razorback*

Loch Track

Greenline Skating Rink

Initiation

Milky Way Milky Way Hit

Lindsay’s

Joyce Brockhoff Hut

Black Snake

Brockhoff

Snake Gully

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Mt Feathertop*

Avalanche Gully*

Elevation: 1922m Hellfire Gully*

Diamantina Face*

The Orchard

Keogh’s

Ride Time: 3mins 10sec Watershed

Gotcha Chair

Ride Time: 3mins 51sec Mitchell’s

Extreme Skiing Zone

Zirk’s

The Ridge

Bushwacker

Forgotten Face Mary’s Slide

40-45°

The Orchard

Gotcha 50°

Ride Time: 4mins 25sec

The Chute

Chisholm’s

Gotcha Ridge

Coles Bowl Out Of Your Tree

Lindsay’s Cliffs

Valley Trail Lindsay’s Lowers

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CELEBRATING WINTER TO WINTER

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ki Aspen’s Nick Farr and Paul Smythe live the dream life. Longtime Hotham skiers and sometime Ski & Ride School Instructors, they also spend the Northern Hemisphere winters hosting Australian skiers in Aspen Snowmass on their fabulous Ski Aspen tours.

Nick Farr founded Ski Aspen in 1995. Nick wanted to show people the magic of Aspen. That it isn’t all glitz and glamour and movie stars.

That it doesn’t have to cost a million bucks to holiday there. So with a small group and the support of the Aspen Skiing Company, Nick began running ski tours from Australia, often filled with fellow Hotham skiers all wanting a summer fix with like-minded friends on a like-minded mountain.

Nick basically blended together all the things he loved about skiing.

Lots of miles and time on snow, local knowledge, infamous après events, accommodation in unbeatable locations and all for the right price. Over the past 21 seasons, one tour per season turned into two tours, then three, and now they offer many 10, 15 and 20 night options with many guests returning every year for the Ski Aspen experience.

Now the idea has come full circle and it's coming to Hotham. Mt Hotham Skiing Co., Aspen Snowmass (Aspen Ski Co.) and Ski Aspen have joined forces to rekindle some Hotham history, before we make a little history together. For one long weekend in August – a weekend dedicated to skiing, après, camaraderie and fun – the Ski Aspen experience is coming to Hotham. We’ll have three days of guided skiing in Hotham’s best terrain with Hotham’s best Ski & Ride School coaches; plenty of laughs afterwards with social events every evening; and Joyce Brockhoff Hut out in Heavenly Valley will become centre stage, a downunder version of Aspen Highlands’ infamous Cloud 9, fun Aspen and Hotham style showcasing the newest partnership in Australian skiing.

SKI ASPEN @ HOTHAM We invite you to join us for the Ski Aspen @ Hotham Experience on the last weekend in August. To learn more, including how you can ski for FREE at Hotham in 2017, go to hothamholidays.com.au/SkiAspenatHotham www.skiaspen.com.au

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Hotham and Ski Aspen are working together to reinvent the ski holiday for Australian skiers.

Creating something bigger and better for Aussie skiers has long been the goal for Nick Farr and Paul Smythe from Ski Aspen. “We wanted to merge skiing in the northern and southern hemispheres in a way not seen before… it’s all about great times and real value,” says Paul.

“The make-up of the overseas ski holiday really hasn’t changed in the last 30 years. We want to challenge that and genuinely offer people more. We also think the kind of skier who calls Hotham home is going to get the most out of a Ski Aspen tour” says Nick.

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Chumpy Pullin sending up some mountain-made goodness with a roundhouse turn on Sun Run.

Hotham Marketing's Michael Belfrage in Avalanche Gully. Nice work if you can get it.

AUSTRALIA’S HIGHEST AIRPORT THE MILE HIGH CLUB Flying into Hotham Airport with the spectacular snow-capped mountains surrounding it, you could be forgiven for forgetting it’s Australia’s highest airport. Even at 1,298m above sea level, the airport is overshadowed by nearby peaks, including Mount Hotham itself at 1,861m, Mount Buffalo 1,723m, Mount Feathertop 1,922m and Mount Bogong 1,986m.

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ust ten minutes drive from Dinner Plain, the airport makes Hotham Australia’s most accessible alpine resort. A flight from Melbourne will get you to Hotham airport in a mere 40 minutes, roughly the same amount of time it takes to eat breakfast and put on your ski boots.

From Sydney, you could be riding Heavenly Valley’s slopes in under two hours, door to chairlift.

Opened in 1999, the airport was inspired by the little airport at Aspen, Pitkin County / Sardy Field, where the private jets of plutocrats wait their turn to take off and land amongst commercial flights from all over the United States. Mt Hotham Skiing Co, who developed and still operate the airport, wanted to create a similar offering at Hotham, making the mountain more attractive and accessible to interstate skiers and boarders and people from Melbourne who wanted to save a few hours each way and arrive in style.

The geographical layout and expansive flat lands at Horsehair Plain proved to be the most appropriate site for a runway and small terminal building which has catered to over 70,000 passengers in its 16 years of operation, including commercial and private charter flights into the port.

QantasLink flew regular flights into Hotham Airport during winters from 2000 to 2007 and 2009 to 2013. While a popular service, the flights were among a number of QantasLink routes cancelled due to company cutbacks in 2014.

Private charter flights continue to fly into Hotham Airport daily in winter and offer some surprising rates for travellers who can’t wait to get here.

AustAir Jet, based out of Sydney, offers free parking at Bankstown Airport just metres from the aircraft where you can leave the car for the weekend, flying to Hotham Friday afternoon and returning Monday morning. Prices start from $1290 per person for groups of six and include in-flight catering.

Yarra Valley Aviation flies in for day trips, weekend or week-long stays starting at just $360 per person for groups of four, with free parking at Essendon or Moorabbin Airports in Melbourne and mountain taxi transfers from Hotham Airport to the mountain.

MEB ESSENDON Kirkhope Aviation, based at Moorabbin Airport, flies into Hotham in their KingAir twin turbine aircraft suitable for alpine conditions, from $690 per person including lift passes.

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Early light. Buff Farnell and Drew Jolowicz skiing Pink Hamburg in Hotham's side country.

hotham.com.au Volume 01