Alpine flora
Just this time last week I was at Anglesea swimming at the beach in 30 degree heat. This weekend I went for a ski, yes a ski, at Mt Baw Baw in late october. I guess it’s just one of the many beauties of living in australia, the extreme diffence in weather we can get at times.
Following a week of cooler temprateures Mt Baw Baw revieved a good 15cm+ of snowfall. Baw Baw was the only resort to get a descent snow fall, others like Hotham were still green. Meanwhile up north firefigters were bravely battleing the west of sydney bushfires.
It seemed fiting to end the season on the place where I started my season at Baw Baw. So a last minute ski trip was on the cards from me saturday. From geelong it is a tiring 4hr drive, 15 minuets less than buller but you still have to drive up the painfully windy Baw Baw tourist road.
Up at Baw Baw in October with the Rossignols
The drive is very picturesqe and has a far differnent feeling from the other resorts. The resort itself has its own unique character much different, I like to think of Baw Baw as a miniture version of Mt Buller.
The first ski of the day was a cross country ski to the summit via the summit trail. I did the ski on my skate skis as I don’t own any light classic skis right now. Skates were a bad choices as the snow was incredibly heavy, thick and slow. I think the reason why it was so odd was because of the previously warmed snowless ground. It was hard to describe, kind of like heavy powder with fallen icy chunks on top which sped you up at times.
Skating near the summit in thick snow
The whole day was cloudy and misty with a temprature below 1° which helped prevent the snow from melting too much. Skating was difficult up the steeper parts of the track but past the summit and around the plateau part of Mt Baw Baw was the most enjoyable part of the day. Nice fast skiing on unspoilt almost powder like snow over undulating terrain.
The summit and carin. Snow was a little rain affected but not too bad
After a good lunch at the Village Resturant I got out the Backcountry skis and headed out to the maltese cross T bar. The lift was closed but the lift track made a good consistant track for skinning or in my case tracks for my pattern base Madshus skis.
Champane and Hut run were definantly the best and most covered runs of the day. While Maltese cross and the aptly named ‘drops on the rocks’ run were barely skiable. There were many bare rocks, heaps of exposed heath and bare grass. Someone really needs to keep on top of the summer grooming. a lawn mower was needed on some of the runs.
The snow was so slow it didn’t make much diffence going through bits with heath poking through
Surpsingly the heath covered parts were still skiable, I could still form a telemark. But the damage started to show soon after when I checked the underside of my ski.
Off to Tele with the Madshus skis
Climbing tracks. Pattern bases only let you climb up to a certain degrees
Runs were short and very flat, they felt even flatter because of the slow snow and lack of speed. After 3 climbs up I was done for the day.
It was nice to have my first backcountry (ok it wasn’t really backcountry but I’ll stick with slackcountry becasue there were no lifts or patrol) exerience. I learnt how to ‘earn my turns.’
Few short telemark turns. Snow quality made it difficult to form them
Aside from the somewhat dissapointing skiing it was great to get some skiing in october to make the green season feel a little shorter. It was also nice to spend a day up in one of the most beutiful places in Australia instead of the low lands. Meanwhile in the oposite hemisphere the XC world cup is about to begin in a month. Will be nice watching Eurosport all summer, jumping on the bike and getting back up to the ski resorts in the green season. I might even try out Cross Country Mountain biking this season!
Nick
Geelong XC Skier 