Mt Baw Baw
By William Barker
 |
|
Our meagre
attempt at a snowman....
|
With the wintery weather setting in, we saw a huge southern
cold front blow across much of Victoria and southern New South
Wales recently, dumping good amounts of snow on resorts across
both states.
Being good wombats, we headed up to Melbourne's closest resort,
Mount Baw Baw, to see what all the fuss was about.
About 130km east of the city, you can get to the resort car
park on the mountain in about 2.5-hours, though give yourself
about three hours to be safe.
This makes it one of more friendly 'day trip' mountains,
saving you from having to wake at 2:30am, only to get home
at around midnight.
Mount Baw Baw offers a good mixture of terrain, and is probably
more suited to the beginner and improving skier/boarder. Even
so, advanced skiers and boarders will still find a lot to
like.
For our money, the best runs were the Maltese Cross and Champagne
runs, with Slam Dunk, which runs off the latter, providing
a fast and furious tree-lined trail down the mountain.
Oddly enough, Mount Baw Baw has only recently acquired snowmaking
equipment, the reason being that due to its location (on the
southeast side of the Alps) the resort often gets good dumps
of snow, which it can also hold for much longer than many
of the larger resorts.
 |
|
A snowboarder
carves down Champagne
|
While on Saturday it was quite foggy, with brief snowfalls,
Sunday cleared up and the views across the LaTrobe Valley,
Western Port Bay and Wilsons Promontory have to be seen to
be believed.
The Summit Run is one the highest on the mountain and is
a good intermediate run, offering a range of steeper descents
with flat sections, good for honing your control. Mount Baw
Baw also runs a fully-qualified ski school with local and
overseas instructors who can teach you to board or ski in
no time.
The atmosphere at Baw Baw is relaxed, and very family oriented,
with many of the lodges offering bargain basement prices,
such as the BenBullen lodge, located just above the Maltese
Cross T-bar lift.
We stayed at the BenBullen lodge and had an excellent time,
due in large part to the lodge manager's great hospitality,
and for just $35 dollars per night on the weekends and $20
per night in the week (cheaper for children, too), it's a
veritable bargain. It was really tranquil and as there's no
TV, we just had great conversation with the open fire crackling
in the background.
You can hire a snowboard or skis on the mountain, but equipment,
such as waterproof top and bottoms, are harder to find - it's
best to source these beforehand.
In 2002, Mount Baw Baw has had a huge boost in the form of
snow-based activities. Not only has the toboggan run been
lengthened, and is often tended by the snowmaking equipment,
but the resort is now home to a fully-fledged snow-tubing
course.
 |
|
The new tubing
park is too much fun
|
If that makes no sense to you, imagine a twisty waterslide,
only twice as wide and made of snow, zig-zagging down the
mountain (or check out the photo).
Guests pay about $2 per run and sit in specially made rubber
tubes - they look like giant doughnuts, and have a slick coating
on their underside to reduce friction.
To get up the mountain, the lift attendant simply hooks the
specially tailored lift to the tube and you sit in comfort
as the lift hauls you to the top of the run. It's also an
amazing amount of fun - we spoke to boarders and skiiers who
were grinning from ear to ear after hurtling down the course.
It's a great addition to Melbourne's closest resort and allows
those who don't want to ski or board, or even toboggan, to
get a good taste of what it's like to hammer down an alpine
run, full of banked curves and fast straights.
The weekend was
an amazing amount of fun and with the good amounts of snow
on the mountain at the moment - get up there as soon as you
can!
A big thankyou also goes out to the Baw Baw Ski Patrol who
were most kind in helping us out over the weekend.
Links:
For more info on Australia's other Alpine Resorts, click
here.
|
