Mt Buller
By William Barker
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Mt Buller: Complete with snow-dusted gum
trees
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Last year a group of 'no fear' wombats
headed up to Mt
Baw Baw in what would eventually become a yearly pilgrimage
at the commencement of each snow season in Australia.
This year (2003) we got up at the crack of
dawn on a cold and damp Saturday morning to check out what Mt Buller
had to offer those who enjoy snow sports, and we found it to be quite
pleasing.
One of the highlights was careening down the
aptly named 'Wombat' run at Mt Buller - a spiritual experience for our
group indeed.
But first the vitals: Mt Buller is located
some 3.5-hours drive from Melbourne in the Victorian alps, roughly
250km north-east of the city.
The Summit at Mt Buller rises to 1805m above
sea level and on a good day, the views are absolutely spectactular,
with mountain ranges stretching far off in to the distance and snow
gums swaying gently, covered in the glorious white stuff.
The alpine resort offers some 180 hectares
of ski trails, which range from wide open straight runs, to intricate
and varied slopes, with plenty of breath-taking tree skiing for those
brave enough to try.
The Mt Buller Alpine Resort has some 7000
beds available in hotels, ski clubs and lodges and a further 2300 beds
are on offer in nearby towns, including Mansfield.
All up, there are some 25 ski lifts, which
have the capacity to shift some 40,000 people every hour. Generally
speaking, the ski season at Mt Buller (and most of Australia's alpines
resorts) kicks off in early June (Queen's Birthday long weekend), and
usually closes during October where the resort turns into an extreme
sports haven for, well, extremists.
The Journey
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The view from the summit was surreal
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After packing the 4WD with two snowboards,
one pair of skis, chains, sandwiches, choccies, apples, mandarines and
the all important drinking water, we set off from Melbourne city centre
at 5:13am.
After passing many a plain-clothes cop car,
our wombat-mobile arrived at Mt. Buller at bang-on 8:30am, though it
must be said that the traffic was almost non-existant: It usually takes
a little longer.
While the entire mountain wasn't covered in
metres of fresh pow-pow, the major runs had a solid 30cm snow base,
with a covering of man-made snow for extra carvability.
There was a lot of cloud cover, which
reduced visibility significantly on many runs, but it was truly
inspiring to catch the chairlift up to the summit, rising above the
clouds, to see the village buildings peeping through the mist (see
photo ->).
As was expected, we spent most of our
daytrip on the Wombat run, which has a number of turns and tight
switch-backs at the upper-most section, followed by a long, wide and
often very steep decent to the chairlift, which was very exhilirating
at full speed.
Mt Buller is a beginner-friendly mountain,
with the Bourke St run often the place of induction for newbies, though
there are plenty of testing blue and black runs for those who crave
something a little more challenging.
Mt Buller has a new rail park, which can
used by both snowboarders and skiiers, and is located right of the
bottom of Baldy with a number of different beginner and intermediate
rails.
Only one of our trio of wombats attempted
the man-made rails, which range from 1 to 4 metres long. Largely
inspired by skateboarding rails, our lab wombat said: "Booyah", which
we think is the equivalent of a 'thumbs up'.
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The bottom of the 'Wombat' run
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One of the more surprising things we noticed
in our first snow trip in 2003 was the abundance of snowboarders.
Just five or six years ago skiiers would
easily outnumber snowboarders at Aussie resorts, yet this year the
ratio was almost 4:1 (boarders:skiers). Is there a change in the wings?
When all was said and done, we were very
impressed with what Mt Buller offered, despite the fact that not all
lifts were in operation.
As the second closest Alpine Resort to
Melbourne, Mt Buller is a great place to go for a day trip, what with
brilliant facilities and only 3.5 hours from the city.
At the same time, Buller also has one of the
largest on-piste villages in Australia - meaning you can essentially
ski out the door - and finding a comfortable place to stay, from the
YHA hostel to opulent 5-star villas, is all too easy.
With good snow falls on almost all
Australian resorts - and with more predicted to follow - 2003 is
shaping up to be a bumper year for snow-goers - we'll see you up there!
Links:
For more info on Australia's other Alpine
Resorts, including those in Tasmania and New South Wales, click here.
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