Hotham escape

You’d have to be a regular winter visitor to Victoria’s Mt Hotham - home of quattro - to know that they use their own language up there. Cross-country skiers, for example, are known as chook-footers. Kids who hang around the terrain or rail parks are called park rats and jerries are clueless beginners.

Even various types of spills have been given nicknames. To penguin slide is to skate headfirst downhill on one’s stomach. A yard sale is when skis and poles fly off in all directions. And a scorpion – my favourite – is the name given to a snowboarder whose apparatus smacks them in the back of the head after having their face buried in the snow.

Even emotions have been rebranded. When something’s rad, it means it’s fantastic, or radical. And froffin’ is the euphoria you feel when you ski or snowboard on the mountain. Given that Hotham is sometimes called Frotham, it’s fair to assume that sensation comes often.

This has certainly been the case this winter. After a record-breaking June, snow depths exceeded two metres by August, allowing resort management to extend the snow season by a week to October 7. And now that we’re into spring, that means fewer crowds, sunnier days and a wealth of great skiing and snowboarding to be had. Discounts apply to accommodation, lift passes and equipment hire, and kids can ski for free. By purchasing a Spring Pass, skiers and boarders get unlimited access to Hotham and Falls Creek.

Events still to take place include deck parties, retro days, Gay Ski Week, free female ski and snowboards improvement clinics, and LEGOLAND® activities and colouring competitions for kids.

Best of all is that it’s just a 4.5-hour drive from Melbourne, with VIP parking for Audi owners and Audi Australia is giving Hotham guests the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime Audi ice-driving experience in the Austrian Alps simply by booking an Audi Driving Experience before the 17th of September.

Hotham is also accessible by air. Commercial and charter flights link Hotham’s own airport with Lilydale, Essendon and Moorabbin airports in Melbourne, and with Sydney, Canberra and Albury. Flight times range from 30 to 50 minutes.

Skiers first came to Hotham in the 1880s, when travellers strapped timber planks onto their boots at the Mt St Bernard Hospice. The Hotham Heights Chalet was later established in the 1920s, marking the true beginning of skiing as a leisure activity here. Then the first ski clubs opened in the 1940s.

Today, visitors are spoilt for choice. With 320 hectares of ski terrain and four terrain parks serviced by 13 lifts, eight grooming machines and a whopping 38 hectares of snowmaking capacity, there are runs to suit all levels. First timers and beginners will love the gentle slopes and open spaces on The Summit and Big D Express. Intermediates are well catered for, with Road Runner, Blue Ribbon and The Orchard quad chairs offering access to myriad blue cruisers. And when it comes to advanced terrain, powder hounds will want to make a beeline for the steep gullies and tree skiing around Heavenly Valley and Gotcha, or the gnarly backcountry chutes of the Dargo Bowl, Eagle Ridge and Razorback.

Skiers with disabilities will be pleased to learn that wheelchair-accessible buses were introduced for the free Village shuttle in 2018 and help is at hand with lift loading, tethering and bucketing from trained volunteer guides.

Where Australia’s highest alpine village differs from other winter resorts in the country is that it is spread along the top of the mountain. Most slopes are therefore below the village, providing unrivalled ski-in, ski-out accommodation in a varied selection of lodges, self-contained apartments, luxury chalets and Australia’s largest snow hotel – the Arlberg.

During the off-season, Hotham management upgraded its website for trouble-free online bookings of lift passes, lessons and equipment hire. Weather conditions and up-to-the-minute status on roads, lifts, trails and terrain are now easier to find. Improved optimisation for mobile use is another new feature and summer and winter season information have been separated.

With 12 restaurants and bars on the mountain, you’ll never go hungry or thirsty. New developments on the mountain in 2018 include Miss Mary’s, providing signature cocktails and an Asian fusion ‘share not to share’ eating concept. Upstairs at The Big D, Frankie is the first eatery to offer home delivery as well as takeaway.

Away from the ski fields, glampers can now bunk down in snow domes warmed by wood-fired heaters. Then after a hearty breakfast, they’ll return to Hotham via a scenic skidoo ride. Other facilities and activities include night skiing at the Big D on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 35 kilometres of cross-country trails, and helicopter flight links to Falls Creek. Skiing the two resorts in one day is now possible.

Snowmobile rides and grooming tours can be booked on the website, as well as sled dog tours, snowshoe tours on and around Mt Higginbotham, and sunset kat tours run by Brown Brothers winery. Families can try the snow play and toboggan area at Possum Flats. Hotham is also home to Australia’s only biathlon range at Whiskey Flat, where the Korean national team trained this year. Plus there are day spa facilities, and even a Japanese-inspired outdoor onsen at Dinner Plains.

Try even half of that and you’ll be froffin’ before you realise it.