Snow Report Hotham 2022 - Trip Reports, Pics & Conditions
- Thread starter nezumi
- Start date
-
Join the conversation with a better online communityI made my first booking today - Gravbrot for the last week of school holidays, Friday to Friday. I'm looking forward to it!
Gravbot is nice, fully catered. Getting second week of school hols is a good grab.
I think I managed to get the only booking that was for a full week, one room and not pending/unconfirmed.
Now the relentless planning begins in earnest - having not been to Hotham before, I am trying to figure out the most economical way to get there based on the following:
- Family of 4 (6 year old & 2 year old)
- Wife & 2 year old not doing any sliding sports
- Our vehicle is a Cerato - not exactly stellar on clearance for chains
- We will have 2 adult & 2 kids' snowboards.
- Drive up on arrival day (permit entry). Have half day of fun, then transfer gear into lodge. Drive to Dinner Plain (Is there general parking in DP?) & get the shuttle bus back to resort. This allows wife to have day trips by getting a shuttle to DP & involves 2 days worth of resort entry.
- Similar to above, but taking advantage of the fact that we arrive on a Friday and using the Alps Link bus instead, parking at Hoys park n ride. On departure day, get the morning bus down and drive the car back up.
- Park n Ride & commercial bus or Hotham Taxi.
- Drive our car up for overnight parking etc - the obvious option
- Hire a beefier vehicle (and chains to match), paying for resort entry to park it for 8 days.
A potential issue with day trips off the hill is confidence in driving in the alpine environment and competence to fit chains if needed.
If you don’t feel like your car is capable (it is assuming you can get chains on and also has decent tyres) just park at the bottom and get the bus up.
That's where I am leaning as the likely option - with a possible Sunday/Wednesday daytrip to Bright by bus for the ladies.
we get by without our car for multiple weeks at a time. doesn't feel like its necessary to have it there the 8 days.
my stinger was ok in 2020 with chains. they clear the roads really well. but that was the leanest season in 80 years or something. even so, I used the car as little as possible. too lazy to clear it off, chains on and off constantly, and its power was a pain, it meant that even 1mm move in accelerator meant wheels would spin, even with chains.
now with a 4wd we still avoid driving as much as possible. that drive down to bright scares the pants off me. black ice corners, with no rails, and idiot drivers all over the place, tourists and locals.
a new addition to the mix, they now close the road for real bad weather. I saw it closed at least twice last season. people stuck on the wrong side.
I think your 1 option is pretty good.
bussing/taxi with all that luggage and a 2 yr old won't be fun.
the alps link bus has real weird/inconvenient times imo. and the dp bus is more regular isnt it?
however, ms nezumi might not want to even attempt changing and de-chainging, and even then, she might not want to attempt the drive to bright either? so its just a closer more convenient parking spot for the dropoff and pickup days.
I was skiing with some groms last season, and found it super fun. might be something cool to do more officially. got to take a 7yr old down hackers horror, in perfect timing kids from his grade went past on the chair overhead and he got to show off.
ms pink jacket will be instructing part time again this season. it gets her access to the training, and she wants to do a level 3 course. prior to that the last time she instructed was 2007 and she wants to stretch herself a little.
@LMB seemed to have fun doing her instructor cert, so with everyone else doing it, I decided I'd like a ski qualification or two also. so with more than 20 winters under my belt, last week I found myself filling out the forms for my first actual ski job, a level 1 instructor job and course with all the 16 year olds
I wonder if ill get the job!Last edited:When our kids were little, having the car in the resort to go to DP or harrietville on half-decent days for the littlies to play on the grass and in the sun was handy, or just a nice drive in nice weather to get them to sleep etc. As they grew up we would go and play on the razorback or blowhard etc, using the car.
Every version other than driving to the lodge, unloading, and then taking own car down to the carparking is a PITA unless moneys-too-tight-to-mention, IMO. If you have any worries about the road and the weather, just go via omeo...but heres the thing, the harrietville road is open and clear more often than not. Don't plan on driving it after dark, particularly fridays, if its really cold, or a front is due.Well...... <expletive>
Hotham have, at some point in the last few days, updated the age ranges on the Mighty Mites and Kids Club programs - such that the Mighty Mites, which used to be ages 3-5, is now 3-6, while kids club, which used to be 6-14, is now... 7-14.
So, once again, I find myself potentially scrambling to amend my plans for the season due to the fickle whims of the lift companies!
I only realised this as Thredbo released their pricing for lift passes and lessons today, and they are still running their Riglet program. I don't know what my chances would be of getting accommodation in Thredbo in the school holidays by now though, let alone all the other costs.
Mighty Mites is ski only, which doesn't help for my snowboarding son.
Yeah, he's 6 in 2 weeks - but unfortunately he's already in their systems from previous trips to Perisher.
I'm going to ask if they can make an exception for him as he has taken lessons before.
My cheeky option would be to see if there's anyone out there with an Epic pass who wants to join us on our trip (there's one more bed empty in our room) and would be happy to give him some assistance each day.
skiing's cooler anywayYeah, he's 6 in 2 weeks - but unfortunately he's already in their systems from previous trips to Perisher.
I'm going to ask if they can make an exception for him as he has taken lessons before.
My cheeky option would be to see if there's anyone out there with an Epic pass who wants to join us on our trip (there's one more bed empty in our room) and would be happy to give him some assistance each day.
I wonder how many other enemies have they made. surely there's thousands of "if you're good this year I promise you can go snowboard next year when you're old enough".
It would make sense if they had a year of exceptions. but I doubt anyone's thought that far ahead.
wonder if they have the competence to check their records anyway ;P
do you give them the birthdate, or just say he was 6? last year we held him back because .... i dunno, he had friends in that class?
surely its a maturity and/or strength thing?
so if he's already had lessons he'll have a huge advantage and maybe ok to join.
conversely, if he does join, maybe he'll be way better than the rest of the group and bored?
so perhaps your live in instructor idea might be better anyway. probably enough time to organize.
last year at end of season Hotham stopped all but a few lessons. they all booked out and people couldn't get lessons. so some people organized their own groups and hired instructors on the side. hotham was booked out, so they weren't competing ... but they still had people going around who know the instructors, pulling their (staff?) passes and threatening future employment/etc.
so im not sure how many local instructors will be so keen.We had to put in his birthdate (it's the same backend for Perisher/Falls/Hotham/Epic Aus) in order to get him a free lift pass in 2019 and have him in their "daycare" program.
I am going to be pushing on the "maturity and ability" side in that he's a generally sensible kid who has down snowboarding before, so hopefully they come on board.
Yeah, the protectionism, especially when it's not actually direct competition, is a bit dodgy.
I do wish that the resorts would just release their pricing at once, rather than drip feed stuff out so that people buy a season pass without actually knowing what the day passes will cost.
both of our lodges are booking out so quickly.
public bookings aren't available yet, and there's so few gaps of availability left.
I think its going to be a nuts busy year.
They're doing some testing.
Wonder if its worth the risk snowmaking this week and having it all melt afterwards. Last season Perisher did and we didn't, and I think it was the right decision.
I think the snow forecasts are a bit ambitious, we'll get rain instead for sure.
Cams for Hotham now cleaned up for season 22'
(BigD is still offline)
dis one useful? https://www.asgaard.com.au/Cams for Hotham now cleaned up for season 22'
(BigD is still offline)
its a m3u8 stream. so pretty much any browser should be able to handle it.
tho you may need a cors header added, lemmie know if so.
I always forget how pretty it is here.
Loch carpark won't be finished. But the top level will be open, and at least its as much space as it used to be, maybe a tiny bit more?
I hadn't thought of that.
If it has no heating its probably going to be real bad
A good gust of wind over the ridgeline and cars get pushed into slalom gully? haha.
Crazy if they haven't heated it, i've had alpine diesel gel in that carpark even when temps are positive, the windchill is ferocious. And seen so many car slides!I hadn't thought of that.
If it has no heating its probably going to be real bad
A good gust of wind over the ridgeline and cars get pushed into slalom gully? haha.
Preseason could be awesome for some skating tho...
I loaded the manifest into a JW player and I get a cross domain error.
It plays fine locally in VLC.
Updated every 60 seconds.
The camera is at Asgaard Alpine Club - https://www.asgaard.com.au/
the dots at night in the bottom right are a lazer light show projected at the Genny. doesn't show up well on the camera unless its a foggy night.
A private company can knock up an apartment block like Kooroora in a summer yet it takes the RMB 3 summers for this glorified car park.
Thanks
Updated every 60 seconds.
The camera is at Asgaard Alpine Club - https://www.asgaard.com.au/
the dots at night in the bottom right are a lazer light show projected at the Genny. doesn't show up well on the camera unless its a foggy night.
The updated still is what I need, I can plug that into my process array.
Live streams not on YT are just a pest.
hooray for snow.
its not enough to ski, and its gonna melt, but its better than the foggy windy terrible conditions we've had all week.
Can it melt and start again on the 8th June? Giving me time to drive to the lodge door before RMB close Davenport Drive for winter?hooray for snow.
its not enough to ski, and its gonna melt, but its better than the foggy windy terrible conditions we've had all week.
I interpret the below as a change this year i.e. the "free entry after 3pm" condition is now only if two subsequent paid days are purchased in advance, for "only" $56 per day. What do you learned forumites think?
Mt Hotham Short Stay Resort Entry permits on sale now!
Mt Hotham Short Stay Resort...mthothamrmb.activehosted.com
Buy in advance to save
To help drive your snow dollars further, if you purchase before midnight on the day prior to arrival you pay only $56 per day - that's a saving of $6 per day!
First day free
And to make overnight stays even more attractive we're offering the first day free on multi-day stays. Buy a multi-day permit (two or more consecutive days), arrive after 3pm on the first day, and get the first day free.
Yes I saw that and have come to the conclusion there is zero discount for multi days (I stay at DP so no benefit in the 3pm arrival for me)I interpret the below as a change this year i.e. the "free entry after 3pm" condition is now only if two subsequent paid days are purchased in advance, for "only" $56 per day. What do you learned forumites think?
Mt Hotham Short Stay Resort Entry permits on sale now!
Mt Hotham Short Stay Resort...
Buy in advance to save
To help drive your snow dollars further, if you purchase before midnight on the day prior to arrival you pay only $56 per day - that's a saving of $6 per day!
First day free
And to make overnight stays even more attractive we're offering the first day free on multi-day stays. Buy a multi-day permit (two or more consecutive days), arrive after 3pm on the first day, and get the first day free.I was the case that if I was driving through to DP at 3pm, I could stop at Hotham and ski until the lifts closed then continue on to DP. No entry charge.
For one or two people, if staying in DP if camping nearby, getting the DP-Hotham bus is a lot cheaper than coughing up $56 a day. More so if fuel is still at current prices through winter.
But for this season, it seems that no charge for Hotham entry from 3pm onwards is only possible if I've bought an entry pass for the next two days. Boohoo.
I think they're realizing that everyone here has their ways around it, like you said, 'just catch the bus', 'say you're driving to DP', and they're probably starting to close up the gaps and loopholes.
Maybe once people aren't rorting the system and everyone is paying their fair share maybe the price will go down .... hahahahahaha. As if.
Could also be a result of the recombining Hotham's and Falls management boards back together again.
I didn't think it had happened yet, but maybe they're getting some things started.
Falls haven't allowed any free resort entry after an appointed afternoon time so Hotham moving backwards on their policy is in line. One impact is that people on their way up to DP won't stop for dinner at a Hotham business if they have to pay $56 for a park, if they haven't bought 2+days of consecutive resort entry. That however, probably is of little interest to the resort board.Last edited:
Love the quick emphatic 'no'.. (which I agree with).
I can't recall them ever doing it - Bulls and Peri have done it in the recent past thoughSimilar threads
