Day two – Falls Creek, Australia
Despite yesterdays high winds and the snow that fell gave a fairly good covering at Falls Creek…
The village of Falls Creek was ‘skiable’. All the roads in the village were covered and it was possible to ski on (i.e. down from the hotel to the base station) and off (i.e. by selecting the correct trail) the mountain. However, the roads lost a lot of snow during the day because it was warm (and sunny), and this wasn’t helped by the village ‘bus’, which is a ‘snow-cat’ on tracks and therefore really cut things up.
Skiing today was very good. The mountain had been very well groomed and the slopes repaired. The stream from which I pulled a ski out yesterday (post) had been filled in, and a number of areas that had been skied-off were looking better. Considering it was very late in the season it was surprising that so many trails and lifts were open and we were able to really explore the mountain. We found some truly excellent runs and had a lot of fun (in and around the Ruined Castle lift – trail map). In one area we found a ‘trick’ park that had been set up and a group of skiers and boarders were practicing some amazing aerial acrobatics and stunts (over on St Elmo’s Slice, near the Ruined Castle lift – trail map).
Some runs at Falls Creek – the Ruined Castle area was particularly good fun!
Skiing in Australia is odd. For a start the hills are the ‘wrong shape’. In north America and Europe the hills tend to be very ‘spiky’ with lots of sharp summits and peaks, however, at Falls Creek the hills look much more rounded and smooth. Also, the trees are very different. In Europe and north America the trees (when present) tend to be conifers with all their branches sloping downwards which makes sense as the snow can slide off and therefore not rip branches from the trees. In Australia they have a tree called a ‘Snow Gum‘ (Eucalyptus pauciflora). This tree has ‘upward’ facing branches so the snow can collect. It is surprising that these trees survive the heavy snow falls.
A lake at the top of Falls Creek…
I think I have also answered the question as to why I saw so many injured skiers on the first night, and met a woman on the hill on the first day, in awful weather conditions, who couldn’t ski (see earlier post). I think some Australians think that as they are generally good at sports that they should be equally good at skiing and therefore tend to try things they shouldn’t. I saw an example of this today when a young skier had a horrific crash. The skier was coming down a blue run (Race Course), which was quite steep in parts, in a snow-plough. The run was far too steep for a ‘plough’ and he was gathering speed, and leaning back. He was completely out of control. Luckily (if that is the right word!) for him he crashed because if he had continued he would have surely have hit one of the lift support pylons (Scott lift – trail map).
On the slopes at Falls Creek
Trail map: map
Falls Creek, Australia – map it
[...] second time I was at Falls Creek in Australia (see earlier post). On that occasion we were using a lift to come down the mountain (the lift was the easiest way to [...]
[...] photos taken as the weather was too bad… (see later posts, for example this post, for some [...]