SKI THREDBO FOR $12 A DAY?

YES, YOU CAN!

JUST GET OUT EVERY SINGLE DAY, LIKE OUR SNOWBOARD ED PETER WUNDER, WHO RACKED UP 113 DAYS LAST SEASON. OPENING DAY, ON JUNE 11, LOOKED LIKE THIS ALREADY, WHICH WAS A BONUS. POWDER, BLIZZARD, BLUEBIRD, RAIN, HAIL OR PLAY-MISTY-FOR-ME, HE WAS OUT THERE. NEVER LATER THAN FIFTH LIFT IN THE MORNING EITHER.

IT’S USUALLY WELL WORTH BEING THERE WHEN SPONAR’S OPENS FOR THE FIRST TIME. IT HAPPENED 0N JUNE 30 LAST YEAR.

Who says skiing or boarding Thredbo has to be expensive – you can do it for $12 a day.

OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. It actually cost Snow Action’s Snowboard Editor & gear test guru, Peter Wunder, a fraction less than AUD $12.03 daily for his 113 days on the hill at Thredbo, last winter.

Not too shabby at all!

Especially after all the early snow - over a metre already in the snow gauge at Spencer’s Creek by the second week of June - which meant it was on from opening day.

30th June, 2022. Sponars is go © Thredbo Media

DID WE MENTION, MIDWINTER, IT USUALLY STAYS COLDER TOO? DRY WIND BLOWN UP HIGH, JULY 18.

DON’T

YOU JUST LOVE IT WHEN JULY DOES A JAPOW DOWNUNDER?

$12.03 for a day pass skiing Thredbo. Sounds like a bargain right?

Well it is, but you need to put in the days to get that price per day. I skied or boarded every possible lifted access day in the 2022 winter season, which was 113 days.

On a discount local resident season pass at $1,359, this worked out at $12.03 per day.

You may think, “well he probably just did a few runs a day”, but that’s not the case at all. I did 2,252 runs in total. That’s an average of 19.9 runs a day, or $0.60 per run.

Or roughly, one million vertical metres for the season.

It’s not an easy feat when you have rainy and windy days where you can only get a handful of runs in due to the lifts going on wind hold, or running slowly due to bad weather.

You need to plan well in advance to clear your schedule for four months to be on the hill every day. But it’s well worth it.

If I wasn’t on the very first chair of the day, I was on one of the first five chairs, total commitment right to the end.

It’s not always easy to get out there in the pouring rain when you’ve already been skiing every day for months, but besides getting a little wet, rainy days have super fun slushy snow, which is so much fun on a board. Not many people brave the bad weather, so the groomers stay neat and flat and you often have the hill to yourself to enjoy.

It helps to have great water proof gear, like The North Face Summit Series Chamlang FUTURELIGHT jacket in my case. It’s well worth making the most of the soft conditions, because when it stops raining and freezes, the next day is often solid bullet proof ice. Getting out on the hill so much gives you the advantage of seeing and experiencing the weather every day, so you know what conditions will be like and obviously you get all the powder days, so it is maximum fun.

Without trying, the time on the hill will improve your skiing/riding, and you won’t need to go to the gym. You might have leg burn for the first few days, but the rest of the season you can enjoy watching friends suffer on their first trip down feeling the burn because they didn’t work on their fitness before their snow trip.

Sure, life’s busy and it’s hard to get away, especially for a big chunk of time, but it’s so worth it. Even if you just experience one full winter in your life, and all the stories and memories made doing that, you will never regret it. And for a time maybe you can even call yourself a local.

Even if you can’t quite match Pete’s amazing every day plus in the first 5 lifts effort, you can still get in a huge amount of riding/skiing. —Peter

Wunder

If Pete had stayed in-bounds he might have racked up two million metres vert off the lifts and made it 30c a run. But he loves a fresh line, and often heads out to find it after sessioning the lifts - for example, check his tips on getting the most out of Dead Horse Gap on snowaction.com.au

Opposite: © Thredbo Media

Clockwise: September 19 was the last pow day. Only a patroller beat Pete’s crew for first lines.

Pete made first 5 lifts every day for 113 days. Tip: don’t mess with the locals lift stakeout.

In July pow days are expected. July 25 delivered in spades, or rather snow shovels full; top

But 'expect the unexpected' is the mantra for skiing anywhere now, never mind in Australia. Despite being peak winter, on August 6, a La Niña deluge of Noah’s Ark proportions flooded the village and opened the creek lines as raging torrents higher up. But when the going gets tough, the tough don’t mind getting wet..

All images © Peter Wunder.