Ski Resorts

Thredbo: My Upcoming Snowboarding Trip

I’ve made it to Australia after one hell of a long flight that took me from Toronto to Sydney via Vancouver. The jet lag isn’t so bad thanks to an upgrade certificate I used (beds are better than seats!) and a nap I had this afternoon.

When I found out I would be heading this way and realized it was winter, I started to explore what, if any, snowboarding options there might be. It turned out I had two: the Snowy Mountain area of southern Australia, or New Zealand. Initially I chose New Zealand, because the mountains and conditions appeared to be superior in quality. However, it required a three-hour flight from Sydney, followed by a drive of at least a couple of hours, and it was generally a logistics nightmare. I decided to stay closer to Sydney.

Having chosen Australia, my next task was to figure out where to go. I wasn’t interested in driving 6-8 hours to the Snowy Mountains, so the resort I chose had to be relatively accessible. After doing some research, this left me with two:

• Perisher: This is Australia’s largest ski resort, with four(!!!) distinct villages.
• Thredbo: Although not as large as Persiher, Thredbo is well-known for its village and having invested in the largest snowmaking system in the Southern Hemisphere.

I ultimately opted for Thredbo because I found a Greyhound bus that goes directly to Thredbo from a bus terminal that’s only a kilometre from where I’m staying here in Sydney. That was about as easy as it was going to get travel-wise.

Once I made that decision I set out to secure lodgings, which actually wasn’t easy to do; I found Thredbo’s online system to be confounding and reporting ridiculously limited availability. After some poking around on Need It Now, though, I found some relatively reasonaby-priced accomodations at the Thredbo Alpine Hotel.

So a week from today I’m going to hop on a Greyhound bus in a country I’ve never visited before to drive eight hours in order to ride early-season conditions. Do I think it will be worth it? Absolutely.

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