Hotham 09 – Day 5 – Happy Birthday Max (and what a great day)!

Day 5 started early. Around 7am for most. (It was Max’s birthday, and so he is forgiven for not wanting to be up before the sun.) The promise of a 7:30am lift start, coupled with fabulous new snow and brilliant weather was too good to pass up (although, how did we know anything about most of those things the night before when we planned this?!). John, Dave, Michelle, Ed and I were the keen skiers, although it took John and I longer to get out than the others. In the end it didn’t matter as the lift opened a little late and we soon caught up to the early crew who had been held up with a long line of other people with the same good idea of being out nice and early.

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The snow was absolutely perfect, as was the weather – it really was the day we had been waiting for. Perfect blue skies against the fresh snow made for some great runs before the crowds began to build up after 8am. We skied runs at Heavenly Valley for a while, before we noticed that the Gotcha lift had recently started running. We had been hoping to get to at least the Gotcha lift, if not the Keogh’s and Orchard lifts before the end of the week, and this was really a step in the right direction. Ed, John and I skied numerous runs here at Gotcha while Michelle and David stopped for a “hottie” at the Snake Gully Hut.

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We caught up with Dave a few runs later, and we continued skiing here for a while longer before the extreme area caught our attention a little too much. We had already decided, as we started so many hours earlier than normal, that we would have an early lunch and be back out while the majority of the crowds were eating. As a result, we decided to have one more run – this time through the extreme area – to get us back to the village. Ed managed to convince Dave to take a run down Mary’s Slide while John and I took a slightly more daring way down. We headed off over a ridge into some perfect powder, which happened to end in a rather narrow gully of closely packed trees. This wasn’t a huge problem as we’d been skiing through trees for days on end now, but what was more concerning was the creek at the base of the steep slope. The previous time we ended up near a creek (which happened to be the same creek, but just a different section of it) there was a bridge of sorts, but unfortunately there was nothing like that at this point.

Directly below us were tracks of one snow boarder who had also ventured this far down the gully; but these tracks stopped at the creek and then continued on the other side – obviously where he or she had jumped across. I wasn’t really in the mood for getting wet, or attempting to jump over creeks, but the alternatives weren’t looking great with trees, rocks and steep slopes on most other sides. With a bit of cunning, and a few legs and skis disappearing into crevasses, we managed to traverse around from this low point and meet up with another – more established – run which happened to lead to the Mary’s Slide bridge. We took the rest of the ski-out, trying our hardest to avoid many beginners who had been inspired to try skiing the hardest runs on the mountain because the weather was nice, and then the Village Chair back up to the accommodation for lunch. We returned to find Pip not very well, and before too long, we were taking her back to the Hotham Medical Centre.

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It was now a good 48 hours since she had first been unwell, and we were a little concerned about the lack of improvement. As it turned out, the options were either see considerable improvement, or head to a hospital – the nearest being Bright, or Wangaratta. A few more hours here and a couple IV drips later, and we were heading back to the chalet feeling slightly better; but over the next few hours, Pip started to feel considerably better (but not perfect by any means).

Kim, Max and I went for a quick shop at Hotham Central, and managed to enjoy a coffee with some live entertainment all in the same visit. Unfortunately we didn’t see too much exciting merchandise at the Pinnacle store, but are determined to investigate some of the other shops at some time tomorrow. When we returned to the chalet, we took some time getting ready for dinner and then headed for the Last Run Bar. This was the first time since being up the mountain that we had eaten out, but Max’s birthday was as good as an excuse as any to have a change of scenery. Dinner was good, with lots of laughs and general good times as well. Nat, Tess and Pip didn’t join us, but it was probably better than they got some rest so they could be back to feeling normal tomorrow.

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We returned from dinner, making the rather chilly walk across the top car park, and spent some time watching the video we had taken of the trip so far. Lots of nice scenery and good memories, but also lots of laughs at things such as Ed’s ability to video tape when skiing or standing, but not while actually holding the camera. Some of the crew are hoping to get another early start tomorrow morning, but unfortunately we aren’t sure about the weather at this stage. There has been no word on the Keogh’s/Orchard lift opening, but we’re all hoping it will happen before the end of the week. With only a few days left, everyone is beginning to value time spent on the snow just slightly more – hopefully the last few days up here will be even better than those we’ve already had.

Make sure you check out the gallery for all the great photos from today!

Here’s today’s 30 second wrap (visit OnSno.com if it does not appear):

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