To say that Andy, Bel and myself went to the snow this week would entail us telling porkies. It would be more factually correct to say that we went to the grass, or better yet, tell you we went down to Thredbo.

From the time we arrived in the arvo to the time we went to bed, we got around three inches ! Three inches of rain that is. Not to worry though, usually when it rains in the Aussie Alps it turns to snow and we have a killer week.

Nahh.. not this time.

For the first time in my life I was preemptive and decided to purchase ski passes two weeks earlier due to a 15% discount on the criminal prices of lift tickets, the attitude of ‘it has to snow.. it can’t not get good’ was the main vibe in my hollow scull. As the week panned out and the rain got heavier and the temperatures stayed moderately above zero degrees, the decision to buy lift tickets early wasn’t the best one. However, because we had bought them, it encouraged us to hit the slopes and tear a few turns in the soft and limited cover.

After all the rain we’ve had this week, it’s turned the mountain into a big slushie. Towards the end of the week I reckon we would have been better off driving to 7/11, buying one hundred litres of slushie and just skied on that. Would have saved us a bit of coin. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen groomers redistribute the snow instead of groom it, especially this far into the season. Thursday arrived with that bee with an itch woman, Gail Forswind, who came rattling the place causing lifts to go on wind hold. Her presence always makes the conditions less pleasurable.

These poor skiing conditions didn’t defer Andy, Bel and the Spare Tire to enjoy themselves, spending several hours enjoying the slopes and even more time sitting in front of the fire sipping on Bailey’s hot chocolates and walking around the village. A walk along Lake Jindy, Rekorderlig ciders at the Thredbo Alpine Hotel and watching New South Wales lose to Queensland in The Origin for an eighth year straight at the pub meant that the last time New South Wales won an Origin series, I didn’t own any pubes. A drive to the Wild Brumby Schnapps Distillery for a late lunch and schnapps tasting were all elements that made the trip what it was; the perfect break from work and uni.

As Andy so perfectly described our run of luck with bad snow when we are skiing together (similar circumstances of ‘bad snow’ happened when we were in Big Sky, Montana), “You pay money to go overseas on a surfing trip and you can get no waves.”

By the end of the week we all agreed that coming home a day early wasn’t going to do anybody any harm as the torrential rain continued. Bloody typical that there is about half a metre of snow predicted to fall tonight and tomorrow but to be honest, they’ll need a hell of a lot more than that. The Spare Tire heads back down with Old Man Perks on Thursday to Charlotte’s Pass for a boys weekend so fingers crossed there’s a bit of white stuff falling so I can pop on the sticks and lettemrun. No doubt there will be a story or two for the history books as well