I love the first day of a ski trip; it always reminds me how much I love to ski. There’s really nothing better than being in the mountains in the middle of beautiful scenery while feeling your skis run over the snow.
The first two days of Perisher have been excellent spring skiing. The first day was warm and sunny and one of those days where the scenery is full of the vivid white of the snow, contrasted by the deep blue sky and the brown and grey of the gum trees. The snow was a bit icy and scrapped off in spots and soft, slushy and slow in others. But all in all a good day for September. Mostly, it just felt great to be on the slopes turning again.
We explored the mountain a bit. I’ve only been to Perisher once before and it was several years ago, so it was good to get our bearings. We started by making our way from the Village 8 Express to the lifts at Blue Cow. It does take a bit of traversing and a few lift rides to get there. We skied the Ridge Quad Chair a few times. There was some good steep stuff and the snow was softer and a bit better in the morning.
For lunch, we stopped at Blue Cow Terminal and got an great free hot chocolate from the Subaru crew, then used our Epic Australia passes for discounts on lunch. By the afternoon we had made our way back across the mountain to Mt Perisher Double Chair. This was one of the longer runs we found on the mountain and the snow was good, not to icy and not too soft.
After calling it quits for the day we explored the shops at the Perisher Centre and Skitube Terminal to see what was there. There’s a few little gift shops and food spots, but nothing really spectacular. Most of the stores have the same things. The Skitube Terminal building has a place selling awesome mini donuts. Also, there is a Foodworks and a pharmacy. The Foodworks has a few staples and snacks. Overall, there’s really no village or centre of Perisher. It feels more like a collection of chalets spread out amongst the valley.
Day two has been even better. It hasn’t been quite as warm and it was foggy all morning, but the snow has been really good, and better than day one. The groomed runs in the morning were great. By the third or fourth run I had found my ski legs again. I feel like there’s that moment every ski trip when all of a sudden the muscle memory comes back and the turns feel better – more fluid and stronger – and you know you are skiing well. There is something about powering down a mountain that is just so exhilarating!
It’s to get ready for the next day, the forecast looks good – another sunny ski day!
See you on the slopes!
Altitude to Adelaide 