Maureen Gearon

Kangaroo Hoppet

02 September 2006

I love this event. I took the helicopter for the first time ever to Falls Creek last weekend. I can't believe I haven't done this before. I highly recommend it. Only $99 return per person and you get a whole other resort to check out. You jump on in your ski gear, they load your board or skis for you and within 6 minutes you're at Falls Creek.

Anyway I took the helicopter after my morning report and spent the day at Falls Creek watching the Hoppet. It was a reduced course due to the conditions - 28kms for the Hoppet, 14kms for the Birkebeiner and 6kms for the Joey. Congratulations to Ben Sim for his back to back win and to Natascia Leonardi-Cortesi from Switzerland for her win. And hats off to the groomers for doing such a great job. In fact well done to groomers around all the resorts, they are all doing a magnificent job!

Retro ski day

02 September 2006

Interesting season. Retro ski day is always a laugh. Here's a picture of a few of the local lads dressed to the nines and looking hot...?

Billabong rail jam

19 August 2006

How cruel the weather gods are being to us this year. We've had so many lovely sunny days and now this week with some of the major events planned we have fog and snowshowers.

On saying that though my cousin Robert who is here this week said he had a great ski day yesterday and found some nice fresh snow pockets around Heavenly Valley so you know it's not all bad.

The rail jam kicked off in style in the Basin below Swindler's balcony with DJs. There were heaps of competitors and the park was beautifully set up but the poor guys and gals were jumping off into a blur of fog. See photo. Ski spectacular planned tonight on the Summit with fireworks weather permitting. A BBQ and cricket I believe is on the cards later today too. Should be fun.

Lake Mountain

18 August 2006

I'm on a roll. Thought I'd make up for lack of weblogs and write a few today. I had a big week last week. Was at Hotham last Tuesday. Marysville on Wednesday night, Lake Mountain Thursday night, Mt Buller Friday night then Harrietville Saturday night and Wandiligong Sunday night to catch up with Carol Binder the part-time reporter. I've given up unpacking the car, I have accepted that I live out of it.

I had a beautiful dinner in Marysville on Wednesday with Richard Rogerson the CEO from Lake Mountain and his family and a few of the LMountain staff. We went to Maryland where I stayed and recommend this to anyone going to Marysville which I also suggest doing because its a really lovely town. Then after my morning reports I drove up to Lake Mountain and went for my first skate for the season. The snow cover was good around the upper areas. Lots of school groups about. I stayed up there the night and after work the next day I had a really good up-hill skate lesson with Alan Easton the British instructor who is responsible for getting me on skate skis a couple of years ago. It was hard work, he's in the national XC team, I pretended I was ok but I was on the verge of collapse by the end (in a good way though, one never regrets exercise).

I drove towards Buller, had an awesome Eye Fillet in the Mill restaurant in Sawmill (base of Buller) with some friends then stayed there overnight, skied after my morning report then drove to Harrietville where I caught up with some Melbourne friends and consumed too much red wine and chocolate. Then the next day we hiked up Bungalow Spur to Feathertop, ate cheese and crackers in the sun, had a little nap and then walked back down where I packed up my stuff and drove to Wandiligong where I had a meeting with Carol Binder and ate Indian takeaway...it all seems to be about the food doesn't it? Then to top off all that good exercise during the week I went to see Hilltop Hoods and co at Swindlers on Monday and had the biggest night of the season. It was huge! Great band.

It snowed a bit

18 August 2006

Yes we had some fresh snow yesterday, it has been a bit of a rare sight this year but thanks to the snowmaking all is not lost! I'm really impressed with the man-made snow. I had a ski at Buller last Saturday and I was surprised how good the snow was on the Summit and Little Buller Spur. And it was a sunny day which made it even better. If you ever head to Buller and it's a sunny day have your lunch at Koflers. Look at these people, how nice is that?

Winter is here and I just sung a bad song

05 August 2006

Yes it snowed this week. We had the heaviest falls of the season so far and it has breathed new life back into the resorts. The man-made snow that we've all been skiing on has been great but the new snow has enabled the resorts to open more terrain. Yes Heavenly opened this week. We've had the best riding this week. Tuesday was an awesome day, I skied all day with buddies around Hotham and even got some nice powdery turns down Avalanche gully.

This weekend should be a pearler with sunshine forecast, with the low temperatures the snow should be nice a dry packed in the morning and will soften through the day. I'm going home now for some breakfast then I'm heading out. Should be a good one. Oh dear! Last week on Gippsland ABC I stupidly said I would sing the snow report this week and I thought they would have forgotten but Larry the patrol director just told me he heard them spruking it up so I just dotted down the four worst song lines ever, it went like this:

It's been snowing this week / And this weekend there'll be sun / So come up to the resorts / Where you'll have fun...in the sun.

How embaressing is that? I even tried to workshop something in the pub last night and couldn't come up with anything. I hope to god they don't use it as a promo.

Here's a pic of Allen ski patrol and one of the lift operators at the Heavenly Valley chair.

Hello 2006 season

03 July 2006

Yes I'm a little late it appears. I have been busy getting everything going for the Vic Snow Report. We're running the photo competition and it's even bigger so head to www.vicsnowreport.com.au for all the information.

So I've been moving around a fair bit. I'm based at Hotham this year so I started the season off there, I then moved over to Buller for a week and enjoyed the sunshine. Had a ski on the Summit. Not too bad, it was just a fun adventure getting back to Bourke St. Now I'm at Falls Creek and I've sadly let them down over here. Normally I always bring snow with me when I head to Falls and with the forecast last week I thought they'd all be thanking me but alas we didn't get what we expected. Six cms of the fresh stuff at Falls two nights back and eight cms at Hotham. Now the weather is clearing and it's been mostly cloudy today.

Hmmm...what photo can I put up here for the start of my 2006 web-logs...hmmm...I'll take a look and get back to you. How about a blue-bird day shot? Hotham in the sun - 26 July.

Thanks to the cold temperatures most of the resorts have made an incredible amount of snow. The new reservoir at Hotham has helped the to break all all previous snow-making records. With the snowmaking guns busy over the past few weeks they've opened the Big D, Summit, Sun Run and Village Loop. Not bad at all.

It might be time for some sort of naked snow dance to get some more of the fresh stuff on the ground. I wonder who I can rustle up for that?

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