TRAVEL
Skiers get quite a rush Down Under

By Chris Oliver
Advertiser Staff Writer

THREDBO, Australia — At Friday Flat, heartbeat of Thredbo's winter sports scene, scores of skiers and snowboarders shuffled toward the ski lifts with that peculiar gait caused by legs gripped in boots made from bulletproof plastic. Skis clanked on shoulders, glamorous instructors swished by. Morning yahoos were exchanged and the aroma of hot chocolate hung in the air. Magically, by 9:15 a.m., chaos had segued into organized activity.

A snowboarder gets big air at Thredbo's half pipe. The 300-foot-long pipe has 14-foot walls and a reputation for being hard, fast and intimidating. Thredbo Village photo

Thredbo Village in Mount Kosciusko National Park, 500 miles south of Sydney, draws 700,000 skiers and snowboarders to its winter playgrounds each year. Southern Hemisphere hard-core skiers may opt for New Zealand's snow fields, where heliskiing operators take them to untouched powdered snow, but for those who want to combine a trip Down Under with affordable skiing in July and August, the Snowy Mountains, as Australians are fond of saying, are "just the ticket."

At the Gunbarrel Express chairlift to the mountain's 6,000-foot summit, snowboarders already were packing on for their second ride of the morning. Talk was about "carving," "power slides," "eating it" and "getting licked" down the leg-burning 3 1/2- mile run.

So, er ... how was that?

"Brutal, mate," said Terry Wynne, cheerily, meaning, of course, perfect for himself, Glen Wickham, and Ashleigh Frenschan.

The snowboarding trio from Adelaide, ages 27 to 48, were at Thredbo because of its long runs, "brutal" trails and the X-treme rush from Thredbo's adventurous night boarding. They weren't planning to miss a minute.

"It's clear on the top. No winds, that's rare, it's just the best weather," Wynne shouted above the Gunbarrel's racket.

Conversation was lost as they jumped aboard the chairlift, snowboards dangling off one foot.

In seconds, they were gone.

Why choose Thredbo? Long runs, say village regulars, and great facilities.

In fact, Thredbo offers trails and runs for skiers and snowboarders at all levels.You can sign up for private or small-group lessons, or you can jump on the Gunbarrel Express and shoot directly for the "super trails" at the summit.

For beginners, however, there is Friday Flat, where skiers as young as 6 waited in line to hop on the snowrunner, an easy-moving walkway up to the beginner slopes and classes. At the top, Shona Kirchen was sorting her three kids, Lincoln, 9, Geneveive, 11, and Danielle, 16, into classes. Kirchen, a single parent from Kiama, South Sydney, was an experienced skier, but she hadn't hit the slopes in six years. Her two younger children had never seen snow before.

"Thredbo works for us because it's a real village with a good atmosphere and because it's a place where anyone can find their level," Kirchen said.

The weather's usually good and Thredbo's popular ski school makes it easy for her to enjoy the holiday, since she could ski without worrying about the children.

With two hours to make the runs, Kirchen was setting off for Thredbo's summit trails before meeting up with her kids at the end of their lessons.

At Kaysees Lodge on Sunday evenings, owners Anne and Kees Koeman build up the log fire in the lounge and invite guests to meet, drink wine and talk story. Kees Koeman, a Dutchman and competitive skier in Europe before immigrating to Australia, opened the lodge in 1966. The couple were the first to offer holiday apartments as Thredbo village grew into a commercial center.

The cozy lodge has eight two-bedroom apartments with fully equipped, self-catering kitchens, a sauna, locked ski and drying room and stunning views directly across Mount Kosciusko.

Business in the village had grown to the point where the Koemans' lodge was booked up throughout the winter season.

Exhausted from their full day of hurtling down mountain trails, Wynne, Frenschan and Wickham sank into fireside armchairs, groaning at the pace set by Ashleigh Frenschan, the youngest of the group.

"Our boy, Ashleigh here, loves dodging in and out of those trees," Wynne said, "and it's taxing keeping up with him."

The banter continued, revealing that Wynne's first attempt at skiing as a teenager had been on water: "The boat turned, he didn't," followed by grass skiing down Adelaide hills ... "hard going when it was muddy."

Then, in 1993, on a trip to New Zealand, he tried snowboarding and was immediately hooked.

At Friday Flat, kids take the Thredboland ski train up the slope to an enclosure just for them. "If you can walk, you can ski," instructors say. Thredbo Village photo

The next morning at Friday Flat, Rachel Henderson, ski instructor by winter, mountain ranger during Australia's summer months, picked up our class at 9:30 a.m. Seven of us have skied before, no one proficiently. During three days of daily two-hour lessons, Henderson moves the group from Friday Flat up to the intermediate slopes, which quickly become a LOT steeper.

On higher ground, our falls are frequent, even spectacular. It seems ski school can't quite keep us vertical.

Snowboarders, including younger family members and the Adelaide whizzers, fly past at what appears to be 100 mph, waving and shouting encouragement.

Up we get ... again and again.

By the end of our third lesson, we've skied with and without poles, criss-crossed steep slopes and shallow gulleys, launched ourselves from fast-moving chairlifts, endured minor bruises and major thigh burn. We've drunk hot rum shots at mountain places and dodged hidden trees beneath snow drifts on the trails down.

Thredbo's rewards for the hard work were short-lived but sweet: a half-forgotten exhilaration brought on by fast passage downhill across smooth terrain in a place that's inaccessible except with wings and Mount Kosciusko's Gunbarrel Express.