MT HOTHAM - White Out

view from our balcony

We woke to a complete whiteout the next day. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was like a think fog had descended on the mountain. A think, cold, snow-filled fog. It had been snowing all day so everything was covered in snow. I spent a while watching the surrounding roofs as the snow blankets slowly slipped off the edge.

cool car

Finally there was enough snow cover so I looked around for my niece (Madison “Maddie” 7) and nephew (Mitchell “Mitch” 4) so I could have an excuse to play in the snow and finally cross off a few of my things to do on the snow: snowman, snowball fight, snow fort.

They were already out in the yard so after throwing snowballs at them from the third floor balcony got tiresome I headed down to join them.

would you let this guy near your kids?

We got a pretty good snowman going and the snow fort was taking shape with the help of dave and step-bro Adon when we started receiving fire from the third floor of another chalet.

A group of guys decided to make the most of the snow covered balcony and began lobbing ordinance at us from above. It was on. Both sides fought hard for over an hour. We were definitely at a disadvantage being three floors below.

Dave returns fire to the third floor balcony - see all the missed snowballs covering the wall near the balcony?

Lesson for day three: always keep an eye on your flanks – classic pincer movement.

We braved the slopes through a complete whiteout that day. It made it hard to see even a few metres in front of you so flying into corners blind meant that there was every chance you might miss it and head right over the edge.

lift chairs ascending from the mist below - notice how no one else is stupid enough to go out?

3 days of snowboarding under my belt and i'm thinking it's a good idea to go out while the warning signs have been posted everywhere and visibility is down to 6 metres!