Charlotte Pass ViewCharlottes Web
Charlotte Pass is the highest snowsports resort in Australia at 1835 metres and is a remote village a half hour snowcat drive from Perisher Blue. There are no cars, no roads, just one 1930's Bavarian style chalet as the centre huba and a handful of private lodges. The resort has room for only 607 overnight guests, meaning no lift queues whatsover.
We arrived at the chalet on a Monday night otherwise known as Gluhwein Monday when the 11 instructors meet the week's guests with complimentary mulled wine and canapes. The high number of return guests is testimony to the appeal of this resort and not just because
you can send your kids out in the morning with Frosty's kids club and know they'll be safe across the 50 hectares of skiable terrain.
As one guest said "It's like sending them into your own backyard, it's not mammoth, they won't get lost, they know everyone on the mountain
because they meet them each morning at breakfast or at barbecue lunch in the qun or at dinner and group lessons are twice daily".
It's kind of like Club Med without the compulsory interactive entertainment, more of a club community devoid of pretension so often found when money and snow combine.
You will find hiking to the chutes of Guthrie's where narrow gullies open up to wide powder terrain and disappear into open spaced tree runs fantastic. If we had time to trek out to the main range then we would as some of the team had done the day before.
Lodges
Instead we decide to traverse from the top of the chairlift behind the village and ski down through the snow gums to the snow road below.
It may be considered a family resort with friendly terrain but if your're prepared to sweat it out with some hiking then you won't be disappointed.
But back to the gluhweing. The instructors are world class and come from Quebec, British Columbia, Australia and New Zealand, hired for their teaching skills as well as their personality. They don't last long at Charlotte Pass if they don't mix well with staff and quests.
The kids dine in kids club leaving the chalet restaurant free for adults to indluge in a gourmet dinner and wine (breakfast and dinner is included in the package).
It's pool comp night and once we've swapped some ski tales of seasons past, several of us move into the bar to chalk the cues. The village staff have come out to play and I am beaten first by Boris in freight, second by Bridie from the restaurant and third by Corey from the kitcehn.
A band plays nightly in the grotto-style downstairs tavern which turns into a nightclub with dance floor once Willie gets out his saxophone. Charlotte Pass is the birthplace of Jazz band Galapagos Buck and willie Qua was an original memeber and former ski instructor from the pass.
The beauty of a big night in at Charlotte Pass is you'll be served in the morning by those you were partying with the night before.
The lift operator may be the waiter from the restaurant and the breakfast chef may have shared a bottle of wine with you at the bar. It's the kind of resort where you make friends for like with guests who share a love of snow.
Founded in the early 1900's, Charlotte Pass was Australia's first official snow resort when there was a chairlift from Charlotte Pass over the saddle to Thredbo.
The chairlift no loner exists but you can make out the power hut on the ridge line. Today the resort has one chairlift and four rope tows and the new owners plan to develop the resort further, Stay for the weekend, the week or even just the day.
A day trip from Perisher Blue includes return oversnow transport, lift pass and lunch in the sun all for $95aus.
Come sun up and a few brisk runs without a soul in sight clears anybodies head.
Charlotte Pass is open until end of September each year. To get there Rex Airlines flies from Sydney to Cooma which is an hour's drive from Perisher Blue. Two nights twin share accommodation, breakfast and three course dinner, return oversnow from the Ski Tube at Perisher Blue and three-day lift pass from $568aus.
LodgesThere are a lot of different styles of accommodation at Charlotte Pass, the most popular and the one I found the best is The Kosciuszko Chalet and also the Charlotte Pass lodges. You will find both friendly and inviting.
http://www.charlottepass.com.au/accommodation/index.html
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