30 August Last Snowshoe Tour for the Season

My apologies for taking so long to get around to posting this!

This was our last tour for the 09 season and couldn't have been with a nice group.

The young couple arrived with their Moms to scope out the area for their wedding in 2 years' time, which will be in Dinner Plain.

We had lots of fun despite the weather and found plenty of good spots for wedding photos in amongst the gnarled Australian snow gums.

We would be happy to take the bridal party out for a complementary snowshoe on the big day!

All the best for your wedding guys!

29 August Calorie Burning in the Rain!!!

Guess who had the most fun at Hotham this morning? We did!

Yes though the weather gods definitely were not smiling this morning, three very keen and lovely ladies and good friends, Ruth, Leanne and Fiona, joined Sean and I on a calorie-burning snowshoe sojourn to Dinner Plain. This fearless group refused to be daunted by wind, rain, thunder and lightning and we boarded our trusty troopy intent to get amongst the snowgums for several kms of fitness snowshoeing.

Down Dinner Plain way it was much more sheltered that up at windy Hotham. And really not that bad, though we had to pull our hoods up over our heads occasionally and sought shelter in a cattlemen's hut for a few minutes, it's surprising how little we noticed the weather once we got going, started gasbagging and hit our stride. We did stop a few times, listening to thunder and commenting on some lightning we had sworn we saw; we did speculate as to whether Hotham would close its lifts due to lightning; but apart from that, undaunted we trudged onward and before you could say quantum physics (well that was Sean), we had covered a lazy 6km.

When we returned to Hotham Central, guests were definitely not happy Jan, several having been left below in the valley when the lifts were put on wind and lightning hold and we did think we heard some grumbling about refunds. Which just goes to show: when the weather turns sour and you want to put a smile on your dial, come snowshoeing!!!

Unfortunately we all left our cameras in our packs today so the only pic I have to share is one I snapped on my return. This shows just what the weather was like at Hotham this morning.

Thank you Ruth, Fiona, Leanne and Sean for being such good sports and having such a good spirit this morning!

27 August Half Day Tour

Well it was just Ruth and I and the wind today! Ruth and I headed out for starters from Diamantina along the Razorback and down the upper half of Bon Accord Spur, from where we could see Harrietville and the Ovens River valley 10 kms below. The wind was howling but the snow was delightfiul and soft, after 27cm of fresh in the last 36 hours.

Dropping off the southern side of the upper ridge of Bon Accord spur provided us with a lovely spot for morning tea!

The snowgums looked extra special today sporting a new mantle of snow. At times all you could see was the tops of them poking through the deep snowpack.

Can you spot our tracks leading down off the ridgeline? A pretty amazing place for our morning tea. Afterwards we headed south through Hotham towards Dinner Plain. There wasn't enough snow cover to head across the snow plains, so we enjoyed a warm-down cruising along the firm packed trails, chatting to a few a skiers along the way. By the end of the tour we both thought we'd had a pretty good workout and earned wine and desert this evening. I decided I'd leave skiing till tomorrow.

Tuesday 18th August Hotham Backcountry

Lovely morning for a half day snowshoe tour in the Hotham Backcountry


Here's Tracey and Frances enjoying the snow out near Derrick's.


This is the lovely creek you cross on the way to Derrick's: today we had to cross a little snow bridge to get across.

Spring has come to the backcountry .
And here's the very welcome Derrick's Hut, looking cared for after a rennovation last season by its proud custodians the Wangaratta Ski Club (thanks guys!)

Derrick's makes a great stop-over in summer or winter when you're walking from Hotham to Falls Creek. For more of these walks, contact Andy at Soulfree: e. andy@soulfree.com.au or
m. 04 8847 7271

Razorback Sat August 8

Ahhh sunshine returns to Mount Hotham for the best and biggest snow weekend of the season!

A perfect morning to check out the Hotham backcountry. Here's the group starting out on the Razorback from Diamantina, Saturday morning

Kez and Robyn descending the Big Dipper!

14yo girl tele skier ripping it up!

Robyn, Kez, Dajarra and James out on the Razorback enjoying awesome conditions

Now for the silly pic! Thanks guys for a great morning

Hope you enjoyed seeing the Hotham backcountry at its best

Oh ... and the champagne sunset tour was awesome!!!

JB Plain

Well the weather Gods have been depriving us of sunshine here at Hotham lately. Never fear, even when Hotham itself is windy and blown out, we can still find sheltered snowshoeing on the snow covered snow plains to the south.

Here's Judy at JB Plain on 31 July

We've been hosting the media at Hotham lately, here we are at JB Plain enjoying the sheltered snow plain snowshoeing

Marketing and media have some fun!

Snowshoe Log July 8

Dear fellow snowshoers and mountain lovers, conditions have been superb these past three days. Sorry for the superlatives but the snow, the weather, the scenery, not to say the company have all been top shelf.

On Tuesday Roslyn, her son Peter, Tracey and I headed out to Mount loch. 360 degree views.

Here's Mount Bogong, Victoria's highest peak taken from Mt Loch.

We could see:

Mt Howitt, Crosscut Saw, Mt Buggery, Mt Speculation, Mt Cobbler, Mt Buller, Mt Stirling, Dargo High Plains, Mt Buffalo, The Horn, Cathedral Pinnacle, Mt Feathertop, the Fainters, the Jaithmathangs, Mt JIm, Mt cope, Bogong High Plains and Mt Bogong and the list goes on. Not a breath of wind. These could all be seen from the top of Mount Loch, only a short hike out of Hotham.

Next we rejoined the cat track out towards Spargos and headed off track for something special: Maclachlans Shoulder, a gorgeous little spot inside the resort not many know of. Here's the view across to Mary's slide from Maclachlans Shoulder:




This morning Wednesday we headed out along the Rzorback to a little known gem of a knoll off the beaten track.

Here's Deb and Kathleen traversing



More pics to follow in next post.

Check out all we have to offer here: http:www.soulfreeadventures.com.au

Soulfree Hotham Snowshoeing Touring

Well the Soulfree Blog's been down for a couple of days, so my apologies, but we're up and running again! Thanx Nitecruzer for your help.

Weather has been superb for snowshoe touring at Hotham these past couple of days :

Sun 5th July: we ran an afternoon Introductory Tour out along the Razorback to Bon Accord. This tour had a delayed start but worked out better as we had the most brilliant sunset to enjoy. This should have been a Champagne Sunset tour!

Mon 6th July: We ran a Half Day Tour out past The Orchard to Mount Loch, and then continued around to the eastern face of Machinery Spur. Here we had stunning views of Mt Feathertop, the Bogong High Plains, Mt Mackay, Mt Bogong, the Fainters and Jaithmathangs, Buller. We could see for miles! The top pic is of Kathleen yesterday. In the background is Mount Feathertop. This pic was taken from the eastern face of Machinery Spur yesterday morning. As you can see, it was looking in stunning condition!

Here is a pic of Joanna on Saturday as we haded out along the Razorback to Bon Accord.

The tracks coming down the hill in the background are snowboiarders' tracks.

By this stage the snow pack had developed a layer of crust on top and was not good for skiing. Good to see some melt freezes happening now to consolidate the snowpack and firm up conditions for touring.

We have Half Day Tours scheduled for today Tuesday 7th, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th July We will try and run a could of Introductory Tours over the coming weekend. If this weather continues, we'll be starting up our Champagne Sunset Tours for sure!

Feathertop Razorback Snowshoe Adventure

We have a Feathertop Tour booked for next Monday 6th July.

This is a truly spectacular tour and a not to be missed opportunity to stand atop our most majestic peak.

It's a full day tour with an early start and you need to be reasonably fit to complete it. Around 20km of walking - last 8 km is downhill to Harrietville.

Like any good snowshoe tour, it finishes at a pub! End the day by the fire with a drink or two and relive your adventure over a pub dinner, before we drive you back up the mountain to Hotham.

Call Andy to book your tour:

m. 0488 477 271
e. andy@soulfree.com.au