In the last few seasons I managed to get 10+ days on the snow (in 2025 I was fortunate to get 5 days in Japan, and another 11 days in Australia) but this year I felt that I needed to take things a bit easier, and I only planned for two trips into the alps. One trip was with our group of close friends who go to Mount Hotham every year, and another was a trip I organise at my workplace which was at Falls Creek. Both trips were three nights, so I got three days of snowboarding on each trip.

No sugarcoating

As far as snow coverage is concerned, the 2026 season in Australia was terrible. Major resorts had very little terrain open in June, a barely serviceable amount throughout July, and a tolerable amount in August when you'd typically expect all lifts to be spinning. It'll be hard to see what will still be open come early September.

Mother Nature was particularly cruel. There was a healthy string of snowstorms that came through from the West early in the season, but the snowfalls were pushed just south of the Australian alpine regions due to high pressure systems hanging around. This trend turned solid snowfall opportunities into light dustings at best, or rain at worst which destroyed the cover. Full credit to the ski resorts though; they took every opportunity they could to create man-made snow and build up the base to keep the main runs healthy, but without natural falls helping out it's a tough job.

Specifically with the Victorian resorts that I visit, Mt Hotham was unable to open the Orchard area at all, and at Falls Creek the Summit/International lifts never opened either, requiring at least another 30cm of cover to open up the main runs at the Summit.

Trip 1: Mount Hotham

Our Hotham trip with friends was characterised by a wide range of weather – day 1 was clear, day 2 was raining (and very windy), and day 3 was snowing (and still very windy). Waterproof clothing was the MVP (huge thanks to my new Yuki Threads jacket I picked up in the off season!), closely followed by determination and perseverance in the face of wild weather conditions.

We had a few friends that arrived drove up one day earlier (spending the night in Bright) and enjoyed the clear weather that we got at the start of the trip. A very smart choice in hindsight. Here's a picture looking down from the top of the 'Village run' on our clearest day of the trip.

Apart from the on-piste action, I was able to take another instance of my “That Hotham Photo” – a specific section of the mountain ascent where the Great Alpine Road has this gorgeous & aesthetic bend to it:

We had a group of 10 people attend all up which I'm still super grateful for. We've been doing a Hotham trip annually for over a decade, and it's my most favourite weekend of the year. The apartment we got had a lovely south-facing view of the surrounding valleys, which is excellent to enjoy your morning coffee and avocado on toast while you work up the energy to attack another day on the ski lifts.

Stats:

• 46 runs over 3 days
• 51.8km distance
• 10,198m vertical

Trip 2: Falls Creek

My trip to Falls with colleagues & friends had a different vibe. Some of the group were people I spend my 9-5 with so I was still slightly in 'work mode', but we fortunately didn't talk too much shop during the trip. The average experience level of the group was also more novice, meaning that I often had to give advice or guidance to people who were learning their way around the mountain.

I was pleased to hear that several people wanted to try the Saturday night skiing down Wombat's Ramble. Even though I have outgrown the beginner run a long time ago, going for a few casual runs after eating some dinner was a good way to warm up the muscles and ensure my gear was set up correctly. Turns out I set up my bindings the wrong way around, so I was going down the mountain with my board pointing the wrong way! A good reminder as to why I bring a mini-screwdriver with me on the mountain...

Wombat's Ramble has this shipping container halfway down the lift that is painted differently every season, and at night they have UV lights shining on it. This year's glow-in-the-dark artwork looked epic – after I took a photo of another group of skiers in front of it, they kindly offered to return the favour for me:

In comparison to Hotham, Falls is definitely weighted more towards intermediate terrain and I didn't feel like I was massively challenged on any of the available runs. Sadly all of the black runs weren't open due to the poor snow cover, but moving around the mountain every hour or so kept things interesting throughout the day. Falls also has some excellent on-mountain food & beverage options, so you're never far from a hot chocolate or a dim sim to keep your energy levels up or just enjoy the view.

The weather during the entire trip was clear & intensely sunny, with the clouds only rolling in as we headed back to Melbourne. If I had the ability to put sunglasses on under my goggles visor, I would have!

On the final morning I enjoyed a short walk up to the village bowl before we needed to pack up the apartment and get in the van:

Stats:

• 52 runs over 2 days (+ 3 runs on the night skiing session)
• 54.0km distance
• 8,132m vertical

My personal snowboarding goals for 2026

As my skills have stabilised and I'm comfortable boarding down most runs at any ski resort I go to, I've started to give myself a little goal or objective for each season – otherwise I feel that the novelty wears off a bit and I'm not able to enjoy the activity that much.

In 2026 I wanted to start learning how to safely use the terrain park features and start doing some jumps & basic tricks, and Hotham started a beginners lesson to get the fundamentals right, especially regarding body position & technique. I had my lesson on that first clear day we had at Hotham. I really enjoyed it and it allowed me to be completely comfortable with smaller jumps and boxes. I didn't have any major falls during my jump attempts this season, but maybe that means I didn't commit enough. Something to build on for 2027...

Overall stats for 2026

I use Slopes for the tracking of my runs and I love supporting a small & dedicated team of developers, and I find the GPS tracking to be far better than any of the resort apps.

Slopes has a great feature where you can calculate whether your season pass actually saved you money or not, and a good baseline indicator is the “cost per run”. Last year I did about twice as many days on the snow and got my cost per run down to $4.50, and this year I only got it down to $7.74.

There's obviously flaws in the maths & logic – your lift pass isn't the only thing you need to pay for to enjoy snow activities, especially considering on-mountain accommodation & food – but having a calculation that's fairly consistent year-on-year is good, and rewards the people who make the most of their time on the slopes and keep pushing for another couple of runs.

2026 Stats:

• 101 runs (over 6 days)
• 105.9km distance
• 18,329m vertical
• average speed – 22.3km/h

What's interesting is the amount of downtime (the light grey part in the above image) that occurs throughout a typical day. Waiting in lift queues, meal or drink breaks, or just waiting around to meet up with people – it all adds up. I looked into my last few snow seasons and the downtime is always around 45-50%.

Looking ahead

This Aussie season will obviously have most ski bums thinking about going overseas in the years to come, and my friends & I are no different. Japan & New Zealand are the obvious contenders for us, depending on which time of year you want to visit. But over the last 5-6 years we've had 3-4 excellent seasons with all lifts opening at Australian resorts, so we can't let recency bias sway us too much.

We'll still do our annual Hotham trip next year, but doing anything more than that might be a stretch. All I know is that my body is holding up well so I'll be strapping into those bindings as long as it's capable.

#snowboarding #sports #snow