charlotte's pass

Australian Alpine Region With The Ricoh GRiiix

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And so it is we come to the end of another Australian snow season, and what a season it was. For all intents and purposes, this was one of the worst snow seasons on record in terms of snow cover. Most resorts are closing well over a month early. Many barely got to open at all, and that’s before a near apocalyptic amount of rain descended down upon the Snowies.

So yeah, not the best skiing, but we were able to get out there for a few days and take advantage of what cover there was before it really started to become more like grass skiing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it quite so patchy before.

The cloud formations in alpine regions are absolutely fascinating to me.

The Ricoh GRiiix continues to be a really fun little camera. I cannot tell you how refreshing it is not having to bring a bag when you’re heading out. You pop it into your pocket, and that’s it. There was one instance at the top of the chairlift where I stepped into a snowdrift with Ricoh in hand an dropped a good four feet or so into the snow. The Ricoh went down with me, the lens compartment completely stuffed with ice and leading to some interesting hazy images like the one below before I was able to completely clear out the snow. I have heard these cameras hate water, but for now it seems to be working okay.

With snow still on the lens, you get this old-timey almost archival feel to the image.

The Hard Monotone preset in the Ricoh GRiiix yet again working wonders with light, here with Australia’s highest ‘mountain’ somewhere there in the background.

This is the view from the top of the chairlift at Charlotte Pass. It’s always changing according to the weather.

Given the lack of snow, we ended up doing a couple of short walks: one across the summit, one to Spencer’s Creek and another up the hill the start of the Main Range track. The latter is where things went sideways.

Long story short, I slipped on some black ice, fractured my spine and required a bit of a rescue mission to get out of there. That’s why I’m sitting here writing this in a brace about to go into surgery tomorrow. Not the greatest of ends to our trip, but that’s how it goes. A big thankyou to all the medical, emergency and rescue staff who helped out on the day.

The chalet at Charlotte Pass has been there forever. I love the alpine, historic feel of the place.

Walking down to Spencer’s Creek, again with the Hard Monotone and again with snow on the lens.

Once I’m recovered up, expect more photos soon. I’ve also bought a couple of rolls of Kodak 120 (yet again balking at the price), so let’s see what happens there.

More images below.

I always mean to take a shot of these boulders heading through Cooma. Had to snap this one out the window.

Skiing At Charlotte's Pass With The Fuji GFX50R

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It’s a bit of a family tradition on my wife’s side of the family to journey to Charlotte’s Pass every year. Located in the alpine region of New South Wales, Charlotte’s Pass is Australia’s highest ski resort, a small village that is snowbound during winter. Finally, with COVID well in the rear-view now, we headed down to check it out.

A ICM image of snow drifts coming through looking over the valley towards Australia’s highest ‘mountain’, Mt Kosciusko. I like the painterly quality here and sense of movement.

I knew from the outset this would be a challenging trip photographically. The village of Charlotte’s Pass is very small, every building a muted shade of brown, green or grey, with not much colour to be found. But there’s also fun in the challenge, and once again, light hunting became my go-to.

Many ski resorts in Australia closed early this season because of a lack of snow (a lot of people are amazed we do, in fact, have ski resorts at all), but we were lucky to receive a good dumping of white stuff before we arrived, which lasted out the week.

Above are a series of images of trail markers used to show where obstacles lie on ski runs. I became a bit obsessed with the way they contrasted with the blanketed snow around them. They became a fixture of my more minimal images.

Likewise, I had hoped to get some images on the way to the village via oversnow transport. However, it was sleeting/windy and the cat itself was moving faster than I had anticipated. Still, I took this rapid-fire series of shots below hoping to get the right amount of movement and really emphasize the conditions. You can see this creek became increasingly clearer as we got closer, but I prefer the original image with movement and blur.

We stayed at TarGanGil Lodge in Charlotte’s Pass. I’d highly recommend it, not only because it’s the closest lodge to the charlift, but the food was nothing short of amazing. And I’m a pretty harsh critic. The kids also had a blast with the lodge guests and the fact you never really had to queue to get on a chairlift or T-bar, as Charlotte’s only allows a fixed number of visitors at any one time.

The two images below were taken in our room at the lodge. It had the most beautiful morning and afternoon light. I’m sure most Australians my age are familiar with the blanket on the left. They were a permanent fixture of every grandmother’s house in the seventies and eighties, horribly scratchy but always warm. They also remind me of childhood ski trips, of escapism. The way the light cut across the quilt was perfection—or at least to me.

This image was taken at the ski-tube trerminal at Perisher Valley. There is, and always has been, something kitsch about ski resorts in Australia. They feel like a time capsule of sorts, perpetually stuck in the past. I thought the colours and poster here perfectlly summed that up.

As always, I found myself smiling looking over the RAW files out of the GFX50R. I’ve had it a long time now and it has never disappointed. It’s that bridge between film and digital I’ve always been looking for. It simply works. One of the images I’ve posted was actually taken with my old Samsung S20 and upsized in Photoshop using Super Enhance, as I couldn’t let it pass.

Next year is shaping up to be very interesting photographically. I’m looking to knock off two of my bucket list destinations: Iceland and Karijini National Park, as well as keep my ICM series of Sydney going. I’ll also be working on creating a print shop for people to purchase my work, as I believe so many images here would make excellent wall art, especially the more minimally inclined.

All in all, it was a successful trip, though I’m not sure my body agrees. Skiing doesn’t seem as easy these days. Head here for the full gallery, or check out some of shots that didn’t make it below.