IT'S 1980 and the ski season is in full swing.
After a day of getting dragged up the hill by a procession of platters, stick pomas and T–bars you are waiting in a huge lift queue at Hotham's only chairlift, Playground, to take you back up to the village.
As the wait gets an hour long, discussion in the line starts about when are some new lifts going be installed at Hotham...some things never change!
Over the 70 years of ski lifts operating at Mt Hotham, there have been a few pivotal periods where the resort lift infrastructure, and by defacto, the skiing experience, have undergone massive change.
Back in 1952 when the single rope tow was installed at Blue Ribbon, who could have imagined how the mountain would evolve.
In 1966 the first 'modern' poma surface tow was installed in the summit area.
When the Playground chair was constructed for the 1969 season, a full top to bottom lift (below the road anyway!) was realised.
The 70s saw the installation of five more surface tows (platters, stick pomas and T–bars) at Davenport (todays Bid D area), Brockhoff, Basin, Sun Run, and a second lift on Summit, but still the mountain hadn't reached its full potential.
It wasn't until the early 80s that Hotham's ski lifts really took shape and made the mountain what it is today.
In the 16–year period from 1981 to 1997, a steady procession of chairlifts were installed.
It started with Blue Ribbon in 1981, continued with Big D (1984), Heavenly Valley (1987), Summit (1988), Village (1993), Roadrunner (1995) (oh the joy of skiing over the road!), and finishing with Gotcha, Orchard and Keoghs in 1997.
With new chairs came the option to recycle and re–purpose a few surface tows, resulting in the current day Drift, Summit Trainer and Dinner Plain lifts.
All once graced different parts of Mt Hotham.
In Part One of the 70 years of lifts at Hotham series featured last month, the opening of Heavenly Valley chair was rightfully hailed as the most important moment in the resort's 'lifted history'.
Mt Hotham operations general manger Len Dobell agrees and thinks there have been five major game–changing innovations that have kept Hotham relevant today.
"I have been lucky enough to have been around this resort for a long time and there has been more than one big game–changer," he said.
"The first of those was the development of the Heavenly Valley ski area in 1987 which saw the Brockhoff 'stick poma' removed and the quad chair go in, along with the creation of some pretty awesome terrain.
"Second was the Summit, Big D, Village and Road Runner Quad chairs which changed how the resort ran, increased capacity and allowed beginners to be more easily moved up the hill for ski lessons.
"Third was connecting to the power grid in 1985.
"Fourth was installing the Gotcha, Keoghs and Orchard quad chairs and all that new terrain.
"Lastly, and very significantly, is the snowmaking system which allows us to get some awesome terrain open earlier and for longer."
It is hard to argue against the notion that the investment in high–quality snowmaking since the shocking season of 2006 has been a huge boon to the way the hill skis.
It is also hard to have imagined the impact that the newest lifted ski sector of Mt Hotham (the now 25–year–old Orchard, Keoghs, Gotcha lifts) would have on the mountain.
Following the installation of the Heavenly Valley chairlift and its associated terrain modifications, the expansion of the resort into the Orchard area on the flanks of Mt Loch put Hotham in the minds of skiers across the country in the late 90s.
Providing lifted access to not only the best steep skiing in Australia, it opened more sorely needed intermediate terrain, created the amazing Spargos run, and eased the way for 'slackcountry' riders to enter previously hard to get to descents around One Tree Hill and Golden Point.
The luscious backcountry zone on the north side of Mt Loch is now only a 10–minute skin away from the lift!
Who would have thought that interest in lift–accessed backcountry skiing and splitboarding would explode to such an extent 25 years ago, and yet here we are with the most perfect ski resort for exactly that!
Mt Hotham's unique combination of upper mountain village, high altitude road, and single watershed terrain (Swindlers Creek) on a perfect aspect for incoming storms is the resort's major strength.
The ability to ski a mass of terrain with only minimal lifts on a storm day sets it apart from other Australian ski resorts.
Indeed, many subscribe to the theory that the true measure of a lift system at a ski resort is how well it copes in the worst of weather, but best of snow conditions.
In this, some of the world's most seasoned ski travellers rank Mt Hotham amongst the best around the globe.
One of the most recent extreme tests of the theory was the day this century that the only lift running at Hotham was Blue Ribbon.
It was September 5, 2017.
After a night of blizzards and temperatures near –8°C, the promise of a fine day of Hotham powder riding was on the cards.
The daytime temperature topped out at around –4°C and the wind was blowing as hard as it could possibly blow.
The snow base was nudging over a very healthy two metres.
The road from Harrietville was closed, the Roadrunner tunnel was full of snow and the only lift running was Blue Ribbon – but that was enough.
Fabulous long laps via the Blue Ribbon chair, buses and a few short strolls up the road to Loch car park made for as epic and memorable a day's skiing as anything that went before or after.
Lyndell Keating from Powderhounds.com remembers it well.
"What an incredible day. With just a little bit of effort it was amazing just how much quality terrain could be accessed off the old Blue Ribbon chairlift. A fantastic time to be 'stuck' on the hill and a huge reason why, regardless of where we ski in the world, we still love Hotham the most. When it's good, it's soooo much fun."
So rejoice people.
It is official.
Hotham is awesome.
Make the most of it for the next 70 years.
Heavenly Valley chair will be 107 by then and still turning!
