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.
