The wizards of Oz - Lisa Young, Thredbo
Saturday August 14, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

Ski race teams from around the world are in the Australian resort of Thredbo and so is PlanetSKI reporter, Lisa Young. There's quite an atmosphere in the place.

They all seem to be here at the moment.

Racers from Scotland, England, Sweden, France, Canada, USA, New Zealand, Slovakia and Australia are here for the FIS, International Ski Federation, ski week.

They are trying to gain points for their placing in The World Cup circuit and doing a bit of off-season training too.

There's not much skiing on the glaciers in the Northern hemisphere so there's really only one way to go.

South.

I hooked up with the Scottish team to see what they are up to.

Attack those gates!

Noel Baxter, coach for the Scottish team, is out with team members Benedict Barlow, Lewis John, Scott McGuire, Ewan McPhee, Cameron Gunn, Paul Henderson, Xavier Barlow and Alexander Tilly.

They are here training hard until the end of August.

The Scottish team has been coming to Thredbo for off-season training for the past 4 years.

Why?

Baxter seems impressed"When I tell people we are going to train in Australia, they give me a funny look. They can understand maybe going to New Zealand, as they have big mountains there, but not Australia," says Baxter.

"Many people don't even know there's snow in Australia, let alone the fact you can ski here. This is the first time I've skied here, but some of the other skiers have been here before."

"My friends always said the skiing was good in Thredbo and they were right; in fact it's a little better than I expected. I thought they had talked it up a bit, but it's actually pretty good.

I'm surprised how long the runs are, because the mountains are fairly small, but there's quite a lot of variety. Our team joined up with the local Thredbo Ski Club, we didn't bring any gates, so they have helped us with that and we train along side of them. That's worked well."

Check out the photos.

Taking a break