Snowopolis -battling the weekend crowds at Lake Mountain
I love the snow, I dream about it if I haven’t seen it in a while and so as a family we make a plan to visit the snow annually. I know that snow holidays are expensive so I have previously advocated that families visit the snow as a day trip, for some traditional snow play. For those of us with very young children, unless there is a childcare option, skiing is out of the question hence I’m happy with a bit of tobogganing, snow ball throwing and snowman making. With this in mind we headed up past the alpine town of Marysville for some Lake Mountain snow play yesterday (a Saturday). I wish we hadn’t.
As a rule I try to limit my posts to positive reviews – I want to share with my readers the amazing activities to enjoy as a family. On a rare occasion I am so disappointed with an experience that I write a “families beware” post. This is one of those occasions.
One of the toboggan runs at Lake Mountain
Lake Mountain is an hour and a half drive from Melbourne. I have a soft spot for the location – we enjoyed annual snow vacations there as a family when I was a child, and my husband and I had our first date – a drive up to Lake Mountain years ago. Needless to say, I was expecting our day trip to be a rip roaring success.
After paying the entry fee of $57 a vehicle to access Lake Mountain we were directed to a car park below the summit. We had packed a healthy picnic to enjoy on the mountain but had to abandon it in our car when we realised we were required to board a shuttle bus to the summit. The practicality of herding/carrying three young children, two toboggans and a picnic up to the summit just wasn’t feasible. We then stood in line for the shuttle bus for 40 minutes with a snaking queue of almost entirely young families. As children wallowed in the slush and mud by the side of the road there were a few scary near misses as cars almost took out young kids. Those of you that have young kids will understand that keeping them standing (or in my case carrying one) for 40 minutes in the cold, exactly by your side is not easy, particularly in freezing temperatures.
Myself and Little Lady Bub. Notice all the people around us? This was about as much personal space as we got at the snow
At the summit we trudged through more mud to reach the two toboggan runs, which were maintained with manufactured snow. The runs were teeming with people creating an impression similar to spawning salmon swimming upstream. A quick appraisal showed us many of these were badly behaved snow folk “BBSF”. BBSF were generally adults, often attired inappropriately for the snow. My husband has another name for BBSF but I can’t write that here. Some examples of the BBSF behaviour at Lake Mountain included adults tobogganing while holding hot cups of coffee, adults wandering round the snow play area swigging from bottles of beer, and adults careening down the toboggan slopes knocking scores of children to their feet as they went. I love snowball fights – remember they were one of the reason we headed up to Lake Mountain. Amidst the throngs of people on the slopes it was impossible not to be hit by wayward snowballs from other’s fights, and my one year old copped a few in the face from adult BBSF. In the end, after my four year old was in tears from the third flattening by an adult BBSF on a toboggan we decided that this simply wasn’t a safe place for snow play.
The kids were now hungry, and as we had abandoned our healthy picnic to board the bus we were forced into a café. The café only served pies and donuts – no healthy eating for us after all. It also only had only one seat. As it was taken, and the sopping wet floor was not an appealing place to sit, we sat on our toboggan, on the café floor, one child balanced on each knee.
I saw a number of mums with young babies and could only hope they weren’t breastfeeding. With our car abandoned down the mountain, and no seats in sight there was nowhere to feed a baby and I was relieved we have cut ours down to only at night.
Kids under 10 can trial cross country skiing for free.
The highlight of our visit to Lake Mountain was that my eldest son had the opportunity to try (free of charge if you don’t count the $57 Lake Mountain entrance fee) cross-country skiing. This was a real positive, particularly as the enclosed cross-country area for young kids was less crowded and free of conspicuous BBSF.
Another bus ride down to the car park, and more witnessed close calls between vehicles and children and we were on our way home.
So, why, you may ask am I bothering telling you all this? The reason is that I do love the snow, I love snow play, and I want my kids to love it too. Most of all, I want them to be safe. Lake Mountain snow play on a weekend is clearly not an environment that facilitates fun, safe snow play for families with young kids. I also hope this blog, for a few families at least acts as an encouragement to try things they may not have before, to enjoy the outdoors together, to be active. Taking a punt, I would imagine a fair number of families that were at Lake Mountain yesterday would not have enjoyed themselves either, and that some of them will have put family snow time away in the too hard basket.
The good news is that one of this site’s regular contributors recently spent a week long family holiday in Marysville with a couple of weekday mornings of snow play at Lake Mountain. Mid week mornings she says were fantastic, no crowds, lots of snow, and plenty of safe family fun. That particular contributor is a breastfeeding mum, and as there were less people on the mountain they were able to park at the summit, she was able to feed her baby in the car, and they didn’t have to abandon their picnic. If I had been able to convince her that she had time to squeeze a write up about Lake Mountain into her busy schedule then this review may have been very different. I’m glad that she didn’t though – because it gave me the opportunity to experience Lake Mountain snow play on the weekend with my kids. What that means is that you can learn from our experience. Snowplay on Lake Mountain on the weekend. Don’t do it.
As for us, we haven’t given up on snow play. We have booked a family weekend at Mount Baw Baw next weekend. Stay tuned to hear how that trip goes.
Interested in family snow experiences? You may be interested in these posts.
Visiting the snow with kids? How to save money.
Free snow play at Mount Donna Buang
Tips for vacationing in the snow with young kids.
We’ve gone to Mt Baw Baw a couple of times this season for day trips and it is a great place to take the kids for snow play. Entry is cheaper and the car parks are much closer to the action. It is definitely less crowded than Lake Mountain but obviously it’s a longer drive from town. Well worth the visit. I hope you and the family enjoy your time there next week. There was heaps of snow when we were there last weekend.
Hi Laura, Thanks for reading and commenting! I’m glad to hear Baw Baw is less crowded. We will be staying off mountain for two nights but would love to get some good tobogganing in. Would love to do a playmate some time!
I think it’s great you share the good AND the bad on your blog — important for families to know firsthand what they’re getting into if they head to Lake Mountain.
Thanks Kara. You know what, I’d never head to Disneyland in the middle of summer vacation because of all the queues. I guess this is just a similar example of how people need to pick the best time to visit Lake Mountain.
Really sorry to hear about this experience – it sounds like it could and should be run in a completely different way, especially with the waiting around to actually get up there in the first place (I know that hanging around with kids isn ot pleasant, especially little ones).
I can’t agree more. I took our two children to Lake Mountain for the first time last Saturday hoping for a day of fun tobogganing. After 30 minutes, they had had enough of bumping into other toboggans, being crashed into etc. There were just too many people there. We found a bit of space and then spent some time building a snowman. After an early lunch, we had had enough was enough and decided to leave. That wasn’t easy with so many people (including children) milling about the car park area – I also thought it was dangerous.
Hi Andy – sorry your first Aussie snow experience was a dud! We are checking out Baw Baw this weekend which I know a few people do as a day trip from Melbourne so I will let you know how that goes.
So fun to read about playing in the snow when it’s hot summer in Chicago!
I’ve been in Chicago in summer and it can get very, very hot! I’ve got to admit though Sarah that I’m eagerly anticipating spring as it is creeping into Melbourne right now.
I don’t like to write negative reviews either, but you’re right. Sometimes people really need to know when something is so disappointing. I agree, standing in line with small children for 40 minutes in the cold is too much. It would be too much for me with my bigger kids. I abhor waiting in lines. I’m sure this post will help parents’ to have a better understanding of what to expect at the mountain- should they decide to visit.
Hi Tonya – Yes, I love writing positive reviews (and usually I am super happy with our family travel experiences). I am will make a point of a positive one next time though.