Top Marks for Top to Bottom Weekend

By Zoë Fitzpatrick

If Thredbo were a student, it’d be given top marks for the on-point performance at the G.H. Mumm Top to Bottom Weekend, earning straight As across all categories: a ripping race, plenty of champagne flowing and of course the apres scene was off the charts.  Let’s break down the report card a bit…

The big event: the Top to Bottom race

If there’s one weekend you can really taste the stoke in the air in Thredbo, it has to be at the famous G.H. Mumm Top to Bottom weekend. With a pack of hungry skiers and boarders, running to the start line at the top of the mountain on foot before clicking in and gunning it all the way down to the bottom (the less turns the better)… there had to be enough adrenaline to power a V8. Or at least enough to power a couple of iconic sabre-popped G.H. Mumm Champagne bottles appropriately used to drench the winners.

Conditions were trying to say the least: winds were strong and the visibility challenging, but that only fuelled the 260 racers to go faster. With the cold and the wind bringing everyone together, it meant all the more stoke for the spectators, who had the cowbells ringing at Kareela corner and were packed in like sardines at the finish line where the vibe was pumping. In the words of Mens Pro Ski winner and Olympian Scott Kneller, it got seriously gnarly out there – but that didn’t stop him claiming his 6^th title. Wiki Jones claimed her 5^th title in the Open Women’s Snowboard category, and winner of the Open Mens Snowboarders Jye Kearney proved that he has the speed and the switch slides, adding another feather to his helmet after hosting the epic Jye’s Jam rail comp only weeks ago.

Category winners:

Open Womens Ski – Zali Offord
Open Womens Snowboard – Wiki Jones
Open Mens Snowboard – Jye Kearney
Opens Mens Ski – Scott Kneller
Amateur Mens Ski – Adam Podgorski
Masters Mens Ski – Dane Upton
Veteran Mens Ski – Paul Herron

Après action

The adrenaline wasn’t just reserved for the racecourse. Mountain riders and spectators powered through the weekend…the true apres-hunters starting off with pres at the epic poolside party on Friday night which was as lit as the laser lights being projected into the sky. Troupers kicked on…from both the race-side G.H. Mumm Champagne Breakfast at Kareela Hutte, and the race itself, to the second back-to-back poolside G.H. Mumm Apres party featuring a hot DJ lineup: Jesse Porsches, KLP, Elizabeth Rose, MOZA and Commandeur. We’ve said it before and we will say it again: there ain’t no party like a Thredbo party, or better yet, two G.H. Mumm  champagne-showered raving moshpits where Thredbo gave everyone a lesson in how to apres: A+.

Given a rating of 1 to stoked, Thredbo definitely gets a rating of #fullystoked this week. From the looks of it the run of good marks can only continue, with a packed events calendar on the horizon we’re predicting straight As…check it out here.