Mt Buller Ski Resort
Mt Buller Ski Resort is the most popular of the Victorian ski fields, in part because of its proximity to Melbourne. Mount Buller skiing is ideal for a broad range of skiers and snowboarders, with a good mix of terrain for all ability levels. It attracts some hard-core skiers and has a great ski lodge culture, but it’s most renowned for being a fabulous playground for the Range Rover driving ski set who adore the vibrant après ski scene.
Mt Buller Victoria is also incredibly trendy with beginners and those looking for snow play, despite there being better, less crowded and cheaper spots to take selfies in the snow and go tobogganing.
Pros and Cons of Mt Buller Australia
Pros
- Mt Buller is the closest major ski resort to a city in Australia and is within easy reach for a day trip from Melbourne.
- Mt Buller Ski Resort has fantastic terrain, especially for advanced skiers and snowboarders, and when the snow is on, it’s arguably the best Victorian ski resort.
- There is substantial infrastructure to make artificial snow, which includes the snowplay areas.
- The Buller Ski Resort has a decent number of lifts, including a few high speed lifts (which is impressive for a Victorian ski field).
- Mt Buller Resort is on the Ikon Pass.
- Mount Buller has a cosmopolitan village with a good range of restaurants and bars and a vibrant après ski scene where you can be seen.
- Buller has thankfully introduced a snow play shuttle from the base of the mountain on peak weekends in July and August. Those new to the snow don’t have to worry about mountain driving or donning wheel chains, and the road is now safer and less congested.
Cons
- Mt Buller is ridiculously crowded on weekends with weekend warriors and sightseers. You’ll need the patience of a saint as you queue to get chains, wait to drive through the mountain gate and up the mountain, wait to get on a bus from the car park, get equipment rentals, purchase a lift pass, join the logjam to use the restroom, and this is before you even get a chance to stand in a chair lift queue. You’ll also need to do a lot of waiting in order to leave the mountain.
- For those staying overnight, you not only have to pay for resort entry and overnight parking, but an expensive taxi to take you to your accommodation. The wait times for these taxis can be very long.
- Skiing in Australia is expensive, but Mt Buller potentially takes the cake on emptying your wallet.
- Australian skiing is not renowned for snow quality or quantity, but Mt Buller generally has the most problems with consistent snow cover of the major Australian ski resorts. Mt Buller receives less snowfall, and a significant part of the ski resort has a very sunny aspect. Often there are large parts of the terrain that are not open due to inadequate snow.
- Buller is renowned for frequent foggy weather, and as the top of many of the lifts converge in an open treeless area, it’s easy to get very disoriented in low visibility.
Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- Mt Buller is heaven for mogul skiers. Unlike Mt Hotham and Falls Creek, very few black runs are groomed at Buller. This is a shame because grooming would assist in snow retention, and often the snow conditions are not conducive to skiing on anything other than groomers.
Mt Buller Ski and Snowboard Terrain
The 300 hectares of Mt Buller skiable terrain has two distinct zones, with a shady side and a sunny side. Like the other Victorian ski resorts, vertical isn’t extensive, with the range of elevation from 1,375m to 1,790m (415m).
Mt Buller proudly has the most lifts of the Victoria ski resorts with 21, but a good proportion of these are an assortment of surface lifts. Of the 13 chair lifts, 2 are 6-pack express chairs and the fleet includes a fast quad chair which has a major function a sightseeing and access chair from the day car park.
Beginners supposedly have 20% of the trails although in reality it feels less than this, probably because space on the main beginner slope feels very limited on weekends when it’s crazy busy. Intermediates have 45% of the trails, which include a couple of long cruisy groomers. Many shorter blue runs can be found on the Northern Slopes, but these are sometimes not open.
The real strength of the terrain is the black runs, with the proviso that the snow conditions are very good. Mount Buller has some amazing cut trails that are a mass of moguls, named runs that are just avenues through the trees, and true off-piste that includes some rock features for launching.
Mt Buller Snow
No Australian ski resort has rave worthy snow usually, and Mt Buller snow is no exception. Mt Buller only receives an average of 2.4 metres of snow per season (the least of the major Australian ski resorts) and most seasons the snow base doesn’t even reach 1 metre. The Southern Slopes retain the snow reasonably well so long as it doesn’t rain (which is common at ski resorts in Australia), whilst the other half of the ski resort has a very sunny aspect so the snow quality diminishes quickly.
Mt Buller has really good snowmaking capacity which has the potential to cover about 20 runs and 26 percent of the terrain.
Where is Mount Buller Victoria?
Mt Buller Australia is located 47km east of the town of Mansfield, 235 km northeast of Melbourne, and 225km from Melbourne Airport, making it the closest major ski resort in Australia to an international airport. Other than its neighbour Mt Stirling, Mt Buller sits out all on its lonesome, to the southwest of
Falls Creek,
Hotham and Mt Buffalo.
The drive from Melbourne to Buller takes just over 3 hours if you get a good run, and significantly more if there is mayhem on the mountain road and queues to get from the car park to the slopes.
Mt Buller Accommodation
The Mount Buller Alpine Village is quite large by Australian ski resort standards and offers a myriad of options for lodging. Mt Buller accommodation includes a lot of ski clubs, some apartments, and more hotels than the other Victorian ski resorts.
A decent proportion of the Mt Buller accommodation is located slopeside or very close to the ski slopes. Other accommodation is located a few streets away from the slopes and there are village shuttle buses to get to the slopes if you don’t want to walk.
Mt Buller Accommodation Listings
Ski Resort Facilities
The village has a really good selection of restaurants and bars, whilst eateries out on the mountain are very limited. Koflers is a popular spot for good coffee or lunch or the highly renowned apricot moguls. Tirol Café features cool retro ski collectables, some half decent food, and a great perving deck for fine days. Back near the village is ABOM, which is your classic soulless ski resort cafeteria full of ski school kids.
There is a large snowsports school and a child care centre for ages 3 months to 3 years.
The resort doesn’t have a monopoly on ski and snowboard equipment rentals, with various independently owned ski shops in the village, along with retail shops that sell some amazing après ski finery that you could strut around in.
Activities
General snow play and tobogganing is incredibly popular at Mt Buller Alpine Resort, and the two snowplay parks are located at Horse Hill (day car park) and near the main village, both with snowmaking facilities.
Mt Buller has a day spa, cinema, climbing gym and a little cross country skiing, or you can head to nearby Mt Stirling for the full Nordic skiing experience.