Tommy's Tips

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The Do’s and Don’ts and Words of Wisdom together with the odd funny experience about skiing and travel from Tommy Tomasi.

The Snowy Mountains had about three weeks of warm weather and now we are into May. The days are getting shorter and we have already had some frosts heralding the coming of winter.

September 11 saw the end of my usual group tour to the US for 2002. Many skiers appeared to be too scared to fly, so I decided to fly to Europe to spend Christmas with my sister. Over there, they experienced one of the worst winters that I have seen, extremely cold, but practically no snow, to make matters worse the very dry weather caused shortness of water for snowmaking and as a result the resorts suffered enormous losses.

So there you are - we can't really complain too much about our last season for at least we could make snow; let's just hope that this year we see plenty of the white stuff. Thredbo mountain staff have been working hard all summer and you will be pleased with the result of their labours - the slopes are looking like a good golf course.

Who is this Tommy Tomasi ?
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting him , or better still skiing with him , Tommy started skiing at six , seriously at nine and was on the Italian racing team at 15. He migrated to Australia in 1949 and originally worked in the WA mines as a powder monkey, later moving east to work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme and as a ski instructor at the Chalet at Charlotte Pass.

Tommy, Charles Anton and Tony Sponar were the first to gain the Australian speed skiing record award ‘The Golden Eagle’.

One of the founders of the Thredbo ski patrol, Tommy has also been a ski shop retailer, ski importer and ski tour leader. Originally taking tours for Steins he has spent the last 25 years escorting tours for Travelplan.

Tommy can still be seen each year blasting down the slopes of Colorado with a group of Australians in hot pursuit. While during the Aussie ski season, if you’re quick, you can catch a glimpse (more like a blur) of Tommy most days at Thredbo.

To find out more about Travelplan escorted tours and ski guides, see Jamie's Cool Skiing page.