Kimberley has succeeded at turning itself into an excellent family destination resort. It has plenty of groomed cruisers, moguls, and glades to keep everyone happy. Kimberley also has an area restricted to beginners only. Off the piste, newly opened lodges offer 950 chalets with village ski in/out. Six condominiums within walking distance include a townhouse complex. There is overnight parking with electric hook-ups at Kimberley.
Well, as promised we came back to Kimberley this year, another grueling 9 hour plane and 4.5 hours on the bus. Inghams guide was very friendly and efficient on the bus, but spent most of her time trying to sell us the extortionately priced excursions. ($250 per person half day dog sleigh rides for example. Who can afford these?)
No snow had fallen since the end of December, and only about 1 or 2cm fell whilst we were at Kimberley :-(. This meant that the run (one only since the closure of one of the four lifts present last year) down to base station from the bottleneck at the bridge over the road - only about 15 metres wide - became very icy despite the overnight grooming; a disaster waiting to happen.
Kimberley resort is not for beginners. There are no really gentle slopes and the only slope set aside for beginners is small and quite steep. I certainly wouldn't have liked to be a complete beginner on it. We arrived on a Wednesday before half term so no lift queues - wonderful. Come Saturday the whole world arrived with loads of little kids (most of whom skied better than I did) and it was your typical half-term scramble.
There is only one restaurant at base station (Kelseys) but as we stayed at the Trickle Creek Inn (breakfast such as it was not included this year - come on Inghams.) it was part of the hotel and easy to get to. Good (but mostly fried) food with huge portions. Other restaurants in the town were the Green Phoenix: a tasty feed with a most accommodating and friendly owner. The Baurnhouse is also good; go for the Bavarian Feast, it saves you having to choose and is the best value on the menu.
Getting to the restaurants is a problem as the bus runs only hourly, is packed, and last run is at 9pm. All life stops then.
Taxis are available (and necessary) so when you go to the supermarket in town (shuts at 8) you don't have to wait for the bus laden with bags in the brutal cold.
Ski hire at Kimberley is reasonable, and the staff at the hire shop are the friendliest and most accommodating you'll ever meet. The ski instructors are very good, (ask for Sam 'I am the supervisor' -he's the best) and classes are small.
Kimberley needs to sharpen up it's act if it's to retain it's customers. The mountain needs to be opened up and more runs down to base station be opened. We are a family of intermediates to advanced, and had we not had lessons, we'd have skied the mountain in about a day and a half and then got bored.
