Record Breaking Flare Run

Last Monday, we broke an Australian record. It was the 10th anniversary of the Thredbo road collapse and to pay tribute to the 18 people who passed away on July 30 1997 we held a flare run in Thredbo.

The previous Australian record was 745 skiers here in Thredbo on the 1st anniversary, but this year we were hoping to break this. The World Record is held in Switzerland with 1,321 riders doing a flare run on 1st January 2000 to kick-off the millennium.

So how many skiers and boarders registered for Thredbo’s 10th Anniversary flare run? 1,400! Sadly on 1,269 of these riders turned up on the night despite it being a gorgeous, clear full moon night. So although we just missed out on the World Record, we smashed the Australian record! Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine we would get that many riders.

I was working on the night, giving ‘on the spot’ radio reports from the chairlift so was unable to go in the flare run but I did get a great view of it from the pub (with a drink in hand of course) and it was unreal – just check out the picture our resort photographer took – an unreal spectacle and a fitting tribute to those that passed away but loved the mountain and Thredbo.

Congrats to all involved.

Simone x