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Last Thursday night it was freezing cold and *#@%ing down, so Jayne and I decided that you only live once and if we didn’t go to the snow that weekend then we’d be letting ourselves down.

So we did.

On Friday morning I hastily arranged accommodation at Bogong Village, which is halfway between Mount Beauty and Falls Creek (we were lucky to get number 27, the only 2-person house in the village), and late afternoon Friday we were on our way up the Hume. We arrived in time for a couple of beers and some pool at the Bogong pub (small, friendly) but even though it’s impossible to get a hangover at the snow we took it easy and were back at our cabin early, relatively speaking.

We were expecting snow overnight but the stars decided to shine all night long, so we awoke to a frost and clear blue skies instead of 30cm of fresh (never mind). We’d brought no breakfast provisions (mistake), so after a quick shower we drove the 15 minutes up the mountain to the day car park at Falls, geared up, and headed to what used to be the Snowlands cafe for a cooked breakfast.

Gearing up in the car park

With full bellies we were ready to hit the slopes, so we took what used to be the Halley’s Comet chair (now Falls Express) up to Cloud 9 and made our way to Panorama (green) so that Jayne could iron out some of the cobwebs that had formed in the 4 years since she last strapped into a snowboard.

Me near Cloud 9

Ooh she was rusty. Like a 3-day beginner at times. But after three or four runs she started to get it together and was looking good. Her confidence was even built enough to have a crack at the blue stuff through the trees (Milky Way, Last Hoot, Fast Hoot) that she last enjoyed with back in 2004. Sadly, on run #1, she fell twice on her @rse on some sketchy stuff and really hurt herself.

Young, J L. Retired Hurt.

That left me on my own for the rest of the day to sample the resort’s runs. Not what we had in mind, but with JY happy to take her gear back to the car and wander around the village with the camera I was free to carve up the steeper stuff at my own pace, which was OK. I rode most of the south side (Quartz Ridge, Powderkeg, Dark Side, Shadow Ridge, Racecourse, Big Dipper, Father Fosters) before spending an hour or so watching the maniacs tackle the Ruined Castle terrain park, then heading over to the bowl via The Y’s. I had one run down Exhibition and another down Cabbage Patch before lunch at Cafe Max, then another hour or so at Scotty’s and Ruined Castle before calling it a day. Map here (PDF).

Riding the Lakeside poma

Choices, choices

The famous terrain park bus. Yep, it’s a railslide kinda thing

Lunch in Cafe Max (which is where we first laid eyes upon each other back in 1999, so it’s dear to our hearts even though it creates holes in our wallets)

Me (well, my feet) readying myself for a crack at Exhibition. That’s the Village Bowl down below

Cat Track somewhere in the village

Snow shape at unknown lodge (might be Nelse)

Wobbly video I shot of me riding Father Fosters near the Ruined Castle Chair
(to come via YouTube) Quality is terrible, so it’s not worth showing here.

Bogong Village was great: VERY cheap compared to staying on mountain yet only 10 minutes drive down the hill.We went for a small walk on Sunday morning before heading home down the dreaded Hume and the TOTAL NIGHTMARE Ring Road. That has got to be the worst road in Australia. We hate it, completely. If only there was an alternative route.

Anyway. Enough about that. Bogong Village was comfortable, quiet, and the food at the pub was good. We’ll stay there again.

Bogong Village scene

A good weekend even though Jayne hurt herself, and now we can put the snowboards away until next season.

There are a few more photos on our Picasa page.

I enjoyed writing that. I’ll try to make a bigger effort with this blog from now on.

I’ve almost finished editing the video of Georgia and Lindsay’s first day ever at the snow (but can’t finish yet as there’s another 15 minutes of footage on a tape somewhere … can’t find it). It’s pretty good so far but it ends abruptly (!).

I wasn’t going to put it on YouTube as it’s 23 minutes long, but if enough of you want to see it then I will. Otherwise I’ll just cut a DVD for Paul and Catherine.

Over to you guys…….do you want it on YouTube or not?

We’ve been too busy this week to post about last Sunday’s snow trip with Georgia and Lindsay but with a spare half hour today I thought I’d at least put the photos up! (The video’s still to be edited).

We left VERY early (4.30am) as the plan was to get there for the 4 hour kids ski school lesson at 9.30 but a minor delay in Mansfield to hire their gear did us in. We passed the ticket box at Mirimbah at about 8.15 but hit a big traffic jam about 5kms from the car park that delayed us for nearly an hour. I’ve never seen anything like it. I even got the girls to get ready in the car while we were stuck in the jam but it made no difference, and we didn’t make it to the ski school until just before 10.

With the 4 hour class missed, our only option was to put them into a First Timer’s lesson for 2 hours on the gentle beginners slope, which we thought would be a bit tame for them given their slalom waterskiing exploits. But actually that turned out to be pretty good, even though by the end of the lesson they were itching for the bigger slopes.

The instructor started by getting them to put one ski on and scoot around, then they swapped legs and scooted some more. When he was satisfied that they’d learnt the basics of balancing, they clicked into the other ski and learnt how to stop, sidestep up the hill and stop themselves from sliding down backwards (although Georgia had a bit of trouble with that one and kept sliding into the safety fence).

Then it was off to the magic carpet for their first run and some proper skiing. The video tells the story a bit better from here, so I’ll try to cut that tonight and publish it for you all to watch.

If Jayne and I had also been skiing, and if we had more time, after the lesson finished we’d have taken them up to Burnt Hut or one of the other green runs. The weather was OK (well, for Buller, which means it was better than the normal pea soup 20m visibility), but we were just watching today so after a brief snowball fight in the village we decided to head back to the car park, make a snowman and get off the mountain before the craziness at 4.30.

Here are the girls just before their lesson.

All in all a great day, but a bit rushed. Next time I think we’ll stay for the weekend. Jayne and I have done our fair share of day trips over the years (although never with kids before) and whilst they’re three times cheaper than a weekend trip, they’re three times as crazy!!

Lots of photos on our Picasa page.

I’m off work sick today and can’t really be bothered writing anything about the last week so I’ll just post some photos instead. I’ll get back to writing soon.

Friday morning at Ocean Grove

Saturday at Buller

If you can hear something creaking, it’s me.

At 3pm on Friday I was organised to get up very early on Saturday morning to drive to Buller with friends for another day trip to the snow. But at 3.05 we noticed on the BOM radar that the cold fronts looked as if they’d miss Buller and we were heading for Hotham and Falls Creek. The call went out … Hotham instead? … and by 3.30 we were going to Hotham.

That 30 minutes was clinical. Hotham is a five hour drive from Melbourne and almost impossible to do in a day so we knew we’d have to book something overnight in Bright or on the mountain. Justin had organised cheap accommodation on the mountain at Tanderra by 3.32. At 3.33 our wives and partners thought we were leaving on Saturday morning but by 3.35 they had given us the go ahead for an overnighter. Who says blokes are unorganised?

In the end we didn’t leave John’s house in Alphington until about 8.30, we almost ran out of petrol in Bright at midnight and heavy snow slowed us down on the drive up the hill from Harrietville but we finally got there, managed to unload, park the cars and get to bed. It was 2.30am but we were there and ready for the next morning.

Ever heard the phrase “keen as mustard”? Four hours after we arrived we were up and in Tanderra’s kitchen eating bacon and eggs. Got to get those first tracks! We were first in line at the lift ticket office and on our first run before most of the lifts were open (which was no good, actually, as we had to wait to get back up the hill for our next run). We had a great morning but I was stuffed soon after lunch - partly because of the lack of sleep but mostly because the snow on the ground was a bit wet and heavy and we’d had a couple of out of bounds hikes in knee deep snow. That takes it out of you. John and I even had to cross a stream at one point.

One of the best parts of a trip to the snow is relaxing in the lodge when the day’s done. Usually you’re tired and pumped at the same time, reliving the best runs, stretching out tired limbs and knocking back a couple of beers before dinner. Bummer that we had to leave to come home. We were packed and gone by 5.30. Knowing that we were only there for the day didn’t make leaving (or driving past the pub) any easier.

I wasn’t driving so I slept most of the way home, but woke up sufficiently to drive home to Geelong from John’s and I arrived home at 12.30am. Between leaving John’s on Friday at 8.30pm and arriving home (28 hours) I was travelling for 13 hours, snowboarding for 7, and sleeping for 4.

Next time I think I’ll stay for a few days.