Our ski week finished not exactly how we expected....

Ella and Andy skied off on the Doorack Lodge Challenge. To complete the challenge one starts and finishes at the lodge but must ride the Ridge chair, Eyre T-bar and Scott J bar (representing the three furthest points of the resort) in any order. The time taken is then recorded.

Meanwhile the rest of the gang would head over to Blue Cow, to drop off Josh at his final snow boarding lesson and continue on for another adventure. Conditions were variable with the sun constantly disappearing and reappearing from behind clouds. Ahead of schedule, we decided on  a quick run down Side saddle. Coming off the lift, the sun disappeared making the snow look very flat and the terrain difficult to seen. Katy, Mia and Patrick were out in front and didn't see Josh fall. He was clutching his arm and looked in lots of pain when I got to him. Susie meanwhile was having a little difficulty descending in these conditions with motion sickness.

A nice snowboard instructor came to our aid, asked Josh a few questions, established that he could move his wrist and arm. Josh bravely put his board back on and slowly made his way to the bottom with Susie. I skied ahead informed Patrick of the situation and took the girls who were a bit cold from patiently waiting, for a quick ski.

As arranged earlier we met up at the coffee shop a short time later. However it was only Patrick who was there. It was suggested that Josh have his arm checked out at the ski patrol medical room before continuing to his lesson. A quick assessment and the ski patrol sent Susie and Josh on the ski tube down to Perisher for a 'just in case' X-ray. We enjoyed relaxing in the warmth awaiting some news.

Eventually all energised again, the girls decided they were keen to return to the lodge to play in the snow. With no news we skied back to Guthega. On our arrival we heard that Josh had a buckle fracture of his radius and was getting a temporary back slab!!

A very pleased Ella and Andy arrived having finished the Doorack Challenge in a time of 3h19mins having skied 28kms. After some food, Ella was happy to join Katy and Mia playing in the snow. Josh, with his arm mobilised and in a sling, was making his way back to Guthega via the ski tube and a ride on a skidoo! Andy and I donned our gear aiming to met up with Susie for a few adults only runs around the Summit Chair.

Turns out that Cath and Aoife were coming up to Perisher for the Ski-O weekend. After much indecision thanks to the weather and Josh's accident, we decided to try to meet up texting updates on our progress and location. Susie was keen to get back so left the us to it. Unfortunately my phone died of coldness while we were on Summit and although we still has Andy's phone, Cath had gone strangely quiet on the other end!

Giving up hope, we thought a coffee was in order before heading back to Guthega and so into Cowpuccino we went. While drinking our hot drinks, we watched the comings and goings of outside and suddenly spotted someone looking suspiciously like Aoife! Turns out Cath's phone had died too! They had spent some time at Summit watching skiers come down hoping to find us without any luck!

With the afternoon quickly disappearing, we only had a small ski with them before we both needed to return to our respective accommodation. We definitely need to work out a better plan next year!

And so Andy and I skied fast after realising that the Freedom chair was about to close. Thankfully we just snuck on before enjoying our last run off Guthega Peak returning to the lodge ending our ski holiday for 2017.