Special Visitor

We had a very cute and super well behaved visitor in at work this week. His name is Mango, a 13ish week labradoodle! We are all in love 😍

O, O and more O

Orienteering is certainly hotting up in our house with both girls gaining selection into the ACT Schools O Team. The 2024 ASOC carnival is being held in Armidale, northern NSW as part of Australian Champs week. 

The next three weekends are all double competitions. This weekend is the ACT Long and Middle distance champs. The following one  is the last event of the Saturday series followed by the Bob Moautt tribute event on a new map in Googong. Then we head for a weekend away travelling to Clandulla for the NSW Long and Middle distance champs!!

The whole family made the podium in the ACT middle distance champs - Katy in first for W16 and Ella 3rd in W20; Andy won 50's and I was 3rd. In the ACT long distance champs Katy and Andy again made the podium in 2nd and 3rd respectively while Ella had a longer day out placing 6th.

It was a busy weekend for baking for the cake stall too!

Spring has Sprung!

 And it's good to take time to yourself every so often...

Two Part Day

If you owned or could borrow a red mont jacket then it was your turn to go on a backcountry trip! Andy took the three girls - Ella, Katy and Mira plus Susie and Patrick on the Paralyser Loop. For the young ones this was their first back country tour! 

The group skied off the back of the Pleasant Valley chair and climbed the Paralyser. They then skied down into the beautiful Farm Creek bowl and negotiating the little climb up to Freedom before returning to the lodge! A great tour with everyone really enjoying themselves. Meanwhile others skied on the resort and others hung around in the lodge relaxing and doing jigsaws!

 

The afternoon chatter involved the kids trying to persuade the adults to take them to the fireworks night skiing! The hitch being that it was at Perisher, a 40 min drive. They were successful and two cars with 3 adults and 7 children drove around to Front Valley for this event only held on several nights each week.

Al and I chose to spectate...watching the slight chaos of the kids plus Andy attempting to catch the first lift all together. They somehow managed! At the top though it was a free for all with the group breaking up as they sped down the slope! At the bottom we would occasional catch a glimpse of one or two of them together!

The short firework display began and the slope became bare! It was nice (but very chilly) to watch from the bottom as the fireworks erupted at the top of Front Valley and lit up the night sky! Great to be able to tick that off the bucket list. A memorable day and night for our gang!

  

Round Guthega Dam

The next backcountry trip was planned for today. It was a circumnavigation of the Guthega Dam - first climbing Guthega Trig, dropping down and crossing Guthega River before climbing up to Gills Knob, skiing down to Pounds Creek then crossing at the suspension bridge at Illawong and returning to the lodge. The group this time included - Al, Cath, Max, Tom, Andy and myself. Unfortunately Rob had injured himself yesterday and was confined to his bed.

Leaving the lodge just after 9am, we climbed Guthega trip. After taking skins off we began the scary and at times uncontrolled descent towards the creek. Several crashes later we made it to the bottom crossing the creek on a snow bridge and pausing for morning tea.

With skins back on, the route was clear up to Gills Knob. Halfway up, we crossed paths with the couple whom we’d seen first thing at the dam. They were heading up Mt Tate on a more direct route.The wind picked up significantly the higher we ascended. On top it was roaring. All chatter had stopped! With chins tucked in we skinned along the top finding refuge behind a few boulders. Here we regrouped then as quickly as possible skins were taken off with everyone holding on to their belongings as tightly as possible! With such force I'm sure we'd never seen anything again if it blew away! Our sweaty bodies were cooling quickly and we were keen to get off the top.

 

 

Aiming to ski on the northern slopes of the Gills Knob or East Tate Ridge, we scooted helped nicely along by the strong wind gusts coming from behind and then dropped off the edge out of the wind and into a fantastic bowl! Unbeknownst to us, Emily and a few others were able to see us from the lodge, tracking our progress as dots crossing the slope.

The skiing here was what we'd come for! Long easy traverses as we made our way to Pounds Creek. Carefully crossing again, we stopped on the banks of the river for lunch and a rest. The shapes the water and snow had made around us were intriguing.

We were only a stone's throw away from Illawong but it involved negotiating a small spur. Discussions were had with pros and cons to putting on skins...the 'lets not put skins on' group won and we trudged up the hill initially to gain a little height before contouring around and walking up the final part. Another lovely gentle slope greeted us on the other side taking us straight to the suspension bridge.

From Illawong it is a bit of a slog and Andy was very much resistant to putting on skins. However I was pretty tired by this point with very little energy and strength left and was going nowhere fast so I cracked and stopped to put on my skins. My progress was better after that and I caught the group up again when they stopped to put on their skins for the traverse through the snow gums towards the flying fox. As we all retreated into our own world focussing on getting the final km's done, a yell was heard from the front - two wombats had been spotted playing chasey in the snow!! They didn't hang around too long before disappearing back into their burrow - but the glimpses we saw made us all smile.

The slope down to the flying fox was tackled differently by everyone - some skied, some walked and some did a bit of both! On the other side the hill to the lodge was also negotiated in various ways - straight up, a bit less straight and a bit more contouring!! We all arrived back at the lodge in a staggered fashion and began swapping our tales of adventures with those inside! A great and challenging day out!

 

More Bluebird Days

Another on piste ski day. The kids did their own thing in separate girl and boy groups! We did stumble upon the girls - we were on the pleasant valley lift and they were below skiing through each others legs creating a video that we viewed over dinner!

It was another lovely day on the snow, however with this beautiful sunny weather, the snow is suffering....we need another dump to top up the cover but the forecast doesn't look good!

   

Backcountry Taster

Everyone was content with yesterday’s skiing achievements so it was suggested to do a backcountry taster (for those who had never been on a backcountry trip) and refresher (for those who have) trip! The plan involved catching the Pleasant Valley lift then to ski off towards the black run double trouble, climb the Paralyser and finally ski down the spur ending up at the old flying fox bridge ont Farm Creek.

The group included first timers - Emily and Ian, plus rookies Tom, Al and myself plus the experts Rob and Andy. By 10.30am we were at the base of the climb and putting on our skins! After much fussing we were off, heading upwards. An hour later we arrived at the trig and to a 360 vista of the main range and surrounds in all its glory!

The trip down to the flying fox was not as enjoyable. If we headed too far right we would end up on the super steep slopes or in Farm Creek and too far left meant we’d end up in the dense snow gums emerging on the Illawong track which would result in putting skins on to negotiated the spur next to Farm Creek. It was a fine balance and we found ourselves more initially encountering the dense forest of snow gums which meant good controlled skiing (something I'm not great at) and so we detoured more right into a few section of clear and skiable snow! Getting the height into the flying fox was tricky and the final pinch was difficult (for me). The loop took about 3.5 hrs and was deemed a success. I think Ian has been converted and Emily enjoyed her first foray despite being not well.

 

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