A Day at Selwyn

About three weeks ago we decided to bunk off school and work to head for a day trip to Selwyn snowfields. An early start (5am!) meant we were at Cooma collecting our downhill skis and chains at 7am. Despite being served straight away, we left Cooma 40mins later wondering if we'd make the 9am lessons.

Turns out we arrived in the carpark just before 9am but not long enough to pay for lessons and get everyone organised in their gear. So the back up plan came into action - a one hour private lesson for the girls and I enrolled in the 9.30am two hour session for adult beginners! Andy is already a competent skiing so he didn't need any lessons.

Off I went on the beginner slopes learning to snowplough and turn while keeping in control! Meanwhile with an hour to kill before their class, Andy decided to teach the girls a little. Unfortunately it was quite painful watching them make their way down the slope from my advantage point in the chairlift. First Ella would try and fall. Andy would go help her only to turn around to see Katy stuck! He trudge up the hill again to help Katy while Ella was getting more and more frustrated with falling over!

Meanwhile I was zigzagging down the hill managing not to fall over and improving with each lap. I met up with them at the bottom of the chairlift wondering how Andy was going to get both girls up? I definitely wasn't stable enough to provide the help they needed and it was only a two seat chairlift. Thankfully my instructor jumped on with Ella and guided her off at the top while Andy and Katy followed in the next chair.

By this stage about 40mins had past. Andy decided not to tackle another downhill run but rather head inside and boost the girls with some food and drink before their lesson. The girls instructor Cassie was lovely. However we'd misplaced one of the lesson tickets, so Andy had to trek back to the car luckily only about 300m away to find it. By the time he got back Katy had fallen apart while Ella had learnt how to snowplough! He took Katy to the side, calmed her down and they watched Ella and Cassie. On each lap Cassie would ski by to ask if Katy was ready to join in. Took 2 laps before Katy jumped up ready to tackle the hill. It turned out to be great timing as Ella was now pretty competent at snowploughing and catching the chairlift so the instructor was able to focus on teaching Katy. Andy then seeing both girls were fine, headed off by himself to explore some of the harder runs Selwyn had to offer.

It was amazing to watch them master their techniques in such a short span of time. Ella preferred to point her skis downhill and go as fast as she could while Katy was much more tentative and liked to follow. All too soon the lessons came to an end just in time for lunch!

We filled our tummies with hot food and drinks while trying to restore some of our energy. Katy looked tired and Ella masked her tiredness with enthusiasm! Soon we were off to explore the slopes as a family!!

Straight down our beginner slope, we bypassed the New Chum chairlift and aimed for the Township Triple chair which had a challenging steep slope to it. Ella and I managed somehow to stay upright and stop at the bottom. Katy struggled somewhat until Andy put her between his legs and they skied down together.

Being a three chair lift, it was decided that Andy would go with the 2 girls while I was solo behind. Unfortunately this chairlift moved a little faster than the previous one and a small hesitation by Katy meant she was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. The chair mowed her down much to her horror! Luckily the lifty was on the ball and halted the chairlift before rescuing Katy who was in a flood of tears. With her safety on the seat next to Andy, the chairlift started again amidst Katy's sobs. By the time we reached the top Katy had regained her composure and was ready to ski down.

We took the green Home run together a gentle fairly long trail back to our beginner slope where we did a few quick laps on the New Chum chairlift once again. Next we decided to tackle the wombat t-bar and managed to all stay on until the top. Back down the green home run this time stopping to look at the snowmen.

Andy and Ella wanted to ski more, while Katy (who could hardly stay on her feet due to exhaustion) and I headed over to the tobogganing park. We had fun zooming and bumping down the slope with snow spraying into our faces and ramming into the snow wall at the bottom. The walk back up the hill was tiring so eventually we retreated next to the snow gums to build a snowman….in particular Olaf….

We were soon joined by Ella while Andy took advantage to ski more on his own. It wasn't long before both girls were rocketing down on the toboggan together laughing as they went by. Their enthusiasm however was waining to exhaustion and it became obvious that it was time to head home thankfully just as Andy made an appearance.

No sooner were we changed and making our way back to Canberra chatting about the fun we'd had at the snow and planning when we'd be back.