Dear Grandad

Thanks for a wonderful time and for looking after Pippa (and Fuji).

Hope to see you soon.

Love
Ella and Katy
xxxx

Tidbinbillagaining - Winter 4hr

Grandad did a sterling job of looking after Pippa and Fuji while we were skiing and only had a few days with us on our return before he flew back to Perth. We took up the opportunity to participate together in the Winter 4hr rogaine at Tidbinbilla.

Canberra certainly turned on beautiful weather for the event with gorgeous clear blue skies and the location, well it's truly an awesome spot - a nature reserve nestled on the fringe of Namadgi National Park. As this was the girls first introduction to rogaining our aim was purely to have fun. We packed lots of snacks and lunch to help us enjoy the outing. Arriving at the event with plenty of time to register, plan our route and soak up the sun before the 10am start time.

Nearly 100 teams (roughly 300 people) turned up for the event. We headed off to the first control following a long trail of people so not much navigating was necessary. The hoards thinned out though and we soon found ourselves in our own company making our way to the next control.

The great thing about rogaining is that you can change your mind at any point so as we approached the hill where a high pointer was located near the top, we voted that it was too steep and not worth the struggle.

So across the paddock we headed amongst the mobs of kangaroos and solo emu. Ella was determined to get a good photo so we all had to stop numerous times and try not to disturb the animals. She did really well in capturing the wildlife and I'm sure Ella could have spent the entire 4 hours there if we'd let her!!

But we continued on.....morning tea was to be had once we reached 100pts. We had teams that went up to the high pointer at the top of the steep hill begin to passing us and from all accounts we made the right choice!

Despite the morning tea break, energy and enthusiasm levels were wavering and with a rather large long climb ahead we needed some distraction. Thankfully that came in the form of javelin practice with sticks, shadow photos, plant inspections, rock climbing and exploring as well as general chit-chat and sing-alongs!

And then we were at the top (well technically the saddle). A quick detour off the track for another high pointer control! Although there was a nicely positioned table at this saddle, we chose to venture a little way down the otherside searching for the perfect lunch spot with awesome views. I think we found it too!

Once lunch was consumed, the girls raced off down the hill, full of energy while we struggled to keep up. We were about 1.5km straight-line from HH with just over an hour left in the rogaine. Looking at our options we had three choices - beeline home collecting minimal points;  high pointer/steep hill followed by beeline home or low pointers/less climb/longer distance. The decision made was for the high pointer/steep hill/beeline home.

Coming off the descent Andy tried to save us some height by contouring through the bush and climbing a little up to the track. Turned out the climbing was almost that!! Lots of complaints from the girls followed and it was struggle town up to this control. The breathtaking views at the top were not at all appreciated by the two younger people in our group - they were more interested in the jelly snakes as a reward!!

From this control we then beelined via two more controls back to the HH. The girls discovered and enjoyed scooping up the slime in the puddles on the side of the track. 

We arrived at the finish with 4 minutes to spare. We collected 330points and covered 7.5km straight line, probably more like 10km. Our first family rogaine was deemed a success. 

Final Tour

We had two missions today - 1. was to take as many lifts as possible and 2. was to get all the cousins on the one Village eight chair. When planning our route we were more confident of accomplishing the first rather than the second.

Our morning started well as we were all now fantastic skiers and familiar with the runs needed to get across to Perisher. In trying to keep our group of 12 together and safe we decided to try a buddy system which seemed to work well. After the initial loop and at base of the Pretty Chair Double, it was time for morning tea and hot chocolate at Avalunch Cafe. The kids were eager not to rest but based on previous experiences we know how quickly things can turn pear shaped due to hunger and lack of energy!

Up and down Pretty Valley we skied before skirting around to unchartered territory - up Telemark T-bar which deposited us on the north-western edge of Front Valley. It was much busier here, t-bars going in every direction as well as skiers and boarders and large icy patches so one had to be careful.

We converged at the base of the village eight chairlift....with all seven kids ready to attempt what we thought was the impossible. Inching our way forward, the kids managed to stay together and were all nicely positioned at the gate. It all seemed too easy. The gates opened and only four kids went!!! Oh no.....



At the top we all laughed and resolved ourselves to try again and were successful!

Next on the list of new lifts was Wentworth and Blaxland located very close together before the group split. It was a planned split with the more competent skiers (Andy, Ella, Mia, Susie and Cathy) taking up the challenging t-bar and runs of Lawson and Leichhardt. Meanwhile the rest of the group - Josh, Luca, Maki, Grace, Katy, Quokka and I, continued back down to the Perisher Quad Express. The plan was to meet up at Perisher Mid Station.

We had always tried hard to keep everyone informed of where we were going next or which way to get off the lift at the top. Our group was informed to get off at Mid Station. It was only as we were going up that I realised the group of Maki, Luca and Josh who were two chairs in front of us probably didn't know that Mid Station wasn't at the top of the chairlift, but you had to unload halfway along!! They were too far away for us to yell directions, so after a quick discussion with Quokka, we thought if they didn't get off we would stay on and ski back down to mid station from the very top.

Turns out that when you hit mid station the chairs slow down rapidly and bunch up together, so we shouted for them to get off. Only by the time they understood they'd missed the unload spot but decided to jump off anyway creating a bit of chaos!! Oops!! No-one hurt and everyone giggling :) Into the Perisher Mid Station cafe we headed to warm up and wait for the others to join us.

Over lunch we discussed options. Our intended plan of Happy Valley and Mt Perisher was squashed thanks to icy conditions and time limitations. Instead it was heading home to Guthega via Perisher Quad to top of Back Perisher Mountain, then down to Interceptor, Brumby and Freedom lifts. It was a good call as energy levels were dropping and the kids were keen to go tobogganing and play in the snow back around the lodge.

Probably the most hilarious incident of the trip occurred at the top on the last lift, the Freedom Chair, when Cathy forgot to get off, staying on the chair and tripping the safety line which halts the chairlift! The lifty helped her down while everyone was wondering what had happened!

Stats for the day looked something like this - 6.5 hours of skiing, 19 lifts (17 different ones) and 2500m of vertical climb! A great achievement for everyone and a goal to improve on next season.

Back at the lodge, the kids continued to play - teddy toboggan races and Andy headed out on a cross country adventure conquering the Paralyser.

Clearing Conditions

The much hoped for dump of snow didn't arrive last night and the warm blustery conditions continued today although the wind wasn't nearly as strong so the chairlifts reopened. It's interesting how the conditions impact on the snow. Both today and yesterday the snow was very icy in sections. In these areas the snow had melted slightly, then refroze thanks to the wind chill factor creating a top sheet of ice. One learnt very quickly how to avoid or deal with these areas! Loved the wind formed icicles on the Freedom chairlift!

Another day co-ordinating who was doing what. Our group again was reduced in numbers - we said goodbye to Patrick who returned to Canberra to have a new cast put on his hand and was not returning to the snow, while Cathy, Luca and Mia attended an athletics meet. So we had Josh, Maki, Grace and Katy in lessons while there rest of us - Andy, Susie, Ella and I were free.

We began with a loop of Rollercoaster, up Ridge Quad Chair to Mt Blue Cow before completing a few laps there. Next we were aiming for Happy Valley and possibly exploring new trails on Mt Perisher. Unfortunately our timing was off and the weather closed in just as we were riding the slowest and longest chairlift - Pretty Valley double. Ella was frozen by the time we reached the top so we made a beeline to Mid Perisher Station cafe. While warming up and eating lunch, we realised we didn't have enough time to execute our plan and get back to the kids lessons finishing.

Actually by the time we left Mid Perisher Station we had to beeline for Blue Cow arriving with a few minutes spare to do a single run of Brumby. The kids were pretty cold, tired and hungry from their lesson so into the terminal we went for another break. Our afternoon plan was shaped by the limited enthusiasm and energy levels of the kids with the majority keen to return to play on toboggans and make snow dogs(?!). However at the Freedom chair we bumped into Grandpa and all the plans changed! Katy was the only one to come back to make now castles while the others had a few ski runs with Grandpa.

Weather Closes In

Conditions deteriorated somewhat on Wednesday with a very windy day, resulting in all the chairlifts on wind hold. Despite this lessons were still advertised as being on. The group split - Maki wasn't feeling up to skiing still recovering from his crash, Katy wanted a rest day, Luca began but didn't get very far before turning back to the lodge. That left Josh, Mia, Grace and Ella with Susie, Cathy, Andy and I.

We had a little adventure in getting to Blue Cow with the chairlifts closed. Andy headed down to Perisher for his advanced ski lesson, while the rest of us were attending lessons at the usual location. The lessons were rather brutal thanks to the wind and lack of chairlifts. With the Brumby t-bar inundated with beginners, our lesson decided to ski over to Guthega. It was quite challenging with such a strong headwind. We over took the lesson that Mia and Grace were in and not many of the kids looked happy struggling against the wind without their poles!

Needless to say there wasn't much post lesson skiing gong on! Andy did test out his cross country skis with a quick trip up the Snowy to Illawong Hut.

On the Slopes

Tuesday was a gorgeous day - mostly blue skies and calm conditions perfect for skiing.

Post lesson I met up with Vera, a work colleague and skiing enthusiast! Together we toured around with Vera leading the way showing me new and challenging trails. It was great. Time passed too quickly though and I needed to meet back up with the rest of the family who had finished lessons and lunch.

With Josh exchanging his snowboard for skis, we headed off towards Pleasant Valley.  At the top we tried a whole group photo - almost successful. 

The kids were still obsessed with racing down the runs as fast as possible despite our best attempts to get them to practise their S turns and to ski in control. Unfortunately as predicted on the last run, Maki was the unfortunate one to come unstuck while going fast ending with a large crash. Luckily he was mostly shaken up rather than hurt. Not the best way to finish an otherwise wonderful day of skiing.