Friday, August 30, 2019

Early Father's Day Present

With no friends to drag out on a back country adventure, Andy signed up for a tour with the newly founded Snowy Mountains Backcountry. It turned out to be a very small group - just one other participant - Steve and guide Amy!

The weather as it had been for the majority of the week was glorious - still and sunny. After a quick briefing and gear check, the group began the tour climbing part way up the Paralyser. From there with skins stashed back in their packs, it was a beautiful ski through the snow gums to Illawong and the suspension bridge.

 


The photos of this bridge in the snow always amaze me. In summer we climb a ladder of at least 10 steps up to the bridge where as in winter, these steps are completely covered and one can almost ski straight on!


Crossing over the Snowy River, the skins were back on the skis ready for the long ascent up Mt Twynam. The trek up to the trig takes a few hours of hard work but one is rewarded with sensational views of the main range.





From the trig, the group skied down into Pound Creek before climbing again up towards Mt Anderson. The icy conditions tested them and proved to be too tough to conquer (this time!) preventing the group from reaching the top. Instead skins came off once again for another enjoyable ski into Pound Creek.

Climbing Mt Tate east ridge, Andy and co then skied down into Guthega Creek before returning back to the lodge. Andy was most pleased with his early Father's Day present...certainly will be one to remember!



Meanwhile the girls and I entertained ourselves on the slopes around Guthega before returning to enjoy our last afternoon play in the snow! They excelled themselves this time constructing a tunnel toboggan run!!










Thursday, August 29, 2019

New Found Freedom on Both Sides of the Fence

The glorious still sunny conditions continued during the week. Ella who had just earned herself and inherited my old phone was enjoying her independence. We are loving the fact that our little girl is growing up...perhaps a little too quickly! However the phone on the slopes was a godsend and significantly changed our skiing holiday for the better. Ella was confident to ski back to the lodge, have a rest or change modes (from skiing to snowboarding or visa versa) while being able to let us know of her movements and for her to see where we were by using the Perisher dashboard app. Even Katy has grown comfortable with retuning to the lodge when she has had enough of skiing. This of course meant that Andy and I could enjoy more time on the snow. I'm convinced that this week I've skied more than I have ever done in all of our other trips put together which meant that I got to concentrate on improving my technique...but still have a long way to go!



Monday, August 26, 2019

Off Piste Skiing

Yep we embraced the challenge of a new adventure! This time it was after a few hours on the slopes and post brunch rest we aimed our skis upwards to the top of Mt P. Andy was dying to lead us off piste on the backcountry route to Guethga.

I admit I was nervous being the weakest skier in the family about whether I'd be out of my depth. Andy reassured me I'd be fine and I was! Negotiating the first and steepest slope off the back of Mt P, I managed to stay upright while zigzagging around the rocks and down the slope. It wasn't always pretty but I got there. The view was stunning and the snow was deep in places.

Making our own tracks into the wide gully of Farm Creek was awesome and beautiful. After crossing the expanse we snaked our way through the wonderful snow gums throughly enjoying the journey and eventually popped out near the Freedom chair. A great adventure and we're all looking forward to doing it again!










Sunday, August 25, 2019

Skiing with Family and Friends

Heading out early, we skied for a few hours before meeting up with Cath and Aoife who had finished their private ski lesson. I find skiing is a little like swimming - it makes kids ravenous so they all tucked into an early lunch at Blue Cow.

Post lunch activities varied. Andy and Susie were keen to explore the back country traverse - from the top of Mt P to the freedom chair. Needless to say the photos from their traverse journey looked nice and not too scary. Perhaps we would all do it one day.



Meanwhile Cath and I took the gang of girls back to ski at Guthega. While Ella ducked into the lodge dumping her skis in favour of her snowboard, the rest of us all had a lovely time with the girls doing different routes or runs with us all converging at the bottom.

 

Ella made her way back out on to the snow, successfully riding the t-bar. With only 1 lesson under her belt she was very eager to test out her skills. She quickly discovered that starting from scratch and being on a snowboard is very tiring! To her credit she kept her cool, managing to link a few turns together on Bloody Mary before succumbing to a lack of energy. By that stage, Andy and Susie had rejoined the group and Cath and Aoife were ready to return to Perisher for the drive back to Canberra. After a few more runs, the girls plus Susie and Mia peeled off back to the lodge. Susie and Mia were also heading back to Canberra. That left Andy and I to ski by ourselves!! What a novelty but unbeknownst to us, it would almost become a normal by the end of the week!!


 


Saturday, August 24, 2019

Snow Time

Following soccer and netball games and the obligatory post game coffee we finished loading up the car and headed off in the sunshine to the mountains. It was a leisurely drive, especially as the chains stayed in the boot, arriving at Guthega in the late afternoon. Fluffy the wombat greeted us - he was enjoying the spring grass next to the Guthega Visitors Centre.

It was a nice change focussing only on getting our bags and food up to the lodge and not worrying about fitting in skiing too! Susie and Mia, who'd driven up early to make the most of the glorious conditions, returned from their day of skiing. The lodge was full and so we spent the evening catching up with some familiar faces and meeting new ones too!

 

Friday, August 23, 2019

Walking Down Book week Memory Lane

In honour of Ella's last book week I trawled though the photo archives....

2012 (Preschool) - Ariel from the Little Mermaid


2013 (Kindy) - Little Red Riding Hood


2013 (Year 1) No Book week

2014 (Year 2) We were away skiing

2015 (Year 3) - Molly from The Wishing Chair


2016 - Artemis from Percy Jackson


2017 (Year 5) - Goldilocks (and her friends went as the three bears)


2018 (Year 6) - Little Red Riding Hood



Thursday, August 22, 2019

Bookweek Parade

Good old book week comes around again.

Katy's character was Goldilocks from the Land of Stories who looks like this...


And for Ella it's her very last one! So she chose to go as Little Red Riding Hood as she did in Kindy!!  However this time she baked a whole lot of goodies for her basket.

 

The final costumes...



Monday, August 19, 2019

New Machine!

In mid July, my trusty mountain bike was stolen while locked up at work. Someone thought it looked nice, so they cut through the lock and disappeared. They did throw both my helmet and cut lock into the bushes for me to find the next day. Very annoying and sad to lose my trusty bike!

After a few weeks of being bike less, making my way to work on the bus and with no word from the police, I took the plunge and decided to look for a replacement. Chatting to various bikie friends helped narrow down my choice. We visited several bike shops and received some good advice but I never got to test ride a bike as none of them seem to stock the higher end 29er mountain bikes that I was chasing. In the end I took the plunge and ordered a Trek Procalibre 9.6. Surprisingly it arrived much quicker than was expected.

As life is unpredictable, I've had my bike for 3 weeks now and only managed to ride it to work once!! Looking forward to spending a bit more time on the bike so I can bond with this new machine!


Sunday, August 18, 2019

A New Experience

Snow is all about! A short 40 min drive from home, Andy and Chuck enjoyed mountain bike riding in the snow in the Bindabellas. As you can see it was quite deep in some parts!