Macca WAS in the Snow!!

[maccatak11]

That is all.

Ill do a more detailed trip report later, but its been good already. Not much snow though, hope it pisses down with snow in the next day or two.

[AceLosesKing]

More importantly.

HOW WAS FLASHIES.

[Shannon]

hey macca i am at buller, where are you? Meant to be snow here at 2am.

[Sinitster]

Macca's in the snow ......

[pundies]

hey macca i am at buller, where are you? Meant to be snow here at 2am.

How did that go? We head up with a big group for a yearly trip this weekend, would be nice to have some fresh snow for our arrival

[Shannon]

hey, buller has had excellent snow the last two nights! More runs will be open soon! Wish i could stay another week!

[maccatak11]

Ok now for an extended trip report.
CLIFFNOTES: Went to Mt Hotham for 6 days. It was good. Pics to follow.
Each year a group of Waikerie High School students along with another group from Renmark make the long trip to Mt Hotham resort in eastern Victoria to hit the snow fields. We had 62 people from Waikerie make the trip (students and staff) and about 40 from Renmark meaning we filled two full buses for the ling trip.

The Bus Trip
We left for the snow last saturday night at about 9pm, and headed toward renmark where we would pick up the other group. The bus trip is always the worst part of the trip – expecially the way there. Everyone is really excited, but nobody can sleep due to the uncomfortable seats.
Its about an hour to Renmark where we pick them up, but i don’t think many were looking forward to the further 13 hours that we would spend on the bus. The company would be fine, only the ‘good kids’ go on this trip as it costs about 1k for them to go, so there is incentive for them to big good little darlings in the lead up to the trip, but the bus is always uncomfortable and irritating.
I got maybe four hours sleep on the way. The bus route basically follows the Murray River into Victoria going through Mildura, Robinvale, Swan Hill, Kerang, Echuca and Shepparton, before we reached Wangaratta at about 8am for brekky at McDonald’s. I know McDonald’s coffee isn’t great but it was bloody welcome after maybe 2 hours sleep during the night.
After about an hour at Wangaratta it was time for us to head ‘up the hill’. We passed through Bright and to a small town called Harrietville. This is where we hire out pants/jackets/helmets etc from. My jacket was teal, black and white, so i was already in a bad mood but not to worry.
The trip up mount hotham is slow and tedious but the scenery is good. The Hotham summitt is only 30km from Harrietville but it takes at least 1.5 hours in a bus to navigate the winding road. It can take longer depending on road conditions and how far up the hill you have to put your snow chains on, but its was pretty clear on Sunday morning so that was a bonus.

Sunday and Monday
We got up the mountain by about lunch time Sunday, and we were dropped off at our lodge. Our group of 62 was split over two different lodges, next to each other, both of which we had exclusively to ourselves which was good. Organising to get all of our gear off the bus and sort rooms out etc is also bloody tedious. We then collected our ski/board gear from Hotham central, which took another couple of hours, as its always busy at the beginning of the week and by then it was after 3 o’clock.
Some of the more experienced snow bunnies went out for a ride in the afternoon, but i chose to stay at the lodge and prepare our cooking group who were going to make us dinner for that night.
Dinner was good, lasagne, and most people crashed pretty early after the little sleep on the bus.
The conditions at Hotham when we got there were hot (well snow hot anyway). Conditions that were sunny and about 5-6 degrees are actually bad when you are in the snow. Most of the paths were bare (i.e. you could see the bitumen/rocks underneath) and everything is very icy/slushy after being melted by the sun. Its also strange that 6 degrees in the snow feels like about 17 normally. You didn’t really need a beanie of gloves, and a jumper was well warm enough.
The next morning, conditions were the same. Each morning we had a lesson which ran from 10.30am to about midday, which would be the first time i hit the snow for the week. This was exciting, but brought a little apprehension also. The previous year was the first time i had ever seen snow, let alone skied, and to say i was terri-bad was an understatement. So i was a little nervous. The beginners snow runs were all reasonably good however (due to snow making obviously) but because little other runs were open outside the snowmaking areas, it meant that everywhere was very crowded.
Before the trip we had to nominate our level of ability, so i labelled beginner, but really hoped that i wouldn’t have to go through all the “this is how you put a ski on” crap. The positive thing was that when our lesson started i found out that there were heaps of people in the same boat as me. Have done it before, and kinda know what to do, but need lots of practice/feedback. This suited me perfectly.
There are only two Green (easy runs) on Mt Hotham, and we spent our first lesson at the base of a run called “the Summit” practising our turns and control which was good. Both our instructors (there were two for a group of about 18) were excellent.
After lunch it was time to hit the slopes. I spent the rest of the day with a group of students/staff at another green run called “The Big D”. This was excellent as i was able to get my confidence back and practice the skills i had learnt the previous year. Ironically, the place where i used to stack in the most was getting on and off the ski lifts. So to do this 5 times successfully in a row was a big achievement for me. Headed back to the lodge about 5 to start dinner.
Myself and another teacher (who organised most of the trip) were in charge of one of the lodges that had about 30 year 11 and 12 students, along with a few ex-students aged 18-21 who are also welcome on our trip. The group was divided into 6 groups, who each had a day in which they were responsible for cooking for the group and cleaning the kitchen etc afterwards.

Tuesday
On Tuesday the rain came. Because the temperatures were still comparatively warm (1-4 degrees) the cold front that came though brought nothing but rain and sleet instead of snow. Rain has the double effect of washing any decent snow off the hill, making the absence of snow worse. We has 43mm of rain Tuesday, which was really terrible for snow conditions. A lot of people chose to stay in our lodge for the afternoon after our lessons, partly because the few lifts that were open were very crowded, and also because icy conditions are not ideal for relative beginners like myself. Most of the broken arms/wrists that occur in the snow are when conditions are icy.

Wednesday
Finally it started snowing. The well needed dump of snow had arrived (ended up being over 20cm in the end). Conditions had cooled down overnight so that the rain/sleet we experienced had now obviously turned to snow. And there is nothing like fresh powder. It makes skiing easier and safer, and also means that more blue/black runs will be open soon. Although i was still mostly on the beginner slopes, it meant that they were much less crowded. We skied the ‘Big D’ in the morning before our lesson, which was great. The Big D is separated into two runs which go either side of a bank of trees. The right hand side is called “easy street” for obvious reasons as it is flatter and wider than the left hand side, which starts off quite steep.
We took the bus back up to Hotham Central (which is our meeting place for our lessons), only for us to get back on the bus and head back to the Big D (which was a little annoying but ok). Mt Hotham has a network of free busses that travel up and down the main road, connecting people to their lodges, Hotham Central (the main office / shopping / eatery area) and to the different ski runs.
Our lesson today was also good. We practised on the steeper left hand side of the big D, and started learning parallel turns (where your ski’s are together) as opposed to snow plough turns (where you turn with your ski’s in a ‘pizza’ shape).
Spent the afternoon skiing the Big D and gaining more confidence with turning at more speed.

Thursday
Thursday was a graduation day of sorts. In our lesson this morning we went on a few harder (blue runs), namely “The Basin” and “Sun Run”. Here was where i had a few decent stacks, but gained a fair bit of confidence from the fact that i eventually went down both without stacking it. This was actually quite a big moment for me. When i first went to the snow i was pretty much packing my daks. I was never much good at ‘balance’ sports like skateboarding or wake boarding, so to be officially be called intermediate was really cool. We continued to practice our parallel turns and were learning ‘hockey stops’ where you come to a stop by throwing yourself sideways much like a skater would in ice hockey.
The snow the previous day and night had made the whole resort much prettier, and each run much better to ski. A few new runs were open too including the top of “The Summit” which was a green run that i spent the afternoon navigating. Today was the best day i have had in my two years at the snow. I was finally getting half decent so i didn’t have to worry about a stack being moments away, which meant i could really enjoy my surroundings.
Another excellent thing was a mate of mine “Trippa” brought his 5 year old son Cooper to the snow for the first time. All of the little tackers spend the morning in “Milo Mites” learning the basics from instructors and a big fluffy dragon named Harry. Cooper had spent the first few days here, but by Thursday afternoon was going down runs entirely by himself. It was good to watch, but also annoying at how quickly he had picked it up.
Thursday night was when i guess the most disappointing moment of the trip occurred. We had just got groups from both lodges (which were about 30m apart) together for a bit of a quiz and a talk, and after this had finished a snowball fight broke out between the groups at about 10pm in the area between our lodges (all harmless fun). At the time, the 5 staff that went were all upstairs in one of the lodges have a quiet scotch or two, so we didn’t realise that a group of Uni students (we assume because they were drunk) had begun harassing out students.
By the time one of our students had alerted us to this fact, a few of the female students had been harassed, and one of the smaller year 10 students held down in the snow and half buried. It got pretty narky when a few of our year 12 students started to be smart arses and the odd punch was thrown. By the time myself and Trippa has got downstairs it was a little out of hand with the group of about 10 uni students acting like complete idiots, trying to kick the door down of the other lodge, and hitting the windows with empty bread crates that were outside the door.
We hurried everyone inside before calling the cops, but by this time one of the heros had thrown a huge chunk of ice through one of the bedroom windows in our lodge. It put a bit of a dampener on the trip having some of our students talked to by the cops and the manager of our lodge running around playing detective.

Friday
To make things worse i woke up feeling as crook as a dog on Friday morning. I had a huge headache, and was coughing my guts up all morning. Our group was going to meet at the top of “The Summit” for a group photo at 10am, and i didn’t want to miss that, so i struggled to put my gear on and headed there for the photo. Conditions were awesome. It had cleared to give a brilliant view of the surrounding alpine region – perfect for the photo. After this though myself and another teacher decided return out gear and head to a cafe for a coffee. After something to eat and a couple of nurofen i was feeling heaps better, which was good considering we had a long bus trip ahead of us.
After lunch and a packup we boarded the bus at about 5pm for our trip home. We stopped for dinner at “The Alpine Hotel” at a place called Bright near the base of the mountain. This pub was awesome. They had a Sri Lankan chef which meant the specialised in different curries, but they also made awesome pizza’s and steaks. I chose the Sri Lankan Goat Curry for the second year running which was seriously some of the best pub food i had ever tasted. A couple of James Squire Honey Porters (which they had on tap) would hopefully help me fall asleep as we started the bus trip home.
I don’t remember much of the bus trip home, which was good as it meant i slept a fair bit of the way. We ended up getting back to Waikerie about 7am, and it was straight home to bed.
Overall it was a bloody fantastic trip. Only the second time i had been to the snow, but i will be back for sure. Im thinking of even organising a trip outside of school for a group to either Hotham or Falls creek. Pics will follow, thanks for reading if you got through all of this. No jokes i know, im still tired from the trip, but thanks for reading anyway.

[Brett Kay]

Nice Trip Report, Shoulda whooped those uni students butts. Did you know which uni they are from?

[maccatak11]

Monash we think. Pretty sure thw cops caught up with them for a chat later in the week. Hotham is a pretty small place, and it aint hard to work out where a group of 15 blokes are staying. Apparently they only came past our way after being kicked out of one of the three pubs a few minutes before.

[Brett Kay]

Bloody BSOR's. Had a feeling it could have been Monash.