Category Archives: Skiing

September 12 of 12 – Skiing Falls Creek …

September 12, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

Well there was no shortage of photos today – in fact it was hard to choose 12 from the 54 I took.

We are on Day 1 of our annual snow trip to Falls Creek.

Even though there isn’t a lot of snow coverage, there is enough to make it enjoyable and to make the muscles and joints tired and sore.

A couple of the runs were icy in the morning but softened a little mid afternoon before re-freezing late in the afternoon.

Bradley reckons he has what it takes to beat me in a race but a couple of races down Wombats Ramble proved otherwise 🙂

Even with only a few runs running, still managed 53 kms on the GPS track which is about normal.

You can check out all the photos at In the Snow 2011 – Day 1 on Facebook.

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Hurray – it is snowing …

September 11, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

Today, it was an earlier start to the day but only by an hour. We hit the road by 9:30 am.

It was a leisurely drive following the Murray Valley Highway grabbing a few geocaches and munzees along the way.

When the kids were little, we took a photo of them in the mouth of the “Big Murray Cod” at Swan Hill, so we relived it today.

It was fitting today to find a geocache involving a Firefighter Memorial – Wooden Captains.

Stopped for lunch at Echuca with almost a traditional stop at the Beechworth Bakery.

Around Benalla we were encountering heavy rain and by the time we got to Myrtleford it became hail and as we hit Falls Creek it started snowing 🙂

We checked into our home at Schuss Lodge, grabbed our skis from Viking Ski Hire and settled in for the night, taking in the various 9/11 programs.

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Geocaching, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Lets go to the snow …

September 10, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

You would think with the neighbours pumping concrete from 7:30 am would be enough to get us out of bed. Wrong …. it was snoozy time.

It wasn’t until 9:40 am that the house woke up – lucky we packed the car last night 🙂

Molly was certainly ready – she was in the car and wondering where everyone else was. We finally got going at 10:30 am.

A quick trip up the freeway to Murray Bridge and drop off Molly to Grandma – dogs aren’t all that welcome in the snow.

Next stop was just over the border in Victoria – 3 new geocaches had been published earlier in the week and had not been found yet.

We found all three which were all clever hides and they were all “First to Finds” 🙂

Old School Rock

Old School in Carina

4WD Hero

The tank at 4WD Hero looked like it was only just up there.

No more caches from now – just driving, finally arriving at Swan Hill around 5:00 pm. Our digs for the night was the Hill Top Resort (we stay here every year). It is up for sale if any one wants a tree change ….

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Skiing, USA 2011

Hitting the slopes at Mt Rose …

April 3, 2011 Scott

What a difference from yesterday. The wind had gone, the sun was out, Mt Rose was open and the slopes looked great.

Met up with Chief Brown. He had already had an incident with a small child going headlong into a tree. I followed one of the ambulances up to the Resort.

After that was sorted, he organised a ticket for me and off I went to hit the slopes. His parting words were, “be careful out there – it is icy”.

It was only 10 minutes and I felt just how icy it was.

Coming off the first chair, I headed straight down to the second chair and as I headed over an edge, my right ski came off (still dont know how) and down I went, hard onto my right knee – Owwwww.

Scrambled up and continued, afterall, it was strapped up already so the strapping should hold it in place.

I continued skiing until 1:00 pm but then it hurt too much when on the chair lifts with bending the knee to 90 degrees and the extra weight of the boot and ski.

Oh well, it was great skiing while it lasted.

Went back to the hotel to return the skis, put the leg up for a bit before returning to the Resort for a beer with the Ski Patrol guys and give Mike a MFS cap and shirt.

As the sun set, it was time to pack up my room as I am heading out to LA tomorrow for a series of meetings with various Fire Departments.

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Skiing, USA 2011

Windy Day at Lake Tahoe …

April 2, 2011 Scott

I was looking forward to this day. A chance to ski the incredible snow that had fallen at Mt Rose and the Tahoe basin.

It was ominous though as the wind was howling as I drove up the mountain. It was soon realised when I arrived at Mt Rose to be told that the resort was closed with 80 mph winds at the Summit.

A phone call to Chief Brown and he suggested that Diamond Peak should be open as it is sheltered from most weather.

It seemed that everyone else had the same idea and was heading that way. The crowd was building quickly but I still managed a park close to the Lodge. Even still a ride on the tram from the car to the Lodge was in order – after all you have to experience everything.

Even though the Ski Resort was relatively sheltered there were still some strong winds at the Summit.

With all the people that had descended on the mountain, the best runs were the black diamond runs, and I played on these until……

With the winds, there was some weather heading across Lake Tahoe. From the chair lift you could see it coming. It hit the Resort at around 2:00 pm with wind and rain.

A good time to call it quits and explore Incline Village. I visted the Information Centre (there is a geocache there) and stopped in at the Fire Station, before heading back to Reno. Wasnt a bad day all round.

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

It is Winter again at Falls Creek …

September 16, 2010 Scott 1 Comment

With 4cm of snow falling overnight, we had a brief glimpse of sun at breakfast time but then winter hit again and stayed all day.

The slopes were perfect with a groomed base and 2-4 cm of “Aussie Powder” on top and it stayed like this all day as the temperature never went over zero degrees all day.

The only problem was that with 40 kph winds and alternating snow and ice, it confined you to the sheltered runs only to be turned into snowmen when you went up on the lifts.

We persisted until lunchtime then went back to the lodge for a break, heading back up the mountain after an hour to find the snow still coming down but the wind abating a little.

Due to the cold temperatures the runs remained good all day.

After skiing the Summit in the morning, we came across Samara Tanton doing her daily Falls Creek update, so we got our 15 seconds of fame in the background.

Falls Creek Daily YouTube Update

Rachael had Race Day in her Junior Workshop class and took out the fastest girl on the Mountain today. 🙂

After we finished for the day, I went down to the car to check that it would start and it was all OK.

Our last day of skiing is tomorrow then it is the trek home overnight.

Even with some time off at lunch time, still managed to do 52 km.

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

Another day of Paradise in Falls Creek …

September 15, 2010 Scott 1 Comment

We woke up to another day of sunshine after the rain at the end of the day yesterday. Once again the groomers had done their job giving us some good runs to tackle and we expanded our skiing to include the Summit today as well.

As is usual with Spring skiing, the snow had softened by around 11:00 am but provided you kept the skis pointed downhill, it was still good.

Bradley and Rachael are becoming some good skiers now with Jenny and myself maintaining our skills.

I took some video of Jenny and the kids so after some editing will get it up.

The clouds rolled in in the early afternoon with around 3:00 pm down came the snow. At least it wasn’t rain like yesterday. As I write this the snow is still falling – heavy at times.

Todays tally from the GPS was 56 km – similar to yesterday.

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

This is what Spring Skiing is all about at Falls Creek …

September 14, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

What a contrast of days to yesterday today was. We awoke to glorious sunshine so it was a quick dash up the mountain to some spectacular skiing on groomed runs. Even the non groomed runs were good once they softened.

On top of that there was nobody on the mountain (or it seemed that way). Managed to get about an hour and a half on Ruined Castle and Scotts before the ski schools descended.

The conditions continued until 3:00 pm but Bradley and Jenny were feeling tired from all the skiing so they went back to the Ski Lodge around 1:30.

They made it back up at 3:30 in time to grab Rachael from Junior Workshop. We managed to get a few more runs in before the black clouds and the rain came over. This is supposed to turn into snow overnight.

Before we called it a day, Bradley and I had a head to head race on Nastar Race Course. The winner was me but only just but I stil have it but not sure for how long.

Bradley redeemed himself with a race back to the Lodge. He got back 30 metres in front of me and he took the direct route.

Lets hope tomorrow is as good.

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

Three seasons on the slopes at Falls Creek ….

September 13, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

After hearing some heavy rain on the roof during the night, we were a little unsure of what we would find at the top of the mountain.

Across the road to get our skis and lift tickets from Viking Ski Hire then it was time to catch the chair lift to the top. The closer we got the windier and foggier it got but it wasn’t wet.

After dropping Rachael at the Junior Workshop, we went over the back of the mountain to Ruined Castle and found perfect snow, sheltered, some sunshine and only a few skiers. We enjoyed these conditions for about an hour then the ski schools descended and the conditions changed.

We then started moving across the mountain ending up for lunch at Cloud 9. We grabbed Rachael out of Ski School for 1/2 an hour of skiing and we continued with Bradley until down came the rain and sleet. No fun at all.

I headed back to Schuss Lodge to dry off and hot coffee while Bradley and Jenny endured the winter conditions. After an hour the rain and fog started to lift and the temperature dropped.

I went back up the mountain to find some good skiing conditions and continued until the lifts closed at 4:30, while Jenny, Bradley & Rachael called it a day at 3:30 having endured the rain.

We had the seasons of autumn, winter and spring today, maybe tomorrow we will have summer as well with a bit more sunshine.

From the GPS, managed around 50km on the snow today.

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12 of 12, Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

September 12 of 12 – off to the snow ….

September 12, 2010 Scott Leave a comment

Our day started off in Swan Hill after spending the night at Hill Top Resort on the annual pilgrimage to Falls Creek. First stop was Lake Boga to grab a cache at the Cannie Ridge Pump. This is the first time that we have seen Lake Boga with water in it for a long time. I would say with the floodings from last weekend and heavy rain would have something to do with it.

After grabbing a few of the Geocaching Australia Burke and Wills geocaches, it was time for stop at Echuca. We joined the masses down at Paddlesteamer Park or what is left of it to watch the River Murray flow past. Most of the park is now under water and the Paddlesteamers are firmly tethered to the bank. They are not in operation at the moment as the current is too strong. It would be a quick trip downstream and you probably wouldn’t get back again.

After lunch at Beechworth Bakery and a few caches in Echuca including the difficult Port of Call, we kept following the Murray Valley Highway to Shepparton. There is still a lot of water around after last weeks floods from the Goulburn River and a lot of debris against fences but no roads cut.

The trip continued through Benalla to the Hume Freeway then off onto the Snow Road through Millawa, Myrtleford, Happy Valley to Mt Beauty. We couldn’t see any snow on the way up but there was a lot of cloud covering the mountains.

We even had 2 sets of traffic lights on the drive up but that was due to the roadworks to fix up the road after last weeks landslides. We finally saw some snow about 3kms from the Resort Entry 🙂

It was then time to empty the car, fill up the Oversnow and settler in to our home for the next week – Schuss Ski Lodge.