Category Archives: Holidays

Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Big Day of Skiing …

September 18, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

As has been the case the last two days, we awoke to rain on the roof. Oh no, not another day of reduced skiing at Falls Creek.

Turned on the iPad to check the radar and it looked that the rain was just about to pass us with another couple of hours at least before the first cold front made it to us.

A quick bite of breakfast and we got up to the top of the mountain as the rain stopped at 10:30 am.

We skied until 1:00 pm mainly on the northern slopes of Main Street and Highway 83.

After some lunch, (the prices certainly haven’t got any cheaper at Cloud 9) Rachael grabbed the snowboard and headed off for a lesson. The rest of us made our way across to Ruined Castle and Scott’s for the afternoon.

The first cold front hit with about 6 spots of rain and a couple of flakes of snow, so we continued skiing.

Around 3:00 pm, the wind started picking up – a precursor of the second and stronger of the cold fronts.

Rachael had finished here lesson at 3:30 pm, so we did a few more runs with her but the rain was starting followed by sleet. It was time to head back to the Lodge.

It was lucky that we headed down when we did as they shut the lifts down 15 minutes later due to the risk of lightning.

The rain came in strong as we just got into the Lodge (that was lucky), followed by some heavy snow but this was only short-lived, lasting about 30 minutes.

The rest of the evening has been a mixture of rain, sleet, hail and snow so it will be interesting what the slopes are like in the morning and if we will get a full day. 🙂

As well as the GPS I carry in the pocket, I tried an App on the iPhone today called Alpine Replay which seemed promising except that the battery on the phone ran flat 3/4 through the day. Tomorrow I will shut everything down on the phone apart from the App and see if I can get some more time out of it.

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Stop raining already …

September 17, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

We awoke again this morning to rain. In fact it had been raining all night.

It is one thing to ski in the cold and even when it is snowing but skiing in the rain is no fun as once you become saturated through you need to call it a day or you may end up with hypothermia and that is not good. 🙁

So for another morning we waited it out in Schuss Lodge.

Finally around lunchtime, the rain seemed to have abated but was still overcast. A quick bite of lunch and it was up the mountain.

For most of the afternoon, we were rain free and considering that the slopes were not groomed overnight, the snow wasn’t too bad and we managed to venture to all the 11 runs that were operating today at Falls Creek.

We skied again until closing of the lifts and managed a not too bad 33 km for the afternoon.

The weather is a little hard to predict for tomorrow as we have a low over the top of us with the last 2 days moisture circling the resort and there is a couple of cold fronts over the top of Adelaide heading this way which should make it by morning. Maybe we will get some snow. 🙂

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

Wet, wet, wet ….

September 16, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

After a couple of perfect traveling days to get to Falls Creek and clear skies even last night as we grabbed our skies and settled into Schuss Ski Lodge, it all went downhill around 5am this morning with the sound of heavy rain on the roof.

The thunderstorms that had hit Adelaide only 10 hours earlier had made it to the snow and there looked like little respite for a while.

Checking out the radar, it wont be at least til after lunch that we will get out on the slopes and what damage has the rain made.

I have just had a look at the mountain cams and there is about 10 people that are brave (mad) enough to be out there doing it and most of them seem to be shredders (typical). 🙂

At around 2pm, the rain started subsiding so we decided at least to take our skis up to a locker at the top of the mountain and if the conditions were OK then do some skiing.

There was a light drizzle up there and visibility wasn’t too bad so we skied until the lifts shut down. The snow was very good and it probably had something to do with the lack of people on the mountain – obviously fair weather skiers. 🙂

Nevertheless we did get very wet and cold by the time we finished but a hot shower and beverage around the fire made it all worth while. Even though we were only out for 2.5 hours, the mileage was an OK 23 km.

The rain has persisted into the night and looking at the radar there is some good stuff on the way including lightning. Hopefully there is some snow left in the morning.

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12 of 12, 4WDing, Geocaching, Holidays, Out and About

June 12 of 12 …

June 12, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

Once again, another month and on the road again. This time in the Northern Territory. We had a big drive today from Alice Springs through to Mataranka (1075 km).

Camp was broken on daybreak and after a brief stop in Alice Springs getting fuel and supplies. we headed north on the Stuart Highway.

We made a few stops for geocaches but not for me as I had found them all last year. I was travelling with a mate that had never been to the Northern Territory and I had him on rations with some cache finds each hour to break up the drive. It was 800 km between cache finds for me. 🙁

Some of the stops included the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, Native Gap, Wycliffe Well (the UFO Capital of Australia), Tennant Creek then onto Mataranka.

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop at Devils Marbles, but you always need to leave something for next time. 🙂

A few more stops at some memorials and we arrived at Mataranka just on sunset and it was spectacular with the moon and stars appearing as the sun set.

A quick meal at the homestead and then it was into the Thermal Pool for a well deserved 1.5 hour soak. A great finish to the 12th of June.

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Holidays, USA 2013

San Antonio … 21 years on

April 8, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

It has been a 21 year absence but I have made it back to San Antonio. With an overnight stay here before moving onto Austin, there wasn’t a great deal of time to have a look around.

I did have a chance to revisit the Alamo (I always remember it being bigger) and the Riverwalk, with of course a boat ride on the River.

After a wander around the Riverwalk and Downtown it was then off to Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum – undoubtedly the premier attraction in San Antonio. 😉

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4WDing, Geocaching, Holidays, Out and About

Down the Coorong …

January 18, 2013 Scott Leave a comment

With Jenny and Rachael on a cruise in the Pacific somewhere, I decided that a road trip was in order and the South East was the spot.

Met up with some fellow Geocachers at Tailem Bend and we headed off to tackle some caches around the Meningie area before hitting the Coorong.

We crossed the Coorong at Tea Tree Crossing which had low water at this time of year. There were a couple of caches near the campsite to be found and going to one, there might have been a momentary loss of traction in the mud 😉 but it was soon remedied by letting down the tyres. 🙂

It was time to head over the dunes and along the beach to a new Earthcache (Wild Dog Island) that we had hoped to find as a “First to Find” but having been unfound for almost 12 months, it was found 2 days ago. 🙁

We were a little behind time but it didn’t stop us finding geocaches further south along the Coorong at 32 Mile Crossing then at Kingston SE, Cape Jaffa, Robe (with a stop for some fish and chips) and finally Millicent before finally getting to Mt Gambier.

Not bad – a journey that should take 4 hours took us 15 hours. 🙂

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

Another good day in the snow …

September 13, 2012 Scott Leave a comment

With overcast conditions and low temperatures this morning including a little fog, it looked like it may not have been a good day on the slopes at Falls Creek. It was good that everyone else was thinking that as there were hardly anyone on the slopes.

Started on the Summit on some nice groomed runs where I managed to make my own tracks up until 10:30 am when the ski schools descended. Made our way back over the mountain but couldn’t quite find runs that would top the ones from this morning.

Around lunchtime the clouds parted and we had blue skies which was unexpected. Then the temperature dropped and the snow crusted up followed by snowfalls.

After doing 55 kms for the day it was time to call it quits today and head back to the Schuss Lodge.

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12 of 12, Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

September 12 of 12 in the snow …

September 12, 2012 Scott Leave a comment

We were never going to get another day like yesterday. Even though the skies were clear and it was sort of warm (8C), there was a wind that dropped the wind chill down to -5C. Also as the temperature didn’t drop below zero last night, the slopes didn’t start the day as well as previous days.

But you make do with what you have and we headed out a little earlier than other days to enjoy another spring day of skiing at Falls Creek. The plan was to start over on the Summit and move across the mountain finishing up at Main Street. This seemed to work yesterday well.

The plan changed slightly once we got to the top of the mountain. Rachael needed some video for a school project so a few runs down Main Street before heading to the Summit.

We made it over to the Summit earlier than yesterday but the conditions weren’t the same as they never groomed the mountain so it was very similar to what was left yesterday afternoon. A couple of runs here then we headed over to Ruined Castle and Scotts. This seemed to be the pick today.

Eventually the wind won and I headed back to the Schuss Lodge while Rachael went for her second snowboard lesson while Jenny pottered around with a Blackwood Mum who was on the mountain as well.

Tomorrow looks like it may have some fresh snow falling – I guess the sunny days couldn’t last forever but it has been a great week so far. That’s it for the September 12 of 12 …. with a bonus video 🙂

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

2nd Day in the snow …

September 11, 2012 Scott Leave a comment

For our 2nd day in the snow, again it was a typical spring day with warmish weather (11C), clear skies and no wind.

We headed over to the Summit for the morning before spending the afternoon over at Scotts and Ruined Castle.

The snow held up a lot better today than yesterday and you could find somewhere to ski with reasonable snow up to around 3:00. A big day distance wise with 66kms on runs and lifts. 🙂

Rachael decided to try out snow boarding and it looks like that some more lessons are required.

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

Back in the snow …

September 10, 2012 Scott Leave a comment

Well after a 2 day drive, we have made it back to the snow at Falls Creek – and there is plenty of it. It has been said that it is the best in 8 years and I would have to concur it is pretty good for this late in the season. There is plenty of snow on the sides of the road coming up and the roads in the village are still covered. It has been quite a while that we haven’t been able to drive to our accommodation.

It is probably lucky that the roads are covered as the Lift company replaced all the Oversnow vehicles so they needed to recoup their outlay. I just wasn’t expecting to have to allow them to recoup their cost in the first year. They charged me for Rachael as an adult as they thought she looked older than 15. Not happy Jan 🙁

We arrived at our accommodation to find a lot of familiar faces staying in the lodge. We are almost becoming part of the furniture at Schuss Lodge. It has a great atmosphere and is a friendly lodge. One day we may even become members. 🙂

Today was our first day on the slopes and there was certainly a lot of snow. There were a lot of brown patches but it was not the dirt coming through but dust that blew over last week with the storms.

No matter what slope you chose the conditions were good but unfortunately the weather was warm (12C) so the snow became slushy around 1:30. Still managed to get in around 42 km of runs and lifts for the day so wasn’t too bad.

Another good day is in store for tomorrow.