Skiing in a winter wonderland
After the long trip from Melbourne out into the country side, we arrived at Falls Creek, a ski resort in the locality of Mount Beauty.
Top of Falls Creek – Cloud9
After a snow taxi ride we arrived at our ski village accommodation ‘Silver Ski’, although a gentle ski run down to the Falls Express chairlifts, it was a bit of a walk back up at the end of the day. On the plus side, it was directly across from ‘The Man’ pub/bar, and adjacent to the ‘Elk’ restaurant – so we were pretty well catered for after dark.
Getting our priorities straight, we first ensured our room bar fridge was adequately stocked with alcohol to soothe the evening pains and then went out to our local ski hire, attached to the lodge we were staying in to collect our ski equipment and lift passes.
No Ice, but plenty of Snow
With it being seven years since the last time I was here, and indeed since I last skied, I was curious how easily I would pick it back up. All I could remember from last time was that I could ski reasonably well, the trouble was, I couldn’t remember how.
We started with an introductory lesson on the first day in the mountains, since Michelle couldn’t ski at all, and I could use the refresher on the basics. No sooner had the lesson commenced it all started coming back to me, and since lesson 1 was all about stopping and turning, it quickly became a bore.. fortunately Michelle took up skiing rather easily (easier than I first did seven years earlier) and it wasn’t long before we were advancing through the classes, finally ending our trip as level 3 graduates (7 levels total – instructors were on level 5)
Our little snow man, outside of our room window
The afternoon we arrived at Falls, was lovely and sunny, with blue skies, producing a striking contrast against the snowy landscape. The day after, the first day we started skiing, the sky had become somewhat overcast, but it was still enjoyable. Day three unfortunately, was far from desirable, to the extend that all chairlifts were closed for the better half of a day, leaving us with no alternative to carry out our Level 2 training in the ski village itself.
Our Level2 instructor was Nigel, a middle aged chap, clearly of European origin. He was a very thorough instructor, not only with his teachings, getting us to do the same maneuvers over and over again until we perfected them, but he was also rather articulate with the way he spoke. His tone was always controlled, and despite the frustrations he obviously felt trying to sift out the level 1’s from the level 2’s, he maintained a very calm and clear line of communication.
With the weather being so poor, and the last minute change of class location from the top of Cloud9 (the mountain top) to the Village, which as a bit of a trek for us, Michelle and I were the first to meet Nigel. We informed him we completed a level 1 the day before and obviously with the way we composed ourselves on our skis, he was happy with this. The next couple that arrived to our level 2 location were another pair of travelers from Perth, whom prior skiing experience was the indoor ski fields in Dubai. They were mid-aged, season travelers. Nigel asked both of them what level they were at. The man turned to his wife and said that the last time they skied was a year ago, and he thinks they were at level 2. The wife continually shook her head, saying she couldn’t remember. Nigel started listing out various things they may have learned, starting with stopping, turning left, turning right… The wife was convinced that she has not learned to turn left or right – at this point Nigel was suggesting she might be better off in Level 1 and her husband remain in Level 2. Not wanting to be split from her husband she insisted she would be alright. With that said, our class started, with a basic refresher, stopping, and turning left and right, just to ensure we were all in the same league. Upon the second repetition, the husband came to a tumble whilst trying to stop… Nigel skied over and before the man could even get back on his feet Nigel pointed in the direction of the Level ones and said he had better start there, leaving his wife and us in level 2.
After we learned some new techniques, Nigel carved out a ski circuit out of the village, a combination of streets, alley ways, and part of a ski run which had not been shut down. It felt like being thrown in the deep end, having to weave around not only other villagers, but classes and traffic on the roads – but it was great to finally get some skiing in none the less.
Me taking a break during a 1.7km ski run back to the village
In the days that followed the weather improved immensely, with fresh snow fall waiting to be skiing upon every morning. The landscape looked incredible – from ski slopes to the village itself, it all very much felt like a winter wonderland. The tree leaves all dusted in light snow powder, the snow crunching with compression under feet/ski. The air clean and slightly chilled.
All around us – a walking trail minutes from our room
Our days were spent with a morning class, followed by countless green runs and the odd blue run. By night we found ourselves at our local ‘The Man’ for some drinks, pizza and card playing. All very relaxing – I really do enjoy the snow!
So unfortunately, once again, my ski time is up – I can only hope now that it wont be another seven years before I hit the slopes. At least with Michelle also now knowing how to ski, we can look forward to new possibilities the next time we travel abroad to Switzerland or the mountain range in Colorado. – I can’t wait!