From Surf to Snow

As a keen Skier since a very young age, the idea of snow in Australia baffled me! So much so that my friends and I booked a weekend trip to the aptly named Snowy mountains to experience this! As we left Bondi in the sunshine at 8am Friday morning, it didn’t seem possible that in six hours we would be amongst the snow. We made a quick pit stop in Canberra on the way, just so we can officially say we’ve been to the capital, and eventually arrived at our cosy apartment with full on wood fire in Jindabyne. It was pretty cold but still no sign of snow…

After an evening in with food and drinks we woke early the next day to collect our equipment and take the hour long drive to the mountain. Finally snow! In fact there was a hell of a lot of snow, too much snow even. Years of skiing in Europe and America have made me a little fussy with the conditions I like but when you’ve spent a lot of money and travelled so far for one day on the slopes; you’re going to Ski regardless. I have never experienced anything like it! The wind was crazy, at one point us girls couldn’t even get off the chair lift as the wind was blowing back against us so much. You could barely see your hands in front of you, never mind trying to spot friends on the mountain or even judging whether you’re about to make a turn on ice or snow or even hit a tree. It was pretty stressful at the top of the mountain. Although the resort isn’t massive, the slopes were surprisingly good. You might just get a little bored after a few days of the same runs.

Apart from some sketchy moments in the awful conditions at the very top of the moment, I had a great day on the slopes and I left dreaming about working a ski season in Europe next year. Talking of sketchy, I think one of my poorer decisions in life came at the end of the day when I made the call to take Steph (a complete beginner) down a tricky blue. Steph and a fellow beginner friend Sandra had spent the last few hours going down the same nursery slopes. As it was the last lift of the day I told them to come with us on a proper chair lift to take what I remembered to be an easy blue run down. As the chairlift kept getting higher, I started to realise what I had done. Turned out that it was a pretty tricky blue, the conditions had worsened and Steph’s confidence was struggling after a tiring day falling over. The situation wasn’t helped by the patrol men who came and screamed at us for skiing too slow, putting Steph under lots of pressure causing her to stress and ultimately start falling lots! We eventually got down the slope that would normally take me about 20 minutes in about an hour and a half. Huge sigh of relief when we finally saw the pub at the bottom! Very proud of my girl for not giving up!