Snow Venture 2005
By: Jack Light (Twin Peaks) and Heather Browett (Belair Venturer Unit)
Pics at the end of the text....
Snow Venture 2005 started on the early morning of July the 15th at the bottom of the freeway at 6:00am. Everyone was buzzing while busily trying to pack bags into trailers, meet up with past snow venture mates and act awake when clearly no one really was. From there the three mini busses headed
off on the 1000km journey to the snow. For the first hour people slept catching up on much needed sleep. From then on the excitement kicked in of seeing the cold white fluffy stuff people like to call snow once again, although for some people it would be their first time. First stop Pinnaroo,
where much needed supplies where needed. Iced Coffee was the main purchase among the party. Such members like Dylan where quite frantic, as this may be the last he sees of his precious Iced Coffee. Luckily there was some at Swan hill, the second stop now just over half way there on our 1000km
odyssey. As we came closer and closer to our destination, the flat ground turned into little lumps, the lumps turned into hills the hills turned into bigger hills and the bigger hills turned into… well we couldn’t see because it was dark but we knew we where close.
Finally we rocked up into Towonga where our accommodation for the night was. Our rude Party Leader Nicholas Wright made us walk a whole kilometer before picking us up and driving the rest of the way to Mt Beauty where we collected our skis and had dinner at the pizza restaurant.
On Saturday we arrived at the start of our 12km ski to the chalet all quite sleepy from our late night. For the old timers, it was getting back on the skis and trekking the known route to the chalet. For the newies who were so taken up by the beauty of the snow they took their minds off staying
upright and as a result they fell over a bit more than the more experienced. Many of the venturers were specialising in the many different styles or stacking. Some were a fan of the face plant, whilst other simply liked the bum-slide and those of us who had no idea just simply fell!
The weather on the way in was not the most desirable. There were strong winds, snow and occasional sleet and very low visibility, but despite all this we all made it safely to the chalet with the last group arriving in just over 7 hours. It was a real challenge with the poor weather!
On Sunday, the first day of tour skiing the party visited Wallace Hut. This is the oldest hut in the Victorian high plains built in 1889 and was used by cattle farmers. Once the party arrived people did some looking around and taking photos before moving off to a near slope where people tried
their hand at down hill skiing on cross country skis. This time though it was not just the ‘newies’ who were giving the snow a close up look of their face. Even the ‘NOBS’ otherwise known as noble leaders who are supposed to be ‘good’ managed to show the venturers some good stacks.
The next day was to prove a test of hill climbing for both experienced and new skiers as we took on the infamous Mt Cope. We set off after breakfast and skied to the near by Cope Hut. From there we looked in amazement at what was essentially a big hill, but as it had snow on it and we had to
climb it whilst having planks strapped to our feet to some it was quite daunting. As we reached the bottom of the mountain, it looked a lot bigger than before, this may have something to do with the fact that we were closer to it than before. The climb was long but eventually the party made it
too the top. Happy snaps were taken of the magnificent view then a snowball fight before the much easier but scarier decent down the mountain for lunch. The rest of the day was filled with snow play and rest for the people who came out a little worse for ware coming down the mountain.
Just a short ski up from the chalet at the back of Cope Hut, is a slope we call the playground. It has a easy slope and a hard slope and there are no trees to run into so the party enjoyed an afternoon there to further their down hill skills. Some skiers tried their hand at Telemark turns known
by us as ‘telemarketing’ some people picked it up but most of their time was spent in the snow rather than on it. This place has proven to be one of the highlights of trips in the past and it certainly did not disappoint this time around.
The next morning started as usual wake up, parade, and breakfast. After breakfast the leaders gave the party the option of two tours. They were a trip to the huts and Investiture Point and the other was a 25km return trip to Mt Nelse. Three of the strongest Venturers put their hand up for it the
rest went on the other trip. The Mt Nelse group set off quite early to be back before dark. The group set a ‘cracking’ pace only narrowly missing the long standing record of 110 minutes to Johnston’s hut (1km from Mt Nelse) The party made it to the bottom of Mt Nelse in 2hrs. Then the group had
to stop a while and look in amassment at what they had to climb. The climb was tiring but well worth it. The group finally made it to the top and stared in wonder at by far the best view for the whole trip. The group took photos and had a drink before the fast decent to the bottom. Lunch was
eaten at Johnston’s Hut before the long ski home. The group got back to the chalet exhausted and went upstairs for a sleep.
It was nearing the end of the week and it was time for the new comers to Snow Venture to be invested into the Alpine Venturer Unit. The party skied to Investiture Point where a large-scale snowball fight was fought before lunch cooked on a snow barbecue, followed by the investitures. A snow
barbecue is just a wood fire in the snow with a cooking plate over it where sausages and bacon were cooked. Our special Investiture day finished up with a short ski tour around the Rocky Knobs, then the ski back to the chalet with all the new members of the Alpine Venturer Unit.
Friday saw the Winter Olympics like you have never seen before! We grouped in to teams to compete for gold in the annual “BOCOG” Bogong Chalet Olympics. Events included egg and spoon race on skis, team sleigh racing and people’s true colours were shown in the pillow fight while on skis and
standing on a hill.
There is something unique about the chalet, and the way that everyone works together there. The concept of duty groups and chores is often disliked by many venturers, but duties and meal times were some of the best parts.
During the course of the week each duty group does each of the duties once on a daily rotation. This included cooking, washing up, cleaning toilets, setting tables, chopping wood, shovelling snow, sweeping and vacuuming and general monitoring of the chalet. All vital things to keep the chalet up
and running in order. Some even took their duties so seriously they stayed up past midnight chopping wood in the shed to ensure we could have a warm breakfast the following morning. Duty time in the morning was always a time when you would see people avidly working for the benefit of everyone
else and with absolutely no complaint.
The ski out on the Saturday morning was a sad moment for most of us. After calling the Chalet ‘home’ for a week, we finally had to return to civilisation and start the 2 day trip towards Adelaide.
The party left in 3 groups – an early, middle and late group – to ensure that we all arrived at Falls Creek at approximately the same time. The first group left in the dark and saw a magnificent sunrise whilst skiing, the second group left just after sunrise and trailed the first, whilst the last
group stayed to do a final check of the chalet and lock up.
The ski out was very rewarding for many people as it was a way to measure their improvement. What once took some groups 7 hours now took them only 4. Some people, who fell over numerous times on the ski in, hardly fell over at all on the way out. It was much nicer weather and we were finally able
to appreciate and take in some of the scenery, which we had missed during the blizzard on the way in.
Just before the dam wall we passed then next group of scouters who were going to inhabit the chalet for the next week and shared some stories of our trip. We saw increasingly more people, and the reality hit us that we had finally returned to civilisation after an incredible week.
We were given two options for the last stretch – an adventure down the end of one of the ski slopes at Falls Creek Ski Resort called ‘Wombat’s Ramble’, or the nice easy coast down the road.
We all met up at the bus station in Falls Creek and began to discuss our ski before packing the bus and heading out of the hills to Mt Beauty to return skis and prepare for the long trip home. We stayed overnight at Kerang Scout Hall to break up the 1000km trip back to Adelaide, which brought a
great end to our wonderful 10 day adventure.
The week was filled with activities and games organised by our amazing ‘wonder woman’ Jack. Each night there was fantastic evening entertainment that had us all in stitches. The week started with the usual venturer sing-a-longs and crazy games whilst sitting in a fort made of mattresses, this was
followed by a night of snow games by moonlight including an amusing game of storm the lantern on the homeslope which turned into an awesome snow fight. We were then graced by the acts of many talented Venturers on skit night which proved to be a great hit with the wonder group “Wasabi Punjabi’
performing some of their latest songs from their fictional album “Back off the Spice Rack”. And all in a flurry it suddenly seemed necessary to hold our final party where we saw an assortment of superheros pop in to join us for tea including Wonderwoman, Batman, the Mario twins, Danger mouse and
Super Grover.
The week was also fraught with snow murders in a week long game of real-size “Cluedo in the Snow”. The ingenious game organised by Jack involved people ‘killing’ others with various creative weapons found throughout the Chalet. The game for some was a trial of patience, for other a game of team
work and for the real competitive, a game of avoiding rooms and people! On many occasions you could walk through the Chalet and find people hiding in random places holding random objects. How Jarred managed to hide in the pantry holding a mug for almost forty minutes is still a mystery!!
All round the Snow Venture experience is definitely one that can not be recreated anywhere, the people you meet, the things you see and the amazing friendships that carry on forever along with the memories, these are the things Scouting is all about.
Applications and more information for Snow Venture.
Heather and Melissa
Top of Mt Cope: Jack, Mel, Heather, Dylan
On tour
Party night
Pillow fight on skis
Investiture Point
