What a great shot of the lodge

J

Just what we like to see, a blanket of snow around the lodge and still dumping.

Thanks Ian

The snow is back

Somewhere in the darkness of Friday night, all that horrible rain turned to big white flakes and began to restore our beautiful snow.

This picture from Ian shows the accumulation on the lodge roof by mid afternoon, and it's still coming down heavily. It should snow for a few more days too.

The village is once again in ski-in/ski-out mode, after a brief period of regular vehicle access.

Myra to the rescue

The prettier half of our lodge management team found herself in the middle of a mercy dash on the Bogong High Plains.

In between washing all our linen and modelling the latest in pyjamas, Myra  has a job driving Husky oversnow vehicles for FCRM this year. On Friday 5th July she was just finishing her first Husky shift at about 4:30pm when she was asked to help with a medical rescue.

Myra at the wheel of a Husky

Rover Chalet is a lodge on the High Plains out past Wallaces Hut, owned by Scouts Victoria. Every week during winter a different group goes out there for a week of skiing and adventure. Normally everything goes very smoothly and everone has a great time without incident. Unfortunately the Venturer group that week didn't have it quite so easy. A 15 year old girl was having some respiratory problems.

The rescue party of police, paramedic and ski patroller joined an experienced SES navigator and Myra as driver . The weather was atrocious, with blizzard conditions and large snow drifts, but Myra got them there safely. The patient and was assessed and then loaded into the Husky, along with a Venturer leader, for the return trip.

Back in Falls Creek accommodation had to be found for the pair - on the weekend in the middle of Victorian School holidays. A late cancellation meant that AAC could help here too.

Rover Chalet on the Bogong High Plains

Myra and Andrew are both very involved in Scouting and Guiding and know Rover Chalet well. Myra is a Ranger Guide leader in Monbulk and also provides lots of support to Andrew in his role as a Venturer leader. When she got to Rover Chalet she found that she knew some of the leaders and participants. It was great to be able to help them.

The next day the rest of the Venturer group set out to cross-country ski back to Falls Creek at the end of their stay. Conditions were still very poor, some of the Venturers were getting cold and tired and the leaders decided to seek shelter and assistance when they reached Langfords Gap. Once again a rescue team was put together, but Myra wasn't required this time. This rescue did get a fair bit of media attention, but it was really about leaders being prudent rather than Venturers being in immediate danger.

Have you tried Instagram yet?

The shot from Ian of the lodge was shared by Instagram. All he had to do was take the shot on his phone, then tag it in Instagram with #aacfalls. Then by the magic of "the interwebs" it shows up in the sidebar of our blog.

If you are staying at Falls, or having fun with club members, or anywhere in the snow - why not share your pictures with us?

Snow in School holidays

After a lean first week of the Vic/NSW holidays, the snow gods smiled on us and sent some beautiful dry snow to blanket the resort.

Fiona loved the christmassy look of the trees in this shot

All the lifts opened except International and Lakeside and there was great skiing to be had on the sunny days that followed. Some were even heard to complain that it wasn't fair that it was sunny every day and they weren't getting a rest day for their poor legs to recover.

Unfortunately, what the snow gods give, the rain gods take away and the week ended with the start of a very wet spell that washed away most of what had fallen.