My Cold Trip

The snow was absolutely awesome. I wasn't that sure about how much snow there would be or how good the accommodation was going to be but in the end everything was incredible. The whole point of the trip was to celebrate Andre, a friend I went to school withs birthday. We definitely celebrated and it was a great way to enjoy your 21st.

It all started Sunday last week. I finished packing that morning and headed up to meet Calvin at his place. The girl dropped me off so I said goodbye to her and waited for Beachy to arrive. We mucked around for a little bit then packed the car and headed up the freeway. We took the turn off to Lamaroo, which is where Andre lives and drove for about two hours on a road that was almost completely straight. We arrived and straight away had a few beers, played a few games of pool and just relaxed. We hit the hay pretty early because we had a lot of driving and an early start the next day.

Monday started early and pretty well but went all down hill from there. We left Andre's and started driving along the highway out of Lamaroo. We had only been driving for about an hour and all of a sudden we rounded a turn and there was a cop car with its lights on waiting for us. Apparently we were doing 124 in a 100 zone. So that wasn't a very good birthday present for Andre but we moved on. We stopped at a town called Tooleybuc for breakfast and to stretch our legs. We all got out and Andre dug around in the tray of the ute to try and find his camera. What we didn't know at the time is that he left the tarp off and a bag of ski gear fell out when we left Tooleybuc. We all bought food in Tooleybuc and in the end Beachy bought too much because after eating a hamburger with the lot, a chicken role and a carton of milk he felt car sick.

We left Tooleybuc and drove for about three hours to a town called Deniliquin. Most of the time spent was listening to music, sleeping and trying to make Beachy throw up. We developed a game where when someone fell asleep a person would count to three quietly and the rest of us would scream. The one who was asleep would wake up to everyone screaming and our car parked in front of a tree or off the side of the road. It didn't get old, even after the sixth time in three hours. We stopped again to get some fuel and stretch our legs. I got out and realized the tarp was up and then that the ski gear was gone and that sucked. We had two pairs of ski pants, two ski jackets, two pairs of gloves and some goggles in a plastic bag and it had fallen out when we drove off from Tooleybuc. There was a lot of gear and it was all borrowed from Andre's parents so we decided to head back to Tooleybuc to try and find it. We drove for another three hours back to find that there was nothing along the way. We played the screaming game a few more times but it wasn't very exciting.

After a six hour round trip we barely made it back to Deniliquin. The fuel light had come on when we were still about 50km out from the township so we were just waiting for the day to get worse and for us to run out of fuel. We stopped at the same fuel station and filled up again. I had to pay because Andre didn't want to go in twice in one day, lol. We had planned to be in the snow after about nine or ten hours but had already been driving for nine and still had five or six hours of driving left. We got our act together and kept driving. We stopped to buy groceries and had a quick bite to eat and then kept driving. We finally arrived at Falls Creek at about 11pm. We were only seven hours late.

At Falls Creek you cannot drive to your accommodation but park your car down the mountain a bit and then get a lift up in OverSnow vehicles which are big tracked vans. We walked into the OverSnow terminal and met up with Cheez a guy we went to school with. He had just moved there to work, so we talked for a bit and then decided to catch up later in the week for drinks. We caught an OverSnow lift up to our apartment and met the two other people we were staying with, unpacked our bags and then thought about where we were going to party. We drank a lot of beer in the apartment and then decided to head out to the closest pub. It was about 2am so it was closed. We headed back to play drinking games and then crashed to bed at about 4am.

The first day of our snow trip started slowly. We got up at about 7:30am feeling very tired and very hung over. We had heard people over talking the night before about how a blizzard was coming in and there could be very heavy snow fall over the next few days. We woke up to light snow fall at the bottom of the hill but incredibly heavy snow fall and high speed winds at the top of the mountain. Beachy, Chelsey and I had organised to take lessons in the first couple of days so we could learn how to snow board. I had boarded once before but thought I taking a lesson or two couldn't hurt. We got up to the top and could barely stand up in the wind. The lesson went really well and our instructor was an absolute champ. The weather got even worse and because I was getting pretty good on the snow board I decided to do a few runs. The first one was a challenge but I made it down. On the third run I got completely whited out. I couldn't see anything around me that could tell me where I was or how fast I was going. I ended up stopping and falling over because I though I was going really fast and was trying to stop. I got to the bottom and realized it was a good time to call it a day and headed back to the unit.

That night we hit the piss again and then headed to the pub that we tried the night before. It was actually open this time but not very busy at all. We met up with two other guys who we went to school and had a few beers with them.

Wednesday we didn't feel quite as bad as we did the day before but we were still very tired and hung over. The snow was incredibly powdery and it was sunny with blue sky's so everyone was happy to be awake and hitting the slopes. I hit some runs in the morning and then headed to my second lesson. I was level three and Chelse and Beach were level two so I couldn't hang out with them. My instructor was different and he was terrible. All he said the whole time was "follow me, don't fall down" and then he would ski down a run. It was kinda boring but we did a lot of blue runs which are intermediate and I had only been down beginner runs before that. In the afternoon I did a few more blue runs and then did some runs with Calvin and Andre. We got very very drunk that night and managed to annoy the neighbours in the other units. Beachy went to bed early so we bothered him and then finally crashed.

Thursday was very sunny and nice at the bottom of the hill but up on the slopes it was fiercely windy. We had agreed to meet at about 12 for lunch so I headed out in the morning to do a few runs before heading back to the unit. I did a few blue runs and then a few green before taking a run which went back to our unit. As I was coming down I got a bit confident and went up a bank to be a bit tricky. My back edge got caught and I went over the front of the board. I fell from the top of the bank onto the flat of the run and landed badly on my shoulder and head. It hurt, badly, and I was really dazed. I laid there for a while and then got up and boarded back to the unit. That's were It ends really because I don't remember what happened after that. I got back to the unit and laid down in the foyer because I couldn't get in the room because I didn't have a key. When everyone else came back and let me in I felt terrible, looked terrible and didn't remember getting down the hill to the unit. I got inside and laid down again but couldn't remember what I did with my board, boots or gloves. Luckily I had just left them in the hallway. I took it easy for a few hours and decided to do one more run for the day. From our unit we just snowboarded down a slope and we were at the lifts. I made it down the slope ok but once up the lift and on my way down a run I felt terrible. I did make it down but nearly threw up at the bottom. After that effort I chilled out on the couch for a bit and then got ready for the night.

It was a huge night. Cheez came round and we played drinking games before heading out to the same pub as usual. It was an awesome night even though I only had a few beers because of my concussion. We got to bed at about 4am again and I knew it was going to be a challenge getting up the next morning.

Cheez crashed at ours so he could come boarding with us all day Friday. We awoke to blue skies and sun. It made us forget our hang overs and forget how tired we were. We all boarded up and hit the slopes. It was an absolutely perfect day. I boarded in the morning with Calvin and Cheez and did a heap of blue runs. We cruised back in for a quick lunch and realized we had blown the microwave up the night before. We ate cold spaghetti and cold baked beans and then hit the slopes again. Calvin cruised out with Andre to do some jumps and rails but I wasn't that advanced yet so I stayed with Cheez and one of his friends. It was still perfect on the slopes and we did endless runs on powdery snow. It was weird because there was no one on the snow. All day it had been quiet and the afternoon was even better. We had perfect snow and no one was on it. It couldn't have been any better.

That night was our last one so we had to drink and eat everything that was left. We did well too. We were stuffed but still managed to finish all the booze.

Saturday was always going to be a long day. We woke up early to hit the slopes as soon as we could. It was another perfect day. Lots of snow over night, lots of powder on the runs and not too many people. We boarded till 1pm then had lunch and caught an OverSnow down to the car. We were very happy that the ute started because on the way up we were too late to put alpine diesel in the fuel and didn't have a huge amount of antifreeze in the radiator. We had half a carton of crap beer left and as I walked out of the OverSnow terminal some girls asked me were I got it from. I then proceeded to sell it to them for 20 bucks. I didn't think about it too much and then after realized they were on a school trip and probably shouldn't have been drinking alcohol.... my bad. We loaded the car and set off.

We drove and drove and drove and drove and eventually got to Andre's house. Andre and Chelsey fell asleep after about 2 hours of them driving so Calvin and I drove the rest. We took it in turns and by the end had the air conditioner on and the music cranked just to keep us awake. Calvin hit a rabbit which was weird because we were going through fog at the time and it came out of no where. About two hours out of Lamaroo we stopped and bought a heap of Red Bull and lollies to try and perk us up. It worked slightly but it made us over confident.

We got to Andre's at 1:30am and we thought, yea we can make the two and a half hour drive back to Adelaide. It was hell. On the road out of Lamaroo we felt terrible. We had to constantly talk so we wouldn't fall asleep. We managed to hit two dead Kangaroo's! One was in the middle of the road and the other one, well, we just hit its leg. It was gross. We really didn't have the best reaction times. We made it to the freeway and were on our way back to civilization. We felt like death and finally made it back to Calvins at 4am. I was dead and could barely walk. The girl came and picked my up which was so incredible. I waved good bye to a shell of a man called Calvin and then headed home where I fell asleep before I was even in bed.

Sunday consisted of me being awake for about three hours. I was absolutely stuffed. I was so sore from snowboarding and being cold in the car and not sleeping. I dropped all my rental snow gear off and then fell asleep again. It was a good day really.

Work Monday was a wake up call. I was still tired and still sore and I managed to get sick so that didn't help either. I made it through though but it made me want to be back in the snow. I had such an awesome time up there. It was soo so much better than I ever could have imagined and even though I did knock myself out I had an awesome cold drunken time.

Biggest post ever! Awesome. Bye now.