Narrow Neck May 2012

Sublime Point 2012

Kiwi-BLUEYS 2010

Castle Hill 2009

Mont 2009

WhungeeWheengee 2008

CitySpring Cycle2007

Mt.Selwyn 2007

Easter 2007

Seal Rocks 2007

Romans40

Mt.Selwyn2006

Six Foot Track

Mount Victoria

Easter 2006

To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time. After a three-year hiatus it was time to return to our yearly ski holiday tradition. With a tight schedule and not enough time to squeeze a sheet of paper in between we managed to find a suitable slot – out of school holidays and not on the weekend – to keep the queues to the bare minimum. With the twins away traveling in Europe we needed some young and tough players to keep the old guard on their toes. So Kristof and Martha stepped up and volunteered to take Louise, Roman and Will along with them. With the minute planning of a major Normandy invasion, we set off on Tuesday morning to beat the crowd, weather, Covid and whatever else fate would throw in our way. Nothing was going to stop us – kind off.

Leaving early to beat the Sydney traffic we made it to Berridale where Will had scored the perfect accommodation. All the caravan parks were pretty much booked out or hideously bad value for money, so we decided to test Berridale’s delights. Lisa’s House was perfect with three separate bedrooms that each had their own unsuits. We dumped our gear and headed to Jindabyne for the customary gear hire, lift tickets and lunch supplies. A lot had changed and the ticket office at Nuggets Crossing had disappeared with the tickets being managed completely online. We had purchased Skitube tickets to try a different approach, but did not realise that the road is still 18 kilometers from Jindabyne. Since it was about 3pm when we had everything sorted we decided that there was not enough time for the Skitube and Plan B was skilfully executed instead.

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow just as well.”

Just outside of Jindabyne before the dam is the local tip which has a top-secret bouldering area where a few hidden gems are located. It was time to check out the local Tip bouldering spot with its 1 to 5 meter tall granite blocks. The place even came with a complementary bouldering mat but do bring your own for the higher problems.

Another Tuesday at the office V2** quite hard for the grade with a variety of options to tackle the crimps. Very nice and good warmup.
Another Monday at the Office V3** nice start traverse moves on slopers to mantle top out. Lots of fun watching Will drag himself up that one LOL.
Hissing Machine V6*** amazing rounded boulder with surprisingly good holds but terrible feet. Will found the heel hook out right for extra beta. I used the boulder on the left to stem against with my feet so that probably lowers the grade to about v5ish. But still great problem with tough mantle topout.

The next three problems looked amazing, but you need to bring at least two pads:

Tumy Rub V6?  Great looking line but I will have to bring a bouldering mat for this one next time.
Dumpster Frog V3?  Great looking high arete with crux mantle, bouldering pads needed for bad landing.
Up close and personal (with variation V4 or V8) another great looking arete but pads are needed.

Day one stopped with the sun dropping behind the snowy mountains and the temperature suddenly plummeting. Back in the house we opted for the iconic Berridale Inn pub, which was just down the road and had not changed a bit since our last visit some twenty years ago. But was the juice there worth the squeezing? Well, you will never know if you never go.

“The older we get, the better we get, unless you’re a banana.””

Now that we had all the hire gear sorted the routine for the next three days was highly dynamic:  get up early, make the porridge – although Kristof and Martha gave up after day one – jump in the car and arrive at the 8am skitube to head up the mountains.  Day one Louise and Roman went straight to BlueCow while Will took Martha to her lesson at front valley. We met in the afternoon to tear up Sallies, Exelerator, RollerCoaster until we caught the skitube back down the mountain. Back home in our lodge - the large entertainment area provided panoramic views of Will's cooking extravaganza: Louise and Roman marvelled at the chef’s cooking skills with a beer in their hands while he prepared his secret ingredient spaghetti Bolognese and homemade pizzas. Meanwhile Martha and Kristof did their homework quietly and by themselves in their bedrooms? Tthere really is a heaven out there – who new? We repeated the routine on day two and day three with Martha leaving us for her relay swim race on Thursday evening by Greyhound bus.  Friday morning the snow arrived in the morning and like clockwork by the time we got to the skifield the sun came back out to reveal some nice powder at Mount Perisher and front valley.  It was nice to get back into skiing after a long break and we will be back again soon.

“Time is a great healer, but a poor beautician.”