Mt.Selwyn 2009

Winter comes gently Down Under especially when you live in Sydney; it might almost sneak by unnoticed where it not punctuated by annual events with your mates. Tradition has it that once every year a few brave women remind their husbands that it is time for the annual family snow trip to Mount Selwyn. This year was going to be special. There are literally oodles of new babies, where do they come from I wonder briefly but purge the thought as quickly as possible before anybody notices. This year we have Gabriel as our youngest at just over one year of age, followed by Marta and we almost had Bryan and Nola's record-breaking addition to be born soon!

      As custom has it we stayed close to Adaminaby near Lake Eucumbene which is only half an our drive from Kiandra and the family friendly ski resort Mount Selwyn. This year's trip took place from Wed. July 29 to Tue. Aug 4 and the intrepid team of families has to be divided into two parties: The first two days where shared by Lyn and Dave with Jake and Tyler, who shared the cottage with Roman, Louise plus the twins Roman and Chris. We skied skied together Thursday and Friday. Saturday morning it was the Crocker's turn with Mat, Larissa, Gabriel and Rafaela, while Will bravely brought Marta and Liam along. Next door to the homestead Sam and Lena came again with Maiga, Annalie, and Tommy, completing the yearly round up. In total twenty people made it this year which should be some kind of record but who is counting anyway.

          There is not much more to add to this year's family trip except a lot of good memories and lots of photos. A few tips and tricks that worked well this year are noted below: Ralf at Rhythm Snow sports in Cooma had provided us with a group discount (about 10% I think) that had to be prearranged, even though people turned up at different times it worked well. The hire is generally very affordable and the selection is very good. See the rates here. Roman tried out Rossignol Performance carvers for the first time and they are well worth a try. Will went for the resort telemarks and after a single lesson should now be regarded as the local expert (We will find out at Blue Lake). Food was expertly arranged by Louise this year with each family cooking once for everybody else: special thanks must go to Asti who cooked up a delightful dish for everyone even though she had to work. Sam and Lena's pizza were hard to beat in popularity while Mat and Larissa's local trout and Kransky made the top of the hors d'oeuvre list. The weather was another factor that was as unpredictable as the food with every pattern from snow to sleet and finally a perfectly blue final day in paradise. Enough said it; let the pictures tell the story...

Roman 7 August 2009

Lots of Sheep: Almost forot Liam and Roman

Sleeping Beauty ???

Gabriel, Rafaela and Mat

The most gorgous: foreground