Kids first snow outing to Lake Mountain *LOTS OF PHOTOS*

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Kids first snow outing to Lake Mountain *LOTS OF PHOTOS*

Postby sim1oz » Mon 20 Oct, 2014 9:28 pm

Our kids are getting older and they still had never been to the snow. I had this progressive plan in mind... a daytrip to Lake Mountain, a weekend at Mount Stirling, then hopefully longer at Falls Creek/Pretty Valley...each place further from home and hopefully a longer trip. I was determined that they would have opportunities that I never had growing up... and I was determined to visit Moondog Village (a fellow bushwalker's base camp) this year. I even organised a supermarket delivery so that MD could take up a food drop for us when he took up his basecamp gear before the road to Pretty Valley closed for winter. So I knew that we had to get the girls to the snow before August when we planned to visit MD at Pretty Valley.

Last year I waited and waited but snow never came to Lake Mountain... It was not a great snow season in Victoria. This year I watched the snow forecast and we jumped at the first convenient chance to take them to Lake Mountain. We went on a long day trip on Sunday 20 July and had brilliant snow, quite possibly the best of the season at Lake Mountain. We left home around 6am, and after the 1.5-2 hour drive we were some of the first people in the car park at Lake Mountain Resort which gave us a full day to play. My hubby and girls signed up for a x-country skiing lesson whilst I elected to snow shoe since my knee injury was still causing problems. I did a bit of snow running trying to find out where they were as they left on their ski lesson whilst I went back to the car to get my snow shoes on. I warmed up pretty quickly!

I'll tell the rest of the story with photos and share some of the lessons I learnt at the end.

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All set for a ski lesson


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A friendly face on the trail


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The snow was lovely and fresh, and higher up we measured it at 70cm with our avalanche probe (kids entertainment).


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Our kids, particularly the 10yo, spent a lot of time on the ground and decided that skiing was 'too hard' and 'no fun'


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After tears and sulks back at the cafe, we persuaded them to give snowshoeing a try..."how hard can it be - you've been walking for years!" but it took a little more kids entertainment to lighten the mood


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After a while, they got into the swing of snowshoeing and we decided to stop off the trail for the promised hot trail lunch. Here the girls are making a snow bench for cooking and then sitting on


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Happily enjoying their three-course hot lunch! Serious smiles at last (phew!)


We decided to end on a positive note so we headed back down and the girls went tobogganing on the very crowded tobogganing slope.

Lessons learnt:

    start them young - I think it would have been easier if they were younger, especially as we saw toddlers flying by
    be a better role model by knowing how to ski yourself - that applies to me, hubby can downhill ski
    be responsive to kids reactions and keep it fun - we did that, but there were a few moments where I thought they would never come to the snow again
    never let them get hungry - snacks galore, their favourites!
    have a reward for achieving a goal - in our case, the 3 course hot lunch
    one day of snow and ski lessons is probably not enough to 'get it' - next year we'll try for a week at the snow so they can have lessons every morning

I haven't been to Marysville and Lake Mountain since the Black Saturday fires so we were really pleased to see people out and about as we drove through Marysville. The bare tree trunks in the snow, with some leaf regrowth, was a stark reminder of how intense the bush fires were 5 years ago. Our thoughts are with the people of Marysville as they continue to rebuild.
Carpe diem!
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Re: Kids first snow outing to Lake Mountain *LOTS OF PHOTOS*

Postby neilmny » Tue 21 Oct, 2014 5:13 pm

Great story Simone, a nice hot feed on a beautiful day in the snow would put a smile on anyones face.
Pity about your knee it would have helped a lot to have Mum along for the lesson too, you know to see her falling on her ????? too. :lol:
It kind of takes the perceived pressure to get it right off a bit. They'll come back just keep making it a fun, our girls did and I must say
that I was worried they wouldn't (same story first trip was to Lake Mountain). Can't keep them away from the snow now.
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