snow

Back at the desk after three weeks away. It’s been a good long school holiday- break.  At the beginning of the hols we went skiing for 5 days with another family. Lots of fun, kids had a ball.  Just try not to think about the outrageous expense, and the appalling environmental impact of it all.

My family used to ski every year when I was a kid. In the very early days we stayed at a lodge with no electricity, only gas lamps. We wore lace-up leather boots, and carried our gear up the mountain in canvas rucksacks. All of which makes me sound ancient. 

But even later on, when we stayed in a lodge owned by the private boys’ school where my brother was a student, accommodation was not flash.

We all used to sleep in our clothes in freezing cold bunk rooms, and the only heating was a log fire in the communal living area. 

In the decades since then, it’s all changed. At Hotham there was heavy equipment at work all night , grooming the slopes. And large ‘snow-guns’ blasting confetti-like snow into the air 24 hours a day. 

Our apartment was centrally heated and comfortable enough. It was also entirely without character, could have been a townhouse in any Australian suburb.  I found myself feeling nostalgic for those freezing bunk rooms, and the raging log fires, and the old  days when you skied on whatever snow was there. Seems like we are all so addicted to ‘comfort’  nowadays, that we miss out on something - the edge of contrast and difference. 

But hey, I’m not complaining. I loved being there, and loved that I can still remember how to ski after all these years, like riding a bicycle. 

The first few days were blizzard and snow storms and minimal visibility. Then the sky cleared and we discovered the view from our unit.