Winter escape to the ski fields

This year we did a winter escape to Mount Beauty, home to 2300 hardy individuals. Crisp, cool mornings, a wood fire, great company with the Fanning family and skiing up in the mountains.

Part One - The Skiing

Ollie, Charlie and I have only been skiing once before at Falls Creek. This time, we hired our ski’s with greater expectations. No more green runs for us. It is time to hit the blue’s without lessons and have a hint of black. Day one saw only a few lifts open at Mt Hotham. Audi Quattro lift leads to the basin which is a surprisingly steep starting point. My youngest Charlie was convinced he knew how to ski then promptly fell over four or five times in the first hundred metres. Exclaiming that “this is ridiculous” he threw a temper tantrum, like many other young people on this initial reminder that the mountain is bigger than the individual. Good life lesson that.

We treated the first run as a bit of a warm-up, then in true Peake style, we revisited the same run ten times, just to make sure we had it covered. Sarah is the expert of the group having been a veteran of many school trips and other ski related activity. We blindly follow her lead on what is the best path, the best speed, where to stop mid run and generally acts as our guide in the feeling out stages.

As the day went on, confidence rose, the kids started to mix the ski school turning methodology with the need for speed that comes so naturally to young boys. Charlie is keen on the straight run to the finish line. He and Xavier Fanning went at it dodging the crowds then hurtling to the finish line finishing with as big a flourish as possible at the ski lift loading area.

Oliver is more like his Dad in cautiously plotting a course, working the runs, keeping in control and trying to get his legs together and parallel the ski’s as often as possible. Sarah is the captain, picking the kids up when they fall, instructing the correct method of getting on the lift without getting taken out and generally making the experience fun for everyone. I bet every four has a captain.

The Fannings are all excellent skiers. Daniel with no ACL wears a brace with style. Lauren is excitable and takes the anchor spot. Leave nobody behind is an important action. She rescued Charlie’s ski’s at one stage after he took a superman dive down a steep section and couldn’t get back up the mountain. Xavier already discussed is a downhill racer and Sullivan is fearless. Only a little fella, he is a big presence dressed in bright green and a grin from ear to ear. Six years old and already biting off runs that make the writer tremble with apprehension!

Six hours of solid skiing pulled us up and it was time to go home and begin phase two.

Part Two - Post Ski Drinks and Sunsets

It is a curious thing that exertion builds thirst and a good thirst builds a need for refreshment. The Fanning family are red wine aficionados. Always a good thing to have good company. The red chosen was 2009 Chateau Cissac from the Bordeaux region. Nice. Corona is the preliminary drink of choice with Sarah dismissively regarding the alternative Great Northern as tasting like feet and dirty socks by comparison. Corona can be drunk with lemon, but lime is our preferred accompaniment.

Dinner is an event, with the boys looking for their next mouthful. The ability of boys in particular to begin talking about dinner before taking their first bite of breakfast has to be seen to be believed. There is no doubt there is some growing to be done over the next few months.

Everett is only two, so when he is going through the bedtime rituals the other boys think they are so grown up. When question number 500 arose about which football number player x wears at the Fremantle Dockers, Daniel raised his right hand and proclaimed, “Boys – it is after 8. It’s my time now”. The solemness of his voice, the decisiveness of the right hand returning to his glass and the glazed over look of staring into the fire cut short any further questioning. The man has spoken.

The Fire

It has to be a part of every alpine trip to make a quality fire. This one is no exception. We favour the tepee method, with the bracken and twigs on a forty five degree angle. Our larger logs are red gum. Sturdy high country logs. We looked for two inch clearance with embers glowing bright red and a solid flame. Profoundly gazing into the fire and musing about life over a glass of red with outside temperatures hovering around zero. Beanies on and family nearby. Life doesn’t get much better I don’t think.

The background music

Music in the background can be an underrated aspect of any experience. With a mix of personalities, I had the spin jockey duties. I chose to work through a personality and taste classing process of the adults and older kids and constructed the playlist to share the favourites of each person in fairly random order to get the crowd to the stage where they were guessing which song was earmarked for each person. Lauren is a soul lover, liking songs that reflect deep moods and intellectual thoughts. For her, a collection of Xavier Rudd, Jack Johnson, Marvin Gaye mixed with a bit of Michael Jackson, Prince and even Bob Marley.

Daniel is a stirrer. He was categorised in my list for a bit of funk. Think Wild Cherry – play that Funky Music to go with some Friday Night Lights US football anthems and even some Fresh Prince of Bel Air – Will Smith action.

Sarah is a budding guitarist. She is a Guns n Roses lover with Don’t Cry, November Rain, Welcome to the Jungle interspersed with Wolfmother and Nirvana. Before you think leather jackets and tattoos, Elton John – Your Song and Rocketman were favourites as well as anything by Ed Sheeran.

For me – I had some Celtic influence with Cranberries along with the Corrs mixed with Fleetwood Mac and Florence and the Machine. For the kids, all in football season, we ran with Sia and Titanium and Chandelier.

Some may say eclectic, but knowing your audience in constructing a playlist goes a long way to setting the ambience for the conversation to be had.

Conclusion

After anticipation and the general build up, to the skiing, into the post ski drinks/dinner and conversation, all too soon heads are becoming heavy and it is time to cuddle up in bed and go to sleep. The fire is loaded up to run to morning and it is off to sleep. Whilst only a relative short break, I can’t think of a better way to wind down after a big financial year and recharge ahead of doing it all again.

We are always open to holiday ideas. Some wise people say by the end of any great holiday you need to have planned your next holiday. Daniel describes this as the leap frog theory whereby every new holiday down to minute detail is discussed whilst in holiday mode. Sarah has set herself a project to train for the New York Marathon. Daniel is planning a low budget camping holiday to recover from the excesses of the snow. I will hit some fitness activity to help train and motivate Sarah and see what happens from there. More immediately, I’ve heard Byron Bay in summer is nice!

All suggestions welcomed.