Why go back to Bogong? My friend Laura asked me what I was doing at the start of August!

The journey to the Chalet began, as ever, the day before when we drove up to the Mt Beauty Scout Hall.

Saturday

Somehow, I ended up in the “Fast Group” into the Chalet (ie. not enough people wanted to escort the Engineer in so he could get in quick to start things up and I was called upon by name) so it was a long day, but the slow party were very excited to see us when we made our way back to Langford’s Gap to help them make it in. Then it was time to start setting up for the week.

Sunday

I continue to be endlessly entertained by our practice of running ski school the day after doing the hardest ski of the week, but this was more of an excuse for faffing about at The Playground. Recent trips to ski school have involved everyone in the party going through the RPL workbook for SISOSKT001 Ski on Easy Cross Country Terrain and and demonstrating the skills required, so this was a bit of a shame. But then I joined a group that went back via Home Slope, and I barely fell down at all on the descent!

Monday

Monday’s journey was scheduled to be a big one, heading out to Mt McKay and returning to the Chalet via Ruined Castle and followed the edge of the dam back to Wallace’s Hut. The joruney out was very windy, and we ended up making our way through the Rocky Knobs, making our way through some very icy terrain and then some fun through the trees and down to Pretty Valley Hut. By the time we got to the turnoff to Mt McKay, it was only just before our turnback time so we decided to head straight for Ruined Castle instead with hopes of lunch at the Cafe at the bottom of Ruined Castle. We made our way down there promptly, only to face the heartbreaking news that the cafe was closed.

So we did the only natural thing, shelter on the steps that led up to the cafe and eat our prepared lunch there. We met several passersby who were similarly disappointed, but they were all very taken with our ingenius solution. It was a fun trip back along the dam to Wallace’s and home for dinner.

Tuesday

I’ve always wanted to build some proper snow structures while I’ve been at Chalet, so when Harry D offered the opportunity to complete some of the skills required for SISOSKT003 Use Snowcraft Skills for Alpine Touring I jumped at the chance. We headed up to Wallace’s where we constructed a snow trench, treated Harry for “hypothermia” and “frostbite”, and did our best to construct a Quinzhee with packs that just weren’t big enough to do things properly. But we did learn the technique at least. I also figured out that my watch won’t sync my activities to my phone while recording a second activity, and my phone won’t take activities from my watch without an internet connection.

My patrol had the Cooks duty today, and one of the tasks we were responsible for is obviously baking the bread. I have successfully avoided that particular job for the last six weeks, but with Luke and Harry D firing on all stew-and-desert cyclinders, it was up to me to come up with the goods. I was very stressed about that as it is very easy to fail at making bread in the Chalet’s wood-fired cast iron oven. End-to-end, the process took three hours, and hot damn did I come through!

Look at that: Glorious.

Wednesday

You get a lot of detail on the whole Party’s experience today as I was once again RA of the Day, a role that includes responsibility for writing the logbook entry:

This is something like my 7th time at Chalet, so feel free to judge me as much as you please [Note: the previous RA of the Day was on their first trip and pled for future readers’ understanding. I, on the other hand, gain strength and power from their contempt]. Our day started extremely early to accomodate a large group going out to Mt Jim, but we cooks rose to the challenge. We smashed out Morning Brew with a frankly disgusting amount of cheer and kicked off a wednesday morning breakfast singalong of banger after banger. Remember always - Brew is part of our welfare plan and you are serving vibes as well as drinks. So make sure everyone starts the day off right!

After yesterday’s great success another two parties headed out to Mt Jim! Linda’s party was out on the snow straight after parade, followed slowly after by Harry D and his merry men (Jimmy Brings). Heading out via Cope Saddle and the SEC Hut, they made it out to the peak in less than three hours. On the mountain, the tour experimented with the magnetic anomaly and enjoyed the view with their lunches befre setting out for home. Which is where the fun started.

There were plenty of stacks and a mislaid water bottle on the way back down (luckily the second party recovered it!) Both parties met up again at Pretty Valley Hut to reallocate members for injury/fatigue reasons. Harry’s group returned via Rocky Knobs just after 5 while Linda’s party took the long way around and experienced the wonder and glory of a clear sunset over the High Plan on their way home. Both of the Mt Jim groups were also put at great risk by that rarest of alpine dangers, the ABBA-Lanche (continuing the musical vibes from the morning)

Aunty Em and Uncle Lachlan took their two nieces out for a day on the now. Passing for some fun on the edge of Mt Cope soon turned into a scroggin break, and then 100m down the road, lunch. Looking at the map and its four descending contours down to Langfords West, the group decided that they would instead return to the chalet via the playground.

The day’s final tour went to Ryder’s Yard under the expert, if begrudging leadership of Bec. She was so in synch with her self-proclaimed “Sexy 2IC” Luke that advice was regularly given to the group by one of them as they called a break, only to be repeated (sometimes word for word!) by the other as they brought up the rear. Our tour got off to an inauspicious start when said Sexy 2IC came out onto the snow missing his skis - perhaps explaining why he chose not to call himself the Brainy 2IC - however, karma was soon back on our side after clearing the road of a fallen tree branch on the way to Cope Hut (Linda’s Mt Jim party were particularly thanksful for this work)

We were treated to several strip shows of varying quality as members of the party delayered throughout the day due to the bright sun and “high” temperatures.

I was very excited to reach the 0.5 mile to Mt Cope that has survived the best part of 50 years of metrification - although I fear that it may not last much longer if Chief Engineer Jeremy follows through on his musing that he should let Parks know of its location after asking them for its coordinates when he was preparing his 3D printed relief map of the high plain that he skied in this week only to be told that they had no idea what he was talking about. Much depends on his discretion!

Out at Ryders Yard, the old cattlemen’s decorations are looking much the worse for wear, the door to their hut apparently disappearing and allowing the elements to nter freely. We made our way up the aquaduct before lunch and some pictures, returning via a cross-country route back to the pole line and beyond to home.

Meanwhile, back at the chalet (insert 60s Batman trumpet SFX) Harry W and Cam put out the tow rope. The engine was, as usual, reluctant to start, but roared into life ones the fuel lines were bled. Many tired and sore party members are excited to take advantage of their hard work tomorrow.

Dinner was a tasty stir fry with cake for desert, followed by a fastion parade of all the latest merch, then bed, boardgames, or paperwork to taste. Those who went to bed early really missed out as we viewed a meteor shower, although people who were just in bed and hadn’t got to sleep yet were alerted to the magic by the panicked screams of people outside wanting lights out or doors closed so they could better see what was going on overhead.

PS - it has been brought to my attention that when I turned on the light in the Warden’s Flat to belatedly bring in the house flag, only to be screamed at by everyone, the very instant I shut off the light again a large meteor appeared over the Chalet.

They are all welcome.

Thursday

Continuing my duty as RA of the Day, I was responsible for wakening the cooks - so setting the day’s earliest alarm. Luckily, after yesterday’s Mt Jim expeditions, it had been agreed to have a late morning so I got to have a sleep in vs a normal Thursday morning. It was also August 1st - World Scout Day, so my words of wisdom at the morning parade were to wear scarves and make the branch social media people happy, and to also think about how cool it was that 117 years ago some old guy took a bunch of kids camping on Brownsea Island and now we get to hang out in the middle of nowhere exploring the High Plains thanks to the 50 million strong Movement that sprang up from there.

At breakfast, Adam noted that both of my wordses had been more wise than the other RAs of the Day (at changeover, I had reminded the Party to text their mothers). I explained that I had the upper hand on them, as my primary appointment is Rover Advisor and I’d been a Scout Leader since I was 18. Making some comment about how the wisdom came to me in the moment and preparing my comments ahead of time would be against the spirit of the role, Laura responded that everyone already thought I’d prepared the words ahead of time. That may be so, but I would know.

Changeover happened after Breakfast and chores, and I unreasonably clubbed poor Meg as she took over as RA of the Day, but from there the day continued. Many people took the day for a well-earned trip to Mt Mattress, but I joined the day’s major expedition to Madison’s Hut and continuing to the summit of Basalt Hill. We followed the aquaduct back to a weird little sign I’ve noticed before and started uphill to explore. We found it in short order, and stopped on their doorstep for a warming cup of Hearty Beef (the best flavoured cuppa soup). We continued to the top of the hill, and even found a cairn up there!

It was another glorious day on the High Plain and we could see from Shannonvale in one direction and on to Bogong in the other. Even Harry decided that he didn’t want to go down the cornice back to the Aquaduct, so we had a great time descending to Wallace’s Saddle and returning via the Hut (like people who are sane.)

Friday

Friday at the Chalet is about two things: the trek to Investiture Point, and cleaning up to be ready to depart at “well that’s just offensively early” o’clock next day.

We had lunch together at Investiture Point, in a specially-constructed dining room that was juuuust a little bit too small for everyone. But it was the end of the week, so we were all friends by this point.

After our return from Investiture Point, there were more hot tunes on the speakers. Eventually it became a Hamilton singalong, with Luke somehow managing to perform all the parts simultaneously. I had let the team down by only downloading a few favourite tracks to my phone, so from there we proceeded through some other popular musicals, ending with the two SIX tunes I had. Em will no doubt be ecstatic to learn that I have since downloaded Haus of Holbein for next time.

I mentioned my own patrol’s sterling work in the kitchen, but I need to take this opportunity to congratulate everyone. This week had the best food that I have had at the Chalet, and we finished on a particular high, with the normal vegetarian lasagne being enhanced with fresh pasta sheets (because apparently we were already out of the prepared ones) and the sausages that were supposed to be breakfast one day (because someone was inspired by genius).

With a small party, the Nobs were looking after Stewards duty - which meant that my patrol was sucked in to doing Joeys on both Saturday and Friday. My least favourite duty. But Luke and Harry took one for the team by chopping wood, leaving Sam and I the simpler jobs of cleaning the woodstore and stocking Theo and the dining room with the chopped wood. I was calmly burning firewood chips in Theodore the hot water system, when the Engineer came up and asked me if I’d ever been a NOB before, or if I had just been around the Chalet a lot. He noted that I had an air of quiet competence and often appeared when there was work to get done.

Curiously the last task we completed this year was to sharpen all the coloured pencils.

Saturday

The ski-out is always an interesting time. The pre-dawn wakeup isn’t pleasant, but skiing along the aquaduct as things gently lighten is absolutely magical. This morning, we found a dead doe in the aquaduct though, so that kinda took the shine off of things. We were all very impressed with Bec, wondering what happened to the poor creature and casting her headtorch about to immediately light up its remains. Glad that we pull our water from the springs instead of the aquaduct too. The ski-out continued without any major incident - although my ski-out chocolate at Watchbed Creek was gratefully received by all the members of our third party. I also made it to the bottom of Wombat’s Ramble successfully (and then promptly fell over where all the witnesses were)

Total distance travelled: 80.48km

Managing fatigue on the way home is a very important part of the drive home, we had lunch at northeast Victoria’s own Gumtree Bakery - thanks Blakes for the recommendation/orders to visit them. Laura arranged for a different ride home from Kalkallo so that I could avoid Docklands for a few extra days, and as we were parting ways I snagged a few chips from her, dropping one to the ground - much to her amusement. Stepping away, she grabbed a few for herself, also dropping a couple. “Huh.” She said, with a glint in her eye “Guess we must be friends.”

What I Learnt

• Making bread doesn’t have to be scary

• Check you purchased the correct sized batteries for your headtorch, you pillock

• I gotta work on my cardio

• Stay in the second party and deep clean the kitchen. Do not be tempted by tales of glory of the Fast Party.