The journey to the Bogong Rover Chalet began the night before, at Ajays in Heathmont — most of the party was meeting there. I arrived just after 6pm and picked up my gear.

Once everyone had their stuff, we got dinner and were on the road. We arrived at Tawonga around midnight (it’s not bogong without as little sleep as possible) and before we knew it, it was time for the morning so we were up and out.

We slightly held up the bus doing our car shuffle, but before long we were at Falls Creek. After much faffing about, we were joined by a group of Bogong Rovers who were going out to the chalet to do some investing.

It took 5 hours from oversnow (including the best part of an hour faffing around) but I eventually made it to the Chalet.

Getting to the Chalet

One of our weekend visitors was Jim, an Alpine Rover from back in Bill’s day. Jim lives in Mt Beauty and obviously takes advantage of the reduced rates for seniors, as he was leading our party the whole way, aside from a few occasions where he was playing around on the slopes and some of us went past him.

Other guests included the Chalet’s Warden, Matt and State Commissioner Jody. Week 9 had left the Chalet in good order for us, although they had wrapped up the inside flag with a bunch of sprinkles which was slightly rude…

Dinner that night was crowded, as you’d expect with a roughly 50% increase, but we were all friends. Jim regaled us of tales of the early days of the Chalet, stories like how they would originally come up from Shannonvale instead of coming down from Mt Beauty because “Bill, quite rightly, forbid us from coming in over the High Plains”

Sunday

The next morning I awoke, surprised to see our Bogong Rovers still sleeping like a number of logs. Apparently the traditional “wake ‘em up at 4am” approach to the Bogong Rover investiture ceremony isn’t the done thing when you have a septuagenarian in your party.

While this was my second party, my first had been during a time that Victorian Rovers weren’t all that keen on visiting the Chalet. There had been a small number of us who went in with a group of friends who had been coming on and off for the past 20 years. So they had long since dispensed with some of the bullshit. Things like everyone getting up for morning parade, or “brew” — if you want a coffee in the morning, get it yourself…

But I digress. I want to talk about our first morning parade, which is the responsibility of the RA of the Day. The flagpole at the Chalet is apparently difficult to work out because on half of the mornings, the RA of the Day failed spectacularly to break the flag. This happened on the first morning, and the Chalet Warden led from the front, throwing the first snowball at the rapidly retreating RA of the Day once they had managed to unfurl the flag and finish the ceremony.

After that, most of the party was content with a pretty cruisey day. Some of our more experienced members joined the Bogong Rovers on the start of their trek back to Falls. By chance[1] their route took them by Investiture Point, where Jim, as well as Jono and Kyle were duly invested as Bogong Rovers. Kieron got to hang around and twiddle his thumbs.

Back at the Chalet, a few of us went for a quick journey up to Wallace’s Hut, which I was keen to join in on, since the last time that I saw it there was a whole heap of treated pine that was holding the thing together.

The High Country Huts Association had put a lot of work into restoring what is now the oldest hut on the High Plains since then, though and the place has come up a treat. Someone else had also put a lot of work into building a nice big igloo there, we think it was someone around week 7, but who knows?

Monday

On Monday, we had Ski School. (Good thing we didn’t need to evacuate on Sunday, right?)

It’s always amused me that Ski School is held after we do the week’s toughest ski, but I guess it makes sense. No one wants to waste time getting started on Saturday morning.

Ski School

Ski School is one of my favourite parts of the week to be honest, everyone is there and for the most part (boot problems aside) they’re having a good time. Lots of laughing, lots of ‘I’m such an idiot, how did that happen’ when an unexpected stack occurs… General fun with friends in the snow. Also, the ski back down from Cope Hut is fun.

We finished up ski school in time for lunch. Mmmmmm. Lunch. A cruisey afternoon was enjoyed by all before early dinner, followed by a night ski, supper and a campfire up at Wallace’s Hut.

Skiing down the hill from Wallace’s was lots of fun!

Tuesday

Not a lot exciting happened Tuesday. I had a Mt Mattress day. There was a small expedition to Mt Jim, but most people just hung around the Chalet as well.

Wednesday

Some of the party got up early and went up to Cope Hut to watch the sunrise. I stayed in my nice warm sleeping bag instead.

Many naps were had in the morning, but after lunch, we learnt how to use the Akia snow stretcher. Poor Kyle ended up being our test dummy, and that ended up being a bit of a bumpy ride for him.

Thursday

Being RA of the Day yesterday, it was my responsibility to run opening parade. I’m pleased to report that I was able to break the flag without issue… although revenge was taken for all the snowballs I’d been throwing when others ran into issues anyway. C’est la vie.

After breakfast, we went on a trek out towards Langford West, due to fog and high winds up on the plain. However, we hadn’t gotten too far when we ran out of snow on the aqueduct. We turned around, and after a bit of investigating, we decided that we would climb up the valley and then head back along the road.

We made a quick stop at Cope Hut on the way back down and soon were back home.

Friday

Friday at the Chalet is Friday at the Chalet. Trek up to Investiture Point, do the business, and then ski back on down.

Then it’s time to pack up =(

Saturday

Saturday is my least favourite day. No one likes cold breakfast.

I led the slow party out to Falls Creek, and best of all I only lost one person. Haydo had injured himself on Friday and had to turn back within five minutes to join Jono on the SES Express.

We nearly made it to the Rocky Valley Picnic Area before the fast party caught up, with reasonable snow cover. It was 9am as we skied into Falls, so there was time for Kiewa Milk.

And to show that off to Tom.