Charlotte Pass 2024 Juniors Camp
What is the best way to end a ski season? Immerse yourself in whatever is left of winter!
20 young cross country (XC) skiers and their coaches and minders spent the first week of the Spring school holidays at Southern Alps Ski Club (SASC), Charlotte Pass, at their annual NSWACT XC Charlotte Pass Camp.
Many of the campers were local and their attendance was generously supported by the Rob Kneller Youth Foundation. Others arrived from Canberra and Sydney. All were competent recreational and competitive young XC skiers (11-16 years old) who were looking forward to the wilder winter experiences offered around Charlotte Pass and on the Main Range.
Adults supporting the campers involved their long-term Snow Australia/NSWACT XC coach Alexei Sotskov, William Haig, from Vermont, in Perisher as the NSWACT XC coach for his first Australian winter and Sam Johnson, Australian National XC Team member. Other minders included the 2024 Nordic Shelter management team – John and Sonja Sim, Carol Healy, Andy Nicholls and Arnold – all possessing a range of skills and knowledge of skiing and the mountains to share. Masters skiers Adrian Blake, Greg and Kirsten Sharp rounded out the team with their skills and enthusiasm. Sam and her team at SASC kept all well fed and looked after – the kids loved the food!
Days started with “Morgen Shportz”, a half-hour run/jog up the hill or out of the Village and back, hearty breakfast and the morning activity – usually a hike with skis to play on one of the big drift areas above the Village. Lunch was followed by Quiet Hours! (open to interpretation, but quiet). The afternoon activity could be ski relay races with the team members attached to each other and other fun, swimming in the local creek, ski hooning, orienteering, fencing (the kind with swords, thank you Adrian), generally seeing how much horsing around can be done on skis. In other words, gaining skills and experience while they thought they were just being hilarious.
Evening activities included movies, Trivia, games and a discussion of the ways pygmy possums are looked after by NPWS. A diary entry describing the day was completed by a different group each night.
The annual ski to Mt Kosciuszko became a hike to Kosci this year and the Snowy River Crossing/rite of passage for all CP campers drew the traditional amount of pained squealing. The Friday Night Talent Show was as unruly and eclectic as ever.
The weather during the week was amazingly kind, and the modest winter snowfalls and recent rain still left plenty of accessible Main Range drifts to ski on.
The Charlotte Pass Camp, held during the first week of the Spring school holidays, has been an annual part of the Snow Australia NSWACT XC Winter Program for many years. Judging from the happy tones of the Campers’ farewells to each other and their coaches and minders on Saturday, there will be many more in the future.
6 October 2024
