First Timers and Beginners Ski Lessons are designed for those who have never skied before or who have only done a little bit of skiing. There is no need to have any prior experience or even to have been to the snow before! The aim of these lessons is to give every club member the chance to try cross country skiing and gain the basic skills that you will need on other club trips.

Because everybody on these trips is first time skiers and beginners you will stay on gentle slopes without any pressure to keep up with more experienced skiers. The lessons are with fully qualified instructors from Wilderness Sports who will teach you the basic cross country skills. Having done a lesson all members will be ready for easy club day trips! If you pick up skiing quickly you may be ready for an easy overnight trip after just one lesson! That said, most members will need to follow up the lesson with a day trip (or two) before they have the skills for overnight trips.

The trips will involve leaving Canberra at around 5:30am on a Saturday morning to be able to drive to the snow in time for the lesson to start at 9am. After the lesson finishes the group will either return to Canberra (i.e. a day trip) or, depending on interest and trip leader availability, stay for the Sunday. If you stay for the Sunday you will car camp in a campsite which is below the snowline where it is warmer. On the Sunday you will return to Perisher and play on some of the gentle slopes or one of the easy XC tracks.

What is Cross Country (XC) Skiing?

XC skiing is a popular winter sport. There are different styles of XC skiing and the club uses NNN-BC and Telemark equipment which is ideal for backcountry tours but is not designed for skating on prepared trails. This means that the ANUMC equipment allows you to ski pretty much anywhere that there is snow! The versatility of the ANUMC equipment means that club members go on ski trips for a range of reasons ranging from simply doing a “bushwalk on skis” to backcountry downhill where they find a steep slope to challenge themselves.

Signup & Payment:

Your place on this trip can only be confirmed once the ANUMC has paid Wilderness Sports for the lessons. Therefore you need to pay $50 for your lesson a long time in advance of the actual trip so that the club can pay Wilderness Sports in advance.

The $50 for the lesson is NOT refundable but is transferable so you could give your place to another member and get them to give you the $50. Given the high demand for club ski trips, if you were to give sufficient notice there is a very good chance that you would get somebody to replace you.

This is how the signup & payment process will work:

1)You sign up to the trip electronically using the ANUMC website.
2)Once there are enough members to fill the lesson I will send you an email and start collecting money.
My preference is to collect cash and provide you with a receipt. You will be able to pay at any time time that I am at a club event (eg XC Skiing Planning Night, Navigation Sessions etc).
3)Once 10 people have paid me they will get the spots on the trip and I will then pay Wilderness Sports thereby confirming the lesson.

Costs:

Total cost will be approximately $100 for a day trip and $110 for a 2 day trip as follows:
$50 for a 1 day lesson with one fully qualified instructor for every 10 ANUMC members (9am - 4pm with a 1 hour lunch break).
$10 to hire all gear except clothing from the ANUMC.
~$40 for share of car costs to the snow. Please note that car costs for snow trips are greater than any other club trips due to the need to pay entry to Kosciosko National Park ($27.5 per car per day) and hire snow chains.
~$10 extra car costs for a 2 day trip.

Trip Leaders Needed:

These trips will not have a trip leader like other club trips. I will run the pretrip meeting to tell you what gear you need, hire the gear and confirm final details but I won't be coming on the trip.

Therefore it would be good to have a volunteer Trip Leader to co-ordinate the trip. The Trip Leader would simply ensure that the group gets to the right place in Perisher at the right time so that the instructor from Wilderness Sports can take over. Ideally the Trip Leader would be experienced in other club activities but is just learning to ski.

If there is not a volunteer Trip Leader then this trip can only run as a day trip under the supervision of the qualified instructors.