Into the Snow

Cooma and the Snowy Mountains was my third and final research case study in New South Wales. I was looking forward to the change in scenery, as well as meeting up with my hostess for my stay, Sandy. Sandy works with the NSW Rural Fire Service in the Snowy-Monaro District. I met her at a conference I attended in Newcastle and she very generously offered for me to stay at her place for my time in Cooma. Now keep in mind, she offered this after knowing me for approximately 30 seconds. And more than that, it was after a long conference dinner, where I sat at a particularly social table...with free wine that just kept on coming. I wouldn't say I was undignified at all (don't worry Mom), but I was a bit...happy. But then again, so was everyone else: I was hanging out with about 500 Aussie fire fighters after all. Regardless, the kind of hospitality and openness is the status quo in Australia, which has made my time here all the more enjoyable.

It turns out that Sandy has an absolutely gorgeous place on a beautiful piece of land. Prior to this, I had been primarily staying in cheap hotels and sketchy lodges (see Eric below) so I would have been happy with basically anything. But at Sandy's place I had my own bedroom, bathroom, and a stunning view of the Snowy Mountains. This was a long way from Eric and the Alberta Lodge.

One great thing about staying with a real person rather than just at a hotel/dorm/lodge was that Sandy welcomed me into the rhythms of her daily life: coffee in the morning with the crew at The Lot (a great place, by the way), stopping at Wooly’s (Woolworth’s Grocery) after work/interviews to get supplies for dinner, dodging kangaroos on the drive back to her place, making a great dinner, stocking the fire with enough wood for the night and settling in for a relaxing evening. I even welcomed the opportunity to do dishes! It made me feel like more of a normal person again.

The Morning Coffee Crew: Sandy, Kath, Bede, Al, and John

And there was another thing about this area made me feel more at home in Australia: cold and snow. I have to say that on the whole, Australian vastly exaggerate the harshness of their “winters”. Cooma was colder, definitely, but not outrageous. It would get around freezing at the coldest times in the morning or a little below that at night. But in Minnesota in the depths of winter, freezing is downright BALMY! Cooma, which is not up into the mountains, doesn’t generally get snow that sticks. But if you venture up to Thredbo - one of the big ski areas - they count on the arrival of the snow.

My last weekend in the Snowies, I decided to reconnect with my snowy roots. So, I drove through Kosciuszko National Park to Thredbo and took one of the ski lifts up to a hiking path that would bring me to a lookout on Mt. Kosciuszko, the highest point in Australia. The snow hadn’t arrived yet, so the lodges had the snow guns out in full blast hoping to get a start of the years snow cover. The lift took me right through the path of a few of those snowy trajectories, so I got a bit frosted. When I got to the top, it was legitimately cold (-15 C, 5 F) and I was definitely underdressed. The wind was absolutely outrageous and I realized that my trip to the top was ill-timed: it was a 4 km roundtrip hike to the lookout – half of that up the mountain and against the wind - and I only had 45 minutes before the last lift down. So I started to just book it up the mountain. At this point it was snowy, windy, icy, the whole shebang. I met people coming down the path who looked like they were suited up for an Artic Expedition, while I was in my jeans (no long underwear or thermals) and unlined coat. Fortunately, I had brought a hat, gloves and scarf.

I went as far as I could, keeping a close eye on the time. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the lookout and I have no idea how close I got. I kept on telling myself "It has to be over this next crest", but at some point the promise of a great view is outweighed by the fear you might be stuck up on the mountain incredibly underprepared for a night in the snow. But it was absolutely gorgeous, I got some great pictures, and it felt strangely comforting to feel that cold again.