Well another weekend has been and gone. What did I achieve?
Not exactly what I planned to do, but it was still useful.
Following word of snow falling up on Ben Lomond, my previous weekend
plans were cancelled. This is pretty normal for winter, when I include a powder
clause in everything. Ever heard of a powder clause? It was explained to me by
a builder in Wanaka. It was my second ski trip to New Zealand and I was riding
up the chairlift over a fresh dump of southern hemisphere powder (not the same
as northern hemisphere powder, but equally exciting). As often happens on
chairlifts, we got to talking about where we’re from and what we do with our
lives. He explained that he could go skiing that weekday rather than going to
work because he has a powder clause. This clause is part of his employment
contract, stating that he doesn’t have to turn up to work on days when more
than a certain depth of snow had fallen on Treblecone overnight.
My powder clause is that whenever fresh snow has fallen and
Ben Lomond is running, social engagements for the weekend are cancelled.
I brought two others up to the mountain with me on Friday
night, both friends with an interest in skiing. One had skied years ago and the
other had always wanted to try. Alas, halfway through the first day, the new
introduction to the world of skiing was injured in a vicious fight with one of
Tasmania’s native yetis. Here, yetis disguise themselves as rocks and pop out
of the snow to lash out at passing skiers without warning.
The injury wasn’t catastrophic, but meant an end to her
day’s skiing. Ski Patrol moved in and I saw first hand how they immobilised her
leg, kept her warm and dealt with the symptoms of shock from an impact injury
in cold conditions. Educational, but I doubt I’ll have any of their equipment
on hand come summer. A few bits and pieces that are relevant hopefully won’t be
of any help, for the injuries they deal with aren’t the sort you can shrug off
and keep walking.
But this sounds like the sort of experience I had last
weekend, experience for how to deal with everything going wrong… I needed to do
some physical training as well.
Summiting the second highest peak in Tasmania in the middle
of winter only sounds impressive if you haven’t been there. Even taking the
(extremely) scenic route, it was barely over an hour’s casual snowshoeing to
reach the peak of Legges Tor and descend the slopes back to the warmth of the ski
lodge.
Some relatively easy skiing and a quick snowshoe made for
more exercise than a day at the office, but that wasn’t enough.
Then opportunity presented itself in the form of a contest
held in the lodge overnight: A stick, two bottles and a challenge. I’m not
overly competitive, unless someone gives me a challenge. I was issued a
challenge, or at least a previous lodge record was challenged.
The contest is simple: A long stick is balanced on the tops
of two beer bottles, and the competitor has to jump from one side to the other
as many times as they can without falling over or knocking the stick off.
Sounds simple? Probably because it is. Anyone can hammer out thirty jumps
without breaking a sweat. More and you start to feel it. It’s like compressing
an hour’s cardio into a couple of minutes. Come morning (actually, come a few
mornings later), you’re calves are left burning from the effort. I enjoy it
though, for the focus that’s required, for the sheer physical challenge and for
the grace. Something people usually do when they start out is to land too hard,
jarring their joints and tyring them out. To get past a hundred requires
lighter landings, and absorbing those landings gradually using your muscles as
shock absorbers. It’s why your claves get such a good workout and forces you to
practice not wearing your joints out.
Two hundred and thirty jumps certainly left their mark on my
muscles, and yet my joints don’t ache at all. It was an excellent reminder of
an exercise I should use more over the coming months, for the equipment it
requires is scarcely hard to come by and it really is a good way to push your legs…
Since last week, planning has continued. I’ve taken delivery of a new Garmin etrex 20 and have a sat phone on the way. I was going to hire one, until a price comparison showed that buying a secondhand sat phone and getting a one month contract is significantly cheaper than hiring one for a month… As with the decision to buy a GPS rather than a stack of new maps, the length of the walk makes it worthwhile. This way, I also have a sat phone for any future walks.
Will I really need to use a sat phone much? Probably not, but it's like carrying an EPIRB; if I need it, nothing else will do the job. Status updates for any others planning to join the walk partway wouldn't hurt either.
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