Awexome ski trip 2008

OK ppl, the time has come. We must begin planning for awesome.

Tentative dates:
Sun-tues, 24-26 aug.
Place: Buller
Price:
Probably I'd set aside about $500-$600 on the safe side. Price breakdown:

Adult:
day/lift ticket/lift ticket plus ski/snowboard hire (we may be able to hire stuff cheaper off the mountain.
2-day $184 $267
3-day $264 $372

Tertiary:
2-day $147 $213
3-day $210 $296
Tertiary students get half price lift tickets on tuesday (sorry, thought it was everyone), tho I dunno how that fits into multiday tickets, might not make much difference. Tertiary is much cheaper anyway, so if you can fake being a tertiary student (old yet apparantly valid student ID

Then there is accomodation (hopefully we can find somewhere dodgy to stay a bit cheaper, or maybe a big group thing if there are lots of us) petrol and food, so add extra money for that. Expensive I know, kinda sucks, but it is awesome to the max.

In fact, if we have more than 10 of us, which I'm thinking is likely (my sister wants to come too, plus other random hangers on and whatever) then we can get discounted group rates, 10% off adult, %20 off tertiary, which makes a pretty big difference.

Check out the group info form for buller for more details. We'll want to book that decently in advance tho, which I'll be happy to organise once we can gauge the level of interest.


Adults would drop to $334 for 3 day lift and hire, tertiary down to $296. Oh, thats the same as before. hmm. wonder what that's about. Maybe we don't get more discount for the group. Anyway it would be nicer for the adults at least.

If you have to hire waterproof jackets and pants thats like $60 extra too. Might even be worth buying cheapish stuff like that. You don't need super warm stuff, you can wear warm clothes under waterproof pants and it's fine (I wore waterproof overpants over jeans only for most of my time at Sierra and was warm. ON really cold days I wore tracksuit pants under the jeans.) Waterproof stuff is cheaper than the actual warm stuff. Anyway, that's a side issue.

As a group we can get discounted lessons too if anyone was interested in that. It can make it easier to learn. I never had any, but some people reckon lessons are good to have. Not that cheap tho.

Even if you only want to come up for say 2 out the 3 days we can still work something out. 3 days will be more epic awesome.


I know the weekdays are difficult for those of you with work (and also uni), but you'll get a lot more out of it without the ridiculous weekend crowds cramping your style. It won't be so bad while you're learning on sunday (tho lift lines will still suck) but once you start getting the hang of it on monday you'll be glad there are fewer people in the way. Especially coz most of you guys will need to spend most of your time on the easy slopes, which is where EVERYONE goes; they get crowded.

Thats enough for now. Let there be expressions of interest and discussion in the comments. We want to lock in some dates soon so we can have lots of time to prepare, especially if we want to do a group booking.

Let there be AWESOME.

Oh yeah, invite whoever you want, especially if they have contacts who can get us cheap accommodation :p.
I might look into booking the Monash cabin, I know they have one up there. I'm thinking it's pretty popular tho so I wouldn't hold my breath.
*edit: Yeah the lodge is totally booked out around that time. I'll have to remember that tho, it's pretty cheap and you don't need a group, can just go by yourself and grab a bed. Sweet.

final thing: Oh my god, how amazing is this?



That is Shishapangma, in Tibet near the Nepal border. 14th highest mountain in the world. I have to go to these places.