Profile of a Winter Group Member -- Neil Dendle

My interest in skiing started through bushwalking in the mid 70's with Geelong Bushwalking Club. Before this I had only experienced snow once while tobogganing at Baw Baw. Family holidays were mainly in summer, camping at a different location each January around Victoria and sometimes interstate. With neither parent nor any relative being a skier, winter was the period you endured until it was warm enough to resume beach activities. The start of more active winter pursuits came when I tried bushwalking as a student at the Gordon Institute, and this lead to joining GBC.

In winter the GBC program included snow walks in the Alps, and ski instruction weekends while snow camping at Baw Baw (Shirley's Slide), and also using Howmans Gap at Falls Creek. As our skills developed we progressed to day trips to Lake Mountain, and snow camping weekends at Mt. Stirling, Mt. Buffalo and Falls Creek. This was the era pre trail fees, with minimum facilities for XC skiing (no trail grooming and skiing on bushwalking width ski trails or 4WD tracks under snow). As I was working at Telecom, I was lured over to the dark side by downhill ski weekends at Mt. Buller, Mt. Buffalo and Mt. Hotham with work colleagues, organised by the Social Club, whenever a weekend wasn't occupied by XC skiing. When I back packed overland to Europe in the late 1970's, I spent a fortnight downhill skiing at Andorra, very different to Australian skiing.

When I returned to Oz in 1981, and unfortunately had to resume work, employment at the Board of Works (Melbourne Water) brought me into contact with Winter Group through a fellow computer programmer (Kathy Burkitt), who told me about the WG winter program including Howmans Gap week. The opportunity to get more XC skiing through the winter programs of both GBC and WG was irresistible. Over the next couple of decades thanks to Annual Leave and flexi-time I pursued without success the Holy Grail of 50 days on snow in a winter, but 43 and 42 days were the closest I came. I have enjoyed the opportunity to see and appreciate Victoria's high country under snow, a totally different experience than that of the other three seasons. It helped a lot to be able to ski well into October most years, and occasionally November. But the last decade seems to me to be providing shorter ski seasons and diminished cover (global warming?).

Over time I have found that the amount of snow camping and extended ski touring appears to have diminished, and the use of accommodation and day touring has steadily grown. WG has even ventured overseas (NZ), to add to the list of winter venues. Weeks at Dinner Plain and Falls Creek, weekends at Mt Buffalo, Mt. Stirling, and Baw Baw and day trips to Lake Mountain -- you can't beat the combination of good skiing and great company.

The social side is an important feature of the club program I have enjoyed over the years. Pub and restaurant nights, BBQs and camping weekends are pleasant in themselves, and provide a chance to reminisce about skiing past and plan future trips.