Epic weekend snow trip

16-19 August 2013

Few months ago, as the weather got colder, all I was thinking of was, I really wish I'm at the snow! Every morning when I walk to work, all I can imagine is me, in the cold, walking along the street near the mountains, on the way to the snow.

And so, I gathered a group of friends from dragonboat and started planning a weekend to snowy mountains. The plan was to drive 5-6 hours on Friday after work, hit the slopes on Saturday, drive back on Sunday. I knew it was going to be tiring and so I took a day off on Monday. We were so organized that we even bought vouchers so gear hire. $49 for $100 worth of gear hire. Haha!

Came the snow weekend, we left Sydney at 8.30 pm, arrived Jindabyne at 2am in the wee morning after getting lost halfway and had to drive through this eerie gravel road. But hey, what's a road trip without getting lost right?

Stayed at Discovery Holiday Park here we booked a 6 person villa. Pretty cosy, own kitchen, toilet and small dining area. After arriving, it was straight to bed after a long drive. I couldn't really sleep though as I felt like a small kid again, feeling really excited. The whole week leading up to the trip, I was constantly checking the weather forecast. Was a bit gutted because it forecasted snow showers over the weekend. And hence, I prepared myself for a cold, windy, snowy experience at Thredbo. 

Day 1

Woke up to a sunny morning the next day. Clear blue skies. Took awhile to get our gear and co-ordinating everyone. Some were just taking their own sweet time with breakfast and just getting out of the place. Managed to squeeze in all the gear in my awesome Prius and hence didn't require a roof rack.

By the time we got to Thredbo, it was already 10am. It's so different compared to Ruapehu. Even at the carpark, you can't even see any snow! Was thinking, where am I going to board? So many trees, I don't see no snow. 

After walking 100 metres or so, finally saw some snow! The last time I boarded was 3 years ago. Putting on my snowboots and getting on the snowboard again felt so different. I had difficulty getting around. Didn't want to waste anytime at the beginner's area and hence headed straight to the chairlift to get up. After a few falls and crawling around, finally recalled how to brake!! 

The ride in the morning was just simply awesome. It wasn't windy, it wasn't snowing, snow was soft, it was actually quite warm!! Haven't boarded in such condition before. Attempted to brake with my toes but kept falling forward many times. In the end, I just decided to just brake using my heels and just have fun.

In the afternoon after lunch, we decided to go even further up. There was a green trail called the Village Trail (green is easy trail, blue is medium, and black trail is the hardest) that's 5km long. I figured it will be a good one to practice braking with my heels and toes. We took a chairlift up and according to the map, to get to the very start of the Village Trail, we need to board down to the T bars, catch the T bars to the very top. And so, we decided to do that. Note: I never ever could ride the T bar. But I was so confident for some reason that I will be able to do so. So anyway, when we got to the T bar, surprise surprise, I couldn't make it. Kept falling  after 2-3m or so. I figured, screw this, I am just going to board down. The catch is.... The only trails down to the base were all Black trails!!! And to walk all the way up to where we started, it is a very steep climb. So, I had three choices: 

1. Keep trying the T bar and make a fool out of myself and probably won't ever succeed

2. Take the black trails and put my life in danger

3. Walk with my boots and board up the snowy slopes

I chose choice number 3. How bad can it be right? It will guarantee me getting to the top, just takes time only. And it sure as hell took  A LOT of time. As I started walking up, it started to snow, well, more like hail. There was a blizzard. I was walking against the wind, uphill, through snow, with my snowboard. I had to use my snowboard and anchor it to the ground so I can walk up and not slide down. Small baby steps, eventually I will get there. But, it came to a point where it was all icy, no snow. there was no way I could even push my board into the snow. It came sliding, it was so slippery, I can just picture myself sliding all the way downhill back to where I started. I didn't gave up though. I went on all fours, and slowly crawl up. It was such a torture but pretty hilarious at the same time. Everyone else on the T bars must be thinking, what an idiot! There were a few points where I had to use my board to shield myself against the blizzard. 

Eventually, slowly, but surely, I managed to get to the top. Took at least half an hour. I was exhausted, all I wanted to do was go back down. All of a sudden, walking on flat snowy ground felt like a piece of cake. The ride down wasn't too bad. Apart from the fact that visibility was pretty poor at one point that I almost ride off a cliff!! 

By the time I finished the run, it was already 4.30 and all the chairlifts were closed. So I pretty much did 4-5 runs for that whole day. It was good fun but just felt like it wasn't enough. Wasn't satisfied. But then, a lightbulb moment happened!

3 out of the 6 of us decided, let's to another day tomorrow. We'll just drive down in the evening and arrive Sydney late at night. Besides, I got Monday off, Su Yi doesn't work on Monday, Chern works Monday night. And so, it was set!! Perisher next day!

Dinner that night was hotpot. 2 additional people showed up. Bernie and Tuan drove all the way down to Jindabyne just to have hotpot and stay a night with us. Super awesome!! 

Day 2

The 3 of us got up at 7.30 and was out the door by 8.15. Super efficient!! We decided to try Perisher as we heard it was better. Took us longer than expected to get to the top. It started snowing, cars were crawling, it was windy, we had to stop and put snow chains on. Cut the long story short, weather was crap the whole day, all chairlifts were closed, only T bar and J bar operating. 

But since we already made it up there, might as well right. I tried the T bar several times but there was a very long queue each time so I decided to just go to the J bar. Initially had trouble with that but eventually mastered it. And so, I just stayed at the beginner's area, determined to be able to brake with my toes whilst Su Yi and Chern took the T bar up to the very top. 

The whole time I was wishing and praying the wind would calm down and the chairlifts will operate .... but... it didn't happen. But.... thanks to YouTube, I managed to finally brake with my toes at the end of the day!! I am one step closer to looking like a pro!!! Thighs were less sore and it just felt so natural. Super satisfied despite the disappointment of not being able to ride the T bar. Well, at least I tried.

We were one of the last to get off the snow field. It was 4.30 by then. Got changed, returned out gear and then it was back to Sydney. 

The journey didn't end here.

We decided to stop by Canberra for dinner. By the time we got to Canberra, it was 8pm. Met up with Grace, Su Yi's friend aka the girl who let me bunked at her place during my half marathon trip back in April. Chern called his sister who's staying in Canberra and then.... we all decided, might as well stay in Canberra for the night! It's late, we are all tired, she was so nice to let us crash at her place. My weekend holiday have been stretched even longer!!

Day 3
Free and easy around Canberra. Chilled, went to a cafe for brekky, walked around the town.... ended up buying myself rock climbing shoes :O (it was cheap!!!)

Went to some sort of lookout I don't even remember the name.... and then... headed home.

It didn't end there though. Seeing that I've bought my rock climbing shoes, and also bought myself a harness back in Sydney because it was on sale.... We decided.... rock climbing!!!!

Was pretty exhausted after but.... it was definitely an EPIC weekend!! 

Kathmandu Adventure Series - 25th May

Apologies for the dead blog. Time to dust off the cob webs. Here's a delayed race report for my very first adventure race back in May... Got $50 bucks from Kathmandu my writing this race report. Haha!!!

A few months prior to the race, I was just browsing Facebook and came across the link for Kathmandu Adventure Series. Out of curiosity, I clicked it to see what it's all about. It's an adventure race that involves orienteering, mountain biking, trail running, kayaking and rowing. As this was the sprint series, it's only a short course that will only take a few hours. There's the longer series that could take up to 12 hours and there's even a 24 hour race!!

I thought to myself, this will probably make it a step closer towards doing a triathlon if I do this race. And so, I sent out an email to a few people in my dragonboat team to see who's interested to be my race partner as the race is done in teams of two.

Got a reply back from Chern and so... Team Terrain Terror was formed!!

We were pretty enthusiastic about the race and the prep. In the end, it was more talk than do. We were discussing on how we should do a trial race - hire a kayak and do 3km, take our bikes and cycle 20 odd kms, and run 7km off road. We'll do them all in 3 separate days and then one full thing on another day and see how long it takes us to complete.

In the end, our prep consisted of a day of 3km+ kayak, a day where we ran the spit to manly route which was a decent 10km off road.... and came the day for our bike trial, we were planning to ride from city to bondi... but approximately 3km into our ride, Chern's bike broke and so we had to drag it back to the city and went for brekky. That was the amount of training we had for the bike portion. In the end, we did not even did a full mock race.

A week before the real race, he finally got a new mountain bike. We picked it up on Saturday and was meant to go for a ride the next day but it didn't happen. Which means, he will be riding his mountain bike for the very first time during the race itself!

It has been raining the past few days in the lead up to race day and I was just praying for good weather on race day.

And so... came race day...

Team Terrain Terror left Sydney for the Royal National Park at 6 in the morning. My Toyota Prius did an amazing job by being able to fit two bulky mountain bikes.

Stopped by Maccas halfway to grab some brekky. Took about an hour to get to the bike drop off area. After we dropped off our bikes, we went to the registration area to collect our maps and started planning our race. Or should I say "plan". As we walked back to the car with our maps, we saw other teams reading the maps so seriously and writing notes. Some even pulled out their picnic chairs, sipping cups of coffee whilst planning their race. As for us, we got back to the car, took out the map, grabbed some highlighters and pretty much just trace the lines on the map. We were done in less than 5 minutes. We spent the rest of our time fixing our bandannas and shoes. Chern had a "talking" shoe to start with. We ended up fixing the shoes with rigid sports tape. The race have not even started. Talk about being prepared, huh?

We got to the starting line with our maps feeling so excited for the race. Checked out the pop-up Kathmandu discount tent and had a quick chat with the man over there. We asked him if the tent will still be opened after the race and his answer was: "Depends what time you finish the race." We answered him :"Should be back by 12 of course!" He asked us if it was our first race and we said yes. He chuckled.


9am, the race starts. First part of the race we were given a rogaine map. We had to pretty much collect 5 out of 6 checkpoints in any order. The strategy was to go to the checkpoint with least people first even if it means it's the further away and then make our way back. That, was our strategy. We were pretty good with that. Following the rogaine, it was a steep climb up the Honeymoon trail to our bikes. When we got to our bikes, there were many bikes left. That meant we must be doing pretty well, being at the front half of the pack.

And so, team terrain terror set off on their very first mountain bike journey! It started off pretty cruisy, it was en enjoyable ride. But after checkpoint 3, there was this really steep hill. Having no experience in mountain biking, I was just all over the whole bike trail from right to left, lost control but did not want to brake too much as I knew I would fling myself off my bike. I pressed my brake bit by bit but the bike wasn't going any slower, instead it was going faster and faster because it was getting steeper and steeper. I was on the road to a broken collar bone or a leg, or maybe a head injury. I panicked, my foot came off the pedal, I lost control, but still refusing to brake. A "George of the Jungle" stunt lighted up and I figured, I should just hit a tree and stop. And so, I steered towards a tree on the way down, hit the tree and came out fine. My buddy along with other cyclists' jaws dropped. They were all really friendly and asked if I was fine. We decided to come down the bike and walk our bikes down and carried on in our races.

Throughout the ride, we saw so many people turning back as they missed their checkpoints. You get a 30 min penalty if you miss a checkpoint. And so, we made sure we did not miss any checkpoints. The mountain bike leg of the race involved a lot of pushing the bike down or up any steep hills. My thighs were killing me. Halfway throughout the mountain bike leg, we had to park our bike and do a 2 km run and then it was back on our bikes again.

By the time we got back to the bike drop off area, we hardly had a spot to park our bikes. Most of the bikes were back. This could only mean one thing - we are one of the last team in the race. Everyone caught up to us in the 20 km bike leg.

Next leg, a 5 km run. At this point, we were low on energy. Legs were cramping, we were running low on energy. We didn't pack any food apart from 5 packets of GU gels to share between the two of us for the whole race. It took us over an hour to complete the running leg as we ended up walking most of it. Chern was really running low on energy, no joke, no chant could psych him up. I was worried we won't even make it to the finish line. As we ran pass the bike drop off area and ran down the Honeymoon trail, a burst of energy came out of nowhere. We were speedy Gonzales as we ran downhill, towards the rowing boats.

Got to the rowing leg. It was the only leg where we managed to catch up to a few other teams. We were cruising through the water, nice and easy, gently down the stream. I guess the dragonboat training paid of a little. After parking our boats, we ran 500m or so to the kayaks. We started off rather gung ho and was going at a rather fast pace. For about 100m or so and then died. We got to all our checkpoints and then headed back to shore and it was a 100m sprint to the finish line!!

Crossed the finish line with a time of 5 hours 1 min. Overall placing 136, category placing 33/46 teams. Crossing the finish line was a huge relief. We actually did it and came out alive!! Best compliment of the day? I'd have to say the moment we handed in our checkpoint chip and the lady said to us : "Congratulations, you completed all checkpoints and did not miss any!"

And guess what? The Kathmandu pop up tent was still there! But it wasn't 12pm, it was 2pm. Haha!! Now we understood why the man at the tent chuckled before the race. Because we were simply a bunch of jokers who underestimated what an adventure race was. You are crazy to even think you can complete the race in 3 hours, especially being first timers. It's not your standard road running, road biking race. It is called an Adventure Race for a reason!!

Would I do it again? On first thought, NO WAY!! You're crazy to even ask. But as I woke up the next day in agony, looking back at the experience and the crazy stories coming out of it, of course!! I'd definitely do it again. But next time, much more training will need to be invested. Team Terrain Terror will be back stronger and better next time!

20 km Narrowneck Night Run 16th November

Last trail run for the year in terms of racing. Another race I thoroughly enjoyed despite the crappy weather. Was looking forward to catch some AMAZING views with the sunset and starry night with this night run but... it was bucketing rain during my drive up to the Blue Mountains. At the start, it was drizzling and all foggy. You can hardly see anything. Everyone was all in their wet weather race gear - rain jackets, beanies... and not forgetting, the mandatory head torch.

Didn't really require to turn on my head torch only towards the halfway point. You had an option to turn around the 7 km mark or 10 km mark. I signed up for the 20 km run. That was before knowing about this crappy weather. But when I started the race, 3-4 km in, I was so tempted to just turn around at the 7 km mark and make it a 14 km run instead of 20. The rain was on and off, it was hot and cold. I had to take on and take off my rain jacket several times. Was contemplating the whole time whether to turn around.

But by the time I knew it, I have actually missed the 7 km turn around point and I was actually at the 10 km point. Well, guess I am doing the full 20!! It was dark by then and I had to turn on my headtorch. Being a cheap 20 bucks headtorch from Kathmandu, it wasn't bright enough. All I could see clearly is 5-10m ahead of me. I tried to stick to several runners as they had brighter lights but some sped up, some slowed down. I was alone by myself for the last few kilometers.

At one point, I actually ran into a bush because the path was curving to the right and I didn't see it. For a moment, I panicked, I did a quick spin, which I shouldn't have... and lost my orientation. It was pitch black and that headtorch of mine was rather useless in all the fog. When I finally found the path, I didn't know whether to go left or right. I might be heading away or towards the finish line. I waited for a minute or so and then saw some lights coming my way. It was then where I knew which direction to head towards to.

Crossed the finish line with a time of 2 hours 17 mins and a lucky draw prize waiting for me.

Came 6th out of 19 females. Pretty stoked! In a way, I really enjoyed this night trail running experience in the rain and fog. Pretty surreal. It's so dark you can't really see what's ahead of you, whether or not there's a steep slope coming or flat ground. I tend to slow down when I see a steep slope ahead but because it was dark, I just kept running until I actually hit the slope and feel it. It's good in a way and it just makes me keep running.

Will I do it again? For sure!!! And am keeping my fingers cross the weather god will be kinder the next time :p