Year 10 Outdoor Education Snow Camp
From Tuesday 27 until Thursday 29 August 2019, twenty one Year 10 students along with Mr John Braid, Mr Robbie Tuck, Mr Daniel Blake, Mr Mark Oates and Mr John Tulk (a visiting Pre-Service Teacher) undertook a 3-day snow camping experience at Mount Field National Park.
Departing from Lake Dobson the classes split into their two groups and walked for a kilometre before donning snowshoes. From there they ascended the ‘Jeep Track’ to the Mount Mawson Ski Fields. After briefly enjoying the sanctuary of the new ski fields day shelter both groups headed up higher to find suitable spots to set up their snow tents. Each group was able to camp not too far from several large snow drifts ready for the next day’s activities.
On the second day the groups woke to 10 centimetres of fresh snow. For much of this day students and staff dug into the huge snow drifts to create a number of impressive snow caves. The students were then able to have the unique experience of sleeping in these overnight. After some challenging weather conditions early on in the trip the weather cleared on the final morning allowing the groups to spend a couple of hours playing around on skis and snowshoes at the base of the Mawson ski fields.
Despite the cold temperatures, the strong winds and the snowfalls everyone had an amazing time with some students keen to continue with such experiences whilst for others it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.