In Week 5 the Year 12 and 13 OPL class participated in their annual Snowskills camp based at Castle Hill.

The class have the opportunity to complete work on 2 Snowskills Unit Standards, one assessing their mountain skills with an ice axe and crampons, one assessing their work building and sleeping overnight in a snow cave.

The class worked at both Mt Cheeseman and Broken River ski fields, utilising their skills to find people buried in snow, build a snow shelter and the skill of self arresting, saving yourself from a fall when climbing or descending a mountain slope. The fastest time with a transceiver to find a fellow student buried was 1min 30sec. The students also used probes to dig down and look for those students brave enough to be buried.

Students also gained skills like how to apply chains to a vehicle and how to look after and maintain mountain safety gear. All members of the class participated positively in the week of activities, with plenty of enthusiasm even when it snowed quite heavily resulting in a total white out for a period of time!

Many thanks to Miss Megan Lowen for her contribution to the week and for representing Mrs Don up the mountain, a huge thanks to the students for their resilience, grit and determination to learn new skills in an Alpine environment.