Marmot

Just Got My New Marmot Swag For 2014

For the last 2 years my outerwear and glove sponsors have been SOS and Hestra through Snowsport In Australia.
They have helped me a whole lot in the time that we have been together, the gear they have supplied me has meant more of my own money can go directly towards travelling internationally to train and compete in the FWQ.
Recently Snowsport have decided to change their outerwear supplier, so now seemed like an appropriate time to part ways.
I wish them all the best with their new products.

Following on from that I will now be skiing for Marmot through the NZ importers Allsports.
I am stoked to be working with Marmot, their gear is tech as heck and they stock some mighty nice colours!!
And it fits in nicely with Snowcentre who are a Marmot reseller.


I just received my new Marmot kit and that has me way too excited about going skiing in Europe!
Just a month and a half to go, and until then the gear is in the cupboard while I keep myself occupied with other wilderness adventures!

Oh and I also went to the Hooker Valley in Mt Cook National Park with my Mum on the way back from the North Island the other day.
Here are some photos.

Cloud Proof

Mount Sefton Hanging Glaciers

Mum

Hooker Glacier

Hooker Glacier Lake Ice

The Girdlestone, Turoa

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to ski the Girdlestone.
Last week I finally had the chance.
Its not like its a particularly out of the way climb, or even a particularly difficult decent for that matter, I've just never had anyone to do it with, nor have I had the gear. So until now, its just sat there looking at me.

The mission came about whilst chatting to Cam McKay about various other ski adventures. The forecast was banger and he said he had some spare gear, so that was that.


The hike up called for a bit of extra kit, although it wasn't straight ice, the rime was enough to make you lose your footing in plastic soled ski boots.
So we donned our crampons and had at it.

The going was safe until the last leg of the hike when, as we had anticipated the heat of the afternoon was causing ice to release and fall down from the rock walls above us.

For the last section of the climb swapped ski poles for our axes and swiftly scuttled up under the rocks to the safety of the high lookers left saddle (I don't know the name).

We decided it was too sketchy to continue right to the summit with the amount of ice falling, as the last section is basically fully rimed rocks.
So we took a moment to take in the view, clicked in and dropped in from the saddle.

Although the snow was pretty difficult for the first few turns, it eased quickly and I was able to open it up a bit and enjoy the run.

Its nothing compared to what real mountaineers tackle, but for me it was a great intro into climbing with axe and crampons, as well as observing first hand how the rise and fall of the temperature can affect the snow and ice around you.

Girdlestone vid

Looking off the back of the Girdlestone

Looking towards the Turoa summit from the saddle

Cam with Turoa behind

Girdlestone summit

About to drop in

Chill Fail Video

By far the best bits from the Chill comps this year.

http://vimeo.com/74796423#signin

NZ Open

This year the open got gnarly.

The comp was held in the Alta Chutes at the Remarkables, as it has been for the last few years.

Alta Chutes

The venue had a fresh 10 to 15 cm of snow all over, which meant most of the lines on the main part of the venue were on.

For what ever reason people were feeling extra huckable this year.
I guess it would have to be a combination of fresh snow and the new freestyle movement within big mountain.

Although it always spices things up when you get the big dogs like Charlie lyons and Sam Smoothy over to play.

Photo By: Pete Oswald

Most of the competitors were throwing either big tricks or big cliffs, often attempting both together.
On the outside that sounds awesome, but when you look at the crash rate you have to wonder what happened.

Something like 16 out of 22 crashed, I guess people were just pushing their limits.

You only need to listen to Cam Craigheads commentary in the official comp edit below to understand what I mean:

NZ Open Big Mountain Finals Video

Photo: Neil Kerr

I tend to think I ski very safe in comparison to a lot of other skiers and even I got carried away in this specific comp.

I dropped the biggest cliff I ever have in a competition right into a chute which looking back on it had a fair amount of risk involved, but I was confident I could nail it.
And I did.

Although I stomped my line and finished my run, I took both knees to the face of the big cliff.
The impact made my vision green for a minute or so and although I don't believe I concussed myself I was pretty out of it for most of the afternoon.

I feel like a got lucky there.

Photo: Charlotte Percle

My run awarded me 3rd spot with a score of 8.55 just below Sam Smoothys 8.95.

Greg Tuscher took out the mens division with a mad dog gnarly run and a score of 9.55!
A pleasure to watch.

I feel like I am constantly achieving the goals I set for myself.

Although tricks are becoming a bigger part of the sport, It still seems that good ol fashion big mountain lines can get you on a podium.

Photo: Neil Kerr

Photo: Neil Kerr

Temple Basin Big Mountain

Photo Cred: Mark Bridgwater

The second competition of the Chill Series was held at Temple Basin, in Arthurs pass.

This trip was my first time skiing at Temple Basin and I can honestly say my mind melted.

The terrain surrounding the lift access is some of the most epic I have seen, anywhere.


Day one of competition started slow.
Due to and unstable and extremely difficult to ski snow pack, the venue was moved from the planned
location not long before we were due to start.

Photo Cred: Ace Media

The day one venue ended up being pretty limited, so I found It hard to pick a line that I was really excited to ski.
Although the bottom section was an on course inspection the top was visual only.
I scoped two lines which I realised were impossible by the time I was at the top.
I had to improvise and pick a new line from the top, so my run was not quite as exciting as I had hoped it to be.

Even still skied it solid and fast and was placed 4th at the end of the day.

Day two was held on the same venue and I managed to pick a better bigger line that I was more interested in skiing.

Everything went to plan, I skied fast without hesitation and I stomped all my airs clean.
I won the day and that put me into 1st place overall, my first Chill Series win!

Official comp video from Chill:
https://vimeo.com/73722962#at=0


Results at the bottom of the page.

Excerpt from day 2 write up up on Chill:

The men’s div saw no shortage of amazing skiing and huge airs, some a little more successful than others. Stand out runs on the day go to Sam Lee, Nick Pascoe and Jamesa Hampton who all sent solid airs with bomber landings!

Cam McDermid continued his good form and was once again back on the CHILL Series podium. Jeremy hunt had another solid run but Sam ‘Ibex’ Lee crushed it and took out top spot on the podium, much to the crowd’s delight.

I think it is important to thank Stu and Chill for running these comps and giving the Kiwi Big mountain community somewhere to test our skills.
Without them NZ big mountain skiing might not have reached the impressive standard it is at now.

Good job guys!

Cragieburn Chill Series 2013

The Chill Series was held as a 2 day comp at Craigieburn this year which is a change from previous years, as the comp has traditionally been run over 4 days switching venues between Craigieburn and Mt Olympus.

I think the change is good, as it allows people to compete at both the Chill Series and the Temple Basin Big Mountain

Day one at Craigieburn went really well for me.
I was able to pick a line that I had wanted to ski since first competing in the Chill series a few years ago.

I managed to ski it fast and fluid and stomped all of my airs, that put me into first place at the end of the first day.

Coming into day two I decided I would ski the same top section and change up my final air to a slightly easier drop.

As it turned out I was too low after the first part of my line and had to change back to my air from day one.
I took the drop on a slightly different angle which bucked me back seat on take off and I was unable to hold on to the resulting back slap on landing.
Although I crashed and rolled once my skis stayed on and I managed to recover and ski out switch, which meant I still got a score for the day, albeit a very low one.

I finished Craigieburn in 10th over all.

Even though I crashed on day two I am extremely happy with the way I skied up until that point.

Here are the official results from Chill HQ:

The official Comp Edit:
https://vimeo.com/73253415

Excerpt from the official Chill site:

"Day 1 Craigieburn Chill site report:

In the male field there were 29 competitors from nine nations. First place went to Sam Lee from New Zealand, second to Jason Waters from the US, and third was local skier Tom Brownlee. “Sam Lee stomped his run today, skiing an innovative line. From the top section there was a steep drop in exposed terrain, and Sam showed he has lifted his skiing to a new level. He took a double drop in the last section to finish his run in style. He was a deserving winner,” commented Charlie Lyons, event judge and FWT athlete.

Day 2 Craigieburn Chill site report.

Another action filled day was a fitting end to the 2013 K2 Big Mountain CHILL Series. Fortunately the weather played ball and the competitors stepped up. With a two run competition (both runs counting) you could forgive the athletes for playing it safe today but they threw caution to the wind and went for it today. There were no shortage of big lines and huge airs, not to mention more tricks than a magic shop.

Overnight leader in the men’s division Sam Lee took a go big or go home attitude and looked to have it in the bag until coming unstuck on the bottom of the course, backslapping on a double drop and washing out."

The Season So Far

This season has been an interesting one.

With the epic snow falls in the first week I figured we could be up for a pretty fly winter.
Turns out we have had a lot of fog and ice.

However all is good.
I've had a lot more work than usual up Cardrona this year, which means more cash but less skiing.

I don't feel like I have had a lot of good big mt skiing this season, although the days I have had have been great.

Now that the snow is soft and with the Chill series coming up this week I've been trying to get in as much riding in as I can.


Below is a short edit of the only footage I've taken this season.
It's not much but she'll have to do for now!


https://vimeo.com/72786447

I'm heading up to Canterbury on Wednesday to compete at Craigieburn and Temple Basin.
Following right after is the NZ open and then the Whakapapa Extremes to wrap up the comp season.

I'm getting pretty excited for the comps to start, hoping for a little more snow before then!

Here is a snow blade edit from our TC closing day rehearsal, rehearsal.
https://vimeo.com/72583089


Here are a few photos from the Alta Chutes at Remarkables the other day.

Photos by Pete Oswald

crested butte and back to nz

The last comp of my season in America was at Crested Butte.
I went into CB feeling really confident in my skiing, and ready to send it.
At first glance the venue for day one was looking rather uninspiring, but after spending a while picking through the options in inspection, I settled on a line I liked.
I skied really clean and moved through to the final day in 6th position, along with a nomination for sick bird (which Neil Williman won!).

I went into the finals feeling mighty confident in my skiing.
I picked a relatively unique line that I could tell I was going to really enjoy.
The snow on the finals venue was pretty thin and firm for us, but I can tell it would be off the chain with a little more soft stuff!

My finals run didn't go quite as smoothly as I had hoped.
I made my way down to my first feature, a side hill drop into the main chute.
As I popped off the lip of my drop the snow collapsed a bit under my feet, which knocked me forward and put me in a bad position to land.
I landed on my feet and put down a hand, almost hip checking and got pointed up hill.
Although it took me a while to get back on track and sort my self out, I never actually fell and managed to ski the rest of my line as planned, finishing the comp in 12th overall.

A result I am happy with, all things considered.

Neil Williman deserves a big shout out for his efforts.
He put in a solid effort and sent it on day 2 and finished up in second place, aaand he won the title of Sick Bird.
Sick Bird is the award given to the person who sent and stomped the biggest, gnarliest drop/line out of anyone in the comp, they give out one sick bird belt buckle at each of the Subaru Freeski Stops in the USA, and as far as Im aware Neil is only the 2nd Kiwi (following Janina Kuzma) to earn that title.
His result at CB also guaranteed him a spot back on the WORLD TOUR necxt year.
So congrats Neil!
Your a badass!

Crested Butte has probably got the best, most easily accessed in bounds pillow skiing I have ever come across.
Massive steep lines with stacks 5 to 10 high, possibly more, closing out into some pretty gnarly trees.
All accessed by a simple traverse off the T bar.
The snow was a little unforgiving for pillow skiing while I was there, so I didnt get a chance to immerse myself in the pillowy madness, its definitely a spot id like to return to with some pow!

Moonlight Basin

I finished up at the Moonlight Basin 4* a few days ago.

The venue at Moonlight is awesome, its the steepest, sharkiest venue I've competed on and my favourite stop so far.

The format for Moonlight was 2 day cumulative score with a cut after the first day.

My line on day one was good, but I skied the bottom half of it pretty loose, even still I finished on my feet and moved through to day 2 in 9th place.

Day 2 didn't go so well, I stuffed up the run in to my first cliff and went off slighty on the wrong angle with not enough speed, clipped sharks in the landing and crashed out.

Its a bummer not to have finished my run, but I learned a lot.
Mainly that I am able to self arrest quickly at the top of a really steep venue after a messy crash.

Since Castle mountain I discovered the best technique for dealing with the disappointment of falling or messing up in a comp.

Go be a dick head on either Snow Blades or a Mono Ski.

This tactic is guaranteed to fix all bad feelings.

I know this for sure because I have now tested it two times in a row.
And both times it has succeeded.

After Blading at Castle mountain, it was time to try something more ambitious,
So I strapped on a mono, and I skied the mountain.

Initially its scary as hell. but when you work out its all in the hips, the pole plant and the short turns, your day goes from pretty ait, to cosmically radular!

I also learned that a 360 on a mono, is a very very hard maneuver.

I've got a break between comps now, so I'm hanging in Colorado for a week before heading up to the Crested Butte 4* for the final comp of my season.

Here are my last two edits.

Alta Peow Peow

Jackson Hole Aye?

Castle Mountain

Castle Mountain was the second of my comp stops this year.
It was a 3* FWQ in Alberta, Canada.
I crashed in the run out of top air, due to not planning my run out well enough, and didn't get past day one.

That made time for some fun on day two.
I managed to score some Snow Blades for a day, and as you can imagine..
Shit got wild.

3 Bladers, one mono skier, front flips, coloradoing and getting told to chop down our jump by the Man were but a small portion of the days events.

One of these days there will be a blade edit.

But for now, I suggest you watch this 30 second video of Ian Borgeson and myself riding the Fernie skate park:
BC Park Blading

After that day I realised we need to grow the sport of Snow Blading in New Zealand.
Im going to get hold of some blades before the season.
You should too, then we can get stupid this winter!!

First Comp Of The Season

Hey!! here is a link!

Its an edit I just finished full of the skiing I did at Jackson Hole!

Jackson Hole Aye?

---Taos Extreme---

Flying into Albuquerque

I just finished up at the Taos extreme in New Mexico, the first 4* FWQ comp of the US season.

There were 3 days of competition and the scores from each day were combined.

On top of that the bottom 3rd or so of the field was cut after each day, that made consistency a high priority.

6 weeks ago I knocked myself out and had to spend a night in hospital, so the plan for this comp was to ski within my limits and land all runs on my feet, so the chance of another head knock would be minimal.

I managed to stick to the plan and I finished up in 7th over all.

A result im really happy with. 

I cant think of a better way to get warmed up for the comp season than to go straight into a 3 day comp.

Now that I know how I stack up against the locals Ill be looking to push it harder in the coming stops, the next one being Castle Mountain.

I am currently sitting in Calgary airport, killing time. 5 hours and ill be on a bus to pincher creek.

I stayed in the little town of Aroyo Secco which is about 15 mins away from Taos Valley Ski Area.

The hostel I stayed in was the Abdominal Snowmanison. I like the name.

Below are some photos of the town in all its adobe goodness.

The Snowmansion

Jackson Hole

Looking out from Casper bowl

Ive been hanging out in Jackson Hole with the kiwi crew for about a month now.
The 6 of us have been living together in an apartment half way between the resort and the town of Jackson.
Its been pretty close in here, but the livings been good.

Example of Jackson Hole Side Country

The snow quality has been mostly good, with a few dry spells in between the storms.
We have spent a lot of our time boot packing out of bounds, looking for any left over snow that we can find.
The Jackson Hole side country is a well travelled place.
I was really surprised at the amount of people hiking and skiing out of bounds on a regular basis.



The terrain at Jackson is amazing, and not a lot changes between the in bounds and out of bounds stuff.

Its a lot of fun skiing side country, the effort you put in to find good zones really enhances the following ski down.

Our crew is slowly disbanding and heading home.
And in a few days ill be the only one left, on my way down to Taos New Mexico, to compete in the 4* FWQ competition there.
And then its pretty much back to back comps at Castle Mountain 3*, Moonlight Basin 4* and Crested Butte 4*.



Im feeling pretty good on my skis at the moment, although I had a long time off snow recovering from a bad knock out earlier on in the trip, and a close call recently has had me skiing a little more cautiously over the last few days.

Im looking forward to Taos, the opener of the comp season, and a personal test.
The plan is to land on my feet this year.

Lets see if I can!

Here is an edit of our crew ripping in the pow:
https://vimeo.com/58913481

A Pow edit from Revelstoke:
https://vimeo.com/58153680

On a side note, Scott palmer and I did a hike in paddle out adventure SUP in the Matukituki valley up towards Kitchener flat just before I left NZ.
Here is the edit I made of that trip:
https://vimeo.com/57462741
There is more info in the video description.

Saw a Moose. 

Brain Damage on Brain Damage

My first day on snow at Jackson hole was awesome fun.
Me and Blake spent all morning hunting around for 3 day old unspoiled pow.
We managed to find some sweet zones that no one had been in, and got a bit of the good stuff to our selfs.
Unfortunately for me, my day ended at 2.30.
We had been skiing lines through a single specific zone for the past 3 runs, and after a couple of successes and one fail I decided I wanted to drop the big one.
It was about 20 maybe 30 ft to a pretty flat, but mighty deep landing.
I stood on it for a few minutes deciding how I was going to send it.

Then I woke up in hospital.

The story goes that I dropped my line, and on stomping the landing proceeded to take either a my pole or my knee to my chin, which knocked me out cold.
I was out for about 3 minutes before coming to.
From what Im told it was a bit of a mission dragging my concussed self out of there. Sounds like I owe the Jackson Hole Ski Patrol a box of beer for their efforts, which Ill add are greatly appreciated.

Blake says I got to ride in both a blood bin and and ambulance.
But I dont remember anything until about 6 that night.

All is good though, my scans came out clear of any bleeding or swelling, but I must say I feel slightly less smarter than before.

So anyway. Ive been off snow for the last few days, waiting for my brain to sort its shit out.
Hoping to get back on snow soon.

Oh and you want to know what the best part is?
The cliff I knocked myself out on was called
BRAIN DAMAGE.

Brain Damage on Brain Damage

Go figure eh.

Revy to Jackson

Revelstoke to Jackson Hole

Ive been in the great continent of North America for a couple of weeks now.
I arrived in Revelstoke about 2 weeks ago, straight into the middle of a storm which supplied us with deep BC pow by the cloud load.
Its a double edged sword skiing pow from day 1.
Having tones of fresh is the ultimate dream, and as any kiwi knows, POW is more valuable than gold.
So if its there you have no choice but to ski the hell out of it from 1st to last chair.
The flip side of that is that skiing pow is hard work, so you spend the next 4 days painfully trying to your ski legs back, against the best efforts of that old bastard lactic acid.

Rodgers Pass, I think.

A few days of awesome snow at Revy paved the way for the first stop of the Freeride World Tour.
Blake Lepper and myself spent the day on the spectators ridge opposite the Mac daddy face where the comp was being held.
We took up the role of support team for the southern contingent.
It was a great day, I learned a lot from watching the comp live, Ive gotta say its given me a big boost of inspiration.
It was great to see Charlie Lyons and Sam Smoothy put down some really solid runs, especially Charlie who, in his first ever FWT stop, managed to score a 5th.

Tunnels in Canada

Frost inside the car

After the comp I hit the road to Jackson Hole with Nat Segal and Blake Lepper.
We were able to stop off at Kicking Horse.
I gotta say, that mountain is one of the most interesting I have come across.
The terrain there is great, so many pillows, cliffs and chutes, all falling away from steep easy access ridge lines. I can see myself growing to love that mountain.

Stairway To Heaven @ Kicking Horse

                                           16 hours (roughly) later and we made it to Jackson.

Gotta Get Gas

Mr Tomnus (Tom Brownlee) In our backpacker pad @ Jackson Hole