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

Airtripping

Wow.

January 6th came very fast indeed.
I got up and went for a run, to get a lil bit o last minute Sunday shine.
Then it was back inside to finish up the packing.

I jumped on a plane in Queenstown at 12 on Sunday.
Blue bird skies meant I got to see the alps in full summer snow.
That almost an oxymoron right?
It was probably 30c on sat, so don't ask me why there is still snow in the mountains.

Southern Alps getting the best of both worlds

It was a bit of a tease seeing that out my window.
Im currently in Vancouver where its raining.

But thats ok.

Cos someone told me its snowing in Revelstoke, and thats getting me a little bit excited.
Thats where Im heading tomorrow.

Woo! Winter!

On my way through Auckland airport I had to stop off and grab an extra thing.

A swish new jacket from SOS!!

Thanks fellows.

.

Ive also got this short video of packing...

Packing

Competititition

Photo: Chill

The last 4 weeks have been pretty epic for me. It was the peak comp season with four Freeride World Qualifier(FWQ) events of which I did three.

A whole bunch of travelling and competing, and a few awesome days skiing has made for a pretty top month.

I started out with the Chill Series big mountain up in Canterbury, a 2 star event.

This year the comp ran as a 4 day, 2 venue, 3 best places count format.

So it sort of ended up being a bit of an endurance comp.

The standard of skiing was really high this year, with a good bunch of Euros competing and a handful of the Kiwi kids throwing down mad stunts (Charlie Lyons cork 3 eat your heart out).

I had 3 solid days with two 4ths and a 2nd, which put me into 2nd place overall.

A good way to start the season!

Here are the official edits from Chill: Mt Olympus Day 1 and 2  and Craigieburn Day 1 and 2

After a mind blowing drive home down the West Coast, it was time for the NZ Open big mountain, a 3 star event.

I was pre qualified into the finals day, which took a bit of stress out of the comp seeing as I only needed to throw down on one day.

The finals was meant to be a 2 run, but due to the weather it was capped at 1 run.

I managed to put together a fast clean run with a few nuggets and one big drop and earned myself 4th place, with only .03 points between me and Charlie Lyons (3rd).

A result I am stoked with!

I competed on a pair of 190cm Head Bonecrushers, good for going fast and dropping big rocks!

The official edit from The Open: NZ Open Finals

Photo: Malcolm Pullman

Another epic mission later and I’m in National Park, waiting for the clouds to clear for the Ruapehu Xtremes at Whakapapa, another 3 star.

After days of waiting for the weather to roll out, we finally got a window and day one went ahead.

The Xtremes lived up to its rep of having the iciest venue in New Zealand (and probably the world) by hardening the hell out of LegoLand (day one venue).

Photo Credit: Malcolm Pullman

I had two really fast, solid runs on day one which put me at the top of the pile. I did the comp the REV 105, a nice stiff ski with lots of carve. New favourite comp ski.

In the end the comp became a one day comp, down from 3 days, with day 2 and 3 being cancelled mainly due to bad the extremely icy conditions on the venues.

So I finished up in 1st spot over all.

A very happy day!

The official edit from the comp: Ruapehu Xtremes

After the four New Zealand events I will be leading the Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ) rankings for the Europe/Africa/Asia/Oceania region.  Best three results for the May 1 to April 30 year count so with the northern hemisphere comps to go, and they include some higher point scoring 4 star events, it’s early days. 

There were about 20 European and US competitors here for the New Zealand comps and 8 of last year’s FWQ top 20, including me and Charlie Lyons were in the fields so the standard was pretty high.

If I can end up top 10 at year end I will be very happy.

I will be doing the Canadian and US events which are now part of a unified world tour.  You can get points from anywhere but they count in your region for overall standings.  The Americas is a separate region. Top four from each region go through to the Freeride World Tour of about 20 elite riders including NZs own Mr Sam Smoothy and Mr Charlie Lyons.

 

Im back in Wanaka, with the chill series done.

The week went really well, and was a lot of fun.
We managed to hit clear warm weather the whole way through, which was a bonus.
The format for the comp was three best results out of four count.
I skied consistently well throughout the comp with only a crash on the second day, and finished in 2nd place overall!!

So Im pretty happy!

My results were:
Day 1 -- 4th
Day 2 -- Crashed
Day 3 -- 4th
Day 4 -- 2nd


The field was really strong with a bunch of Euros turning up, plus all the Kiwi boys throwing down.

I've got the NZ open coming up in a couple of days.
This year I'm pre qualified for the finals, so that makes for a slightly less stressful comp.

Here is the official edit from Mt Olympus day 1 and 2,

Check it out https://vimeo.com/48408377

CHI I ILL

At last we got some real snow.

And finally I got to drop some cliffs and do some proper skiing and training.
I am really happy with that, because it means I am going in to my comps feeling really confident.

I’m currently packing my bags for the Chill Series Big Mountain, which is happening up at the Canterbury clubs starting on Wednesday 22 August.

I’ve been excited for Chill all year as it’s my favourite NZ comp.
Its amazing being able to compete in such remote little mountains. The whole vibe is great, plus the venues are sick.

Here is a little edit I slammed together of a few drops and thangs.

2012 start of season edit 


Woo!