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.