Arghhhh……August New Zealand Angst – 08/18/04

NZ August 2004

In NZ…..

Queenstown…..

2 feet last 48 hours….Rinsed out propa’

Went to the Remarks today but the roads were treacherous in the morning. The sick lift was on hold due to avalanche control and flat light…only skied a couple runs. The worst part about it is that it was pretty much bluebird everywhere but on the mountain…oh well.

Music:– Alec Empire “NEW WORLD ORDER”

Looks like some mean weather on its way so I don’t know about tomorrow…

Here are some pics from today:

Wow, what amazing scenery…

Oooohhhhhh…

The snow at lake level turned to rain last night but still snowing hard on the higher peaks. Remarks were closed, so we heading up to hit something at Coronet. For those who don’t know, Coronet isn’t really that exciting but its the closest to town. Its also at the lowest elevation so its dumping at the higher peaks. Bad flat light and some wet snow in the afternoon, however the first 5 runs from the top was buttery smooth. and about a foot deep.

I’d be lying if I’d say we weren’t soaking wet …

No actions shots due to the wet weather but this will give you an idea.

WE RINSED IT OUT PROPER!!!!

The word was that the Chutes at the Remarks would not open, so we sessioned about a foot of fresh at Coronet in some mighty fine clear blue skies…I have never seen this place so covered.

Tried to book a heli for the afternoon but too windy, another storm rollin’ in tonight through tomorrow, so we have some bookings for Monday or Tuesday…

Well, the weather has been hitting hard and the ski fields have been operating at a minimum. Went to Methven to the Big Air…the ski/board jump was lame but the Moto X guys stole the show. Massive rain storm kicked in and woke up in a mighty low-pressure right above us….rain turned to snow. Drove 7 hours back to Queenstown on closed roads with up to a foot and a half in places…hopefully some skiing tomorrow.

No pics right now because my buddy was shooting with slide film today…check back later

All I can say is that we hit 9:00 am powder about a foot deep at Coronet. Back bowls were open and was sick….super light cold smoke snow.

At 1:00 pm we hit up the Remarks where the weather began to clear. About a foot to two feet of the lightest driest Antarctic powder was up for the taking. My kiwi bros reckon it was one of the best days EVER at the Remarks…Lots of “Fuck it” airs and a few drydocks later we ended up skiing halfway down the access road at 4:15pm.

Remarkables, South Island, New Zealand…Shadow basin chair

BLUEBIRD…

NO WIND….

HUCKS INTO POW…

It was really, really, really good, especially for my last day of skiing for this trip.

Left at 1:00 pm, we had a chopper lined up with Neutral Heli-ski but when we flew to the LZ at the top, the weather turned all flat light. So we had one run on a western faced aspect that was definitely not as good compared to where we were planning to ride. Oh, well, I just had two sick days to end the trip so I’m more than happy. Even weirder is that I used my NZ made fat twins the whole trip when usually you’re rockin’ jib skis because of the funky conditions.

Here’s a sample of some of the crappy snow we skied today. We hucked tons of rocks as you can see from all the bomb holes, the action shots are on slide film and I’ll post them in the next week or so….

Gallipoli Chutes – Sugar Bowl Chair…

Bus that went off the road the previous day…all the people died…

Just kidding…..

Breakfast rocks….Shadow Basin Chair

Homeward Bound…

James from Neutral Heli in Kingston, NZ….

The mega flat-light run

Some more shots from this day:

666

Woody….getting some

Now back in SF, and extremely jet-lagged…here is the TR from my last day. If you can get to NZ in the next couple of days, DO IT!! The conditions are absolutely sick…the resorts have huge bases and locals are saying that it hasn’t been this good for at least 5 years.

My plane left at 3:10 pm from Frankton and I was off, back to the wonderful time of the season called depression, or Summer.

Prior to departing, a beautiful day unfolded, and we bolted south to Kingston to fly for a couple hours with Neutral Heli-ski with James. Now James is sort of a loose cannon, in that he can fly the shit out of a helicopter and land almost anywhere.

On the chopper was myself, Miles Holden (sickest Kiwi photographer), and Jeremy Pierce (NZ top monofreeskier)

We skied some mellow runs at first to test the snow and get some “token” untracked riding shots. However the snow on the northern aspects developed a thin layer of crust that prevented us from jumping in some exposed lines. I’d rather be able to ski another day than be a human avalanche trigger, especially a couple hours before traveling for 15 hours of airtime.

We did ski some shady southern aspects and let them rip. Jeremy and I tore up some pristine couloirs while Mr. Holden took photos from the bird. More photos may be posted soon, but here are the ones I was able to take myself.

James…