So I'm going to start off by saying that the title is slightly misleading as for me it reads that i had 10 days of powder which i can only wish to have been the case! Truthfully I had maybe 4 days at the start of last weekend which were incredible and myself and Daniel Bond were just lapping the Downhill tow at Temple Basin before we headed up for a few hikes (photos to follow). The 1st competition was the GNOMES freeride Competition at Temple Basin which turned out to be a lot of fun. It consisted of a 2 run final and with some good local riders and resulted in some good lines and a 1st place by yours truly! After the Competition we built a booter over the judges area and got some lovely photos for the sponsors. It was one of those competitions which count Skiers and Snowboarders, Men and Woman as equal and thus normally is dominated by the Male Ski crowd! Luckily for us Snowboarding types we managed to claim 1st and 3rd with a lucky skier squeezing his way in to claim 2nd. Before moving on I would like to thank GNOMES for sponsoring and to CUSSC (Canterbury University Snowsports Club) for organising the event.
After the 4 days in Temple we knew the rest of the week was never going to be as good with the snow conditions but it didn't matter as CHILL put on a great 4 day comp in Craigieburn and Mount Olympus. The We arrived at Craigieburn a day before the Comp and spent most of the day scoping and riding the qualifier face for the following day. This turned out to be a big mistake as everytime i went through i would adapt my line and make it more and more complex and difficult! By the time the competition came round the next day it had been over a week since the snow fall and most of the faces were tracked out, luckily i had picked a very unusual line and one that nobody had thought to ski, however at the bottom was a nice ski track which lots of people had used to cut under the face in order to get back to the hut! I was number 44 to drop in and even though very happy with the technical part of my line the ski track underneath had me very worried!!! I hear the starter call " Vinny your up, 3,2,1 Rider on course!". I was off, top section was easy, middle section through the rocks was technical but fun. I got to the drop, sent it, came out with speed, hit the ski track and gave the crowd the biggest stack of the day! I was gutted as this was the qualifier for the next 2nd day which meant I finished the Craigieburn comp as Dan's assistant helping him choose lines and cheering him on!
Day 3 of competition we had moved to Mount Olympus which I was very happy about as this was my chance to get back in the game and at one of my favorite ski fields. 1 hour inspection time was given to choose a line so thats what i did. I rode through twice checking it and getting every turn in my head then once it was my turn to get up there I completely changed my mind and took a line i had not checked, not looked at and never riden and finished the day in 3rd!!! This was a big wake up call for me as it showed me that staying on your feet is job number 1. On the 4th and final day of the competition it was all up for grabs in every division with the top skiers from each day falling or injuring themselves and even in the snowboarding with Callum Goodwin not qualifying for final day and Rurai Macfarlane coming 4th after day 3.
After 2 more runs and a lot of beers the results were ready and so were we. 1st came all the spot prizes and then the big ones! My hopes were very low as they used a point system that included your runs in Craigieburn and Olympus so with just one having any major impact i was hoping for around a 7th or 8th place so when i was called out for 6th I was very happy but at the same time could help bu think about the ski track that could of changed everything but at least the crash made the news
http://www.mountainwatch.com/Features/9438921/Day-1---2-of-the-K2-Big-Mountain-CHILL-Series-at-CRAIGIEBURN
Just a quick thank you to RIP Curl for giving me my outwear which still hasnt got a single tear in even with all the rag dolls i have managed to do in this lovely NZ hard packed snow!
I will put up some photos soon from the last few days but check out some of the lines from the competition on www.thedailydumpsnowreport.com
Cheers and I'm off to Mount Ruapehu for the 4* Export 33 Extreme comp! Aiming for 1st place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
