Temple Basin + Gnomes Freeride 2011

Dropping in style at Temple

Stoaked on life!

That time of year again and one of the highlights on the Uni Ski clubs calender and one of the most chilled Big Mountain Comps about. Temple Basin turned it on again after another massive storm passed through leaving us balls deep in pow. Somehow this time around I found my self watching this one through the binocs as a judge. Despite the slight disappointment not to be out there hucking with the lads, I couldn't have asked for a better day to bake out in the sun, sip on a few beers and judge the boys and girls sending it of some of Temples amaizing features.

Vinny going for it in his comp line - YEAH BOY!

Judging wasn't all hard work

Another busy powder day at the basin...

Not this Keas lucky day

Dobby, Dan and Douchbag.

Gnomes freeride is a comp run by CUSSC, the Canturbury Uni Snowsports Club and is aimed at all abilities and getting as many people involved as possible. It was an awsome day and was good to see my man vinny stomping both his runs and taking it out (unanamous judging decision I should add), as well as James who came up second with a nice line. Others were also sending it, some solid lines, some impressive double ejections... All in all an awsome day of competition in an amazing venue! Looking forward to next year already.

The good life!

Competition Aside, Me and Vinny stretched our Temple mission out to four days, and made the most of some of the best conditions of the season so far with an awsome crew, couloirs, kickers, hicking, hucking and a healthy amount of hydration...

Bring on the rest of the comps and the rest of the season! Can't wait.

More Road Trips and Snowdays. Keep'em coming please!

A rare line at Lyford

Any excuse is a good one to Hire a lodge and fill its jacuzee with skibums. And this last weekend coincided with a famous persons birthday which was all the excuse we needed. The snow up at Lydford wasn't anything worth writing a blog about but we had fun and after much trial and error found the best way to ski with snowboard boots on and get 4 people down the hill on 1 snowboard.
So thanks to Lynette, Dobby, Erin, Talyor, Hadfield, Schnieder, Plug, Caitlin, Matt, and Vinny for another awsome weekend of jacuzees, a few beers, ice cold glacial lakes, beers, natural hot pools, more beers and a couple of hours skiing crud.

Therapeutic

Mt Lyford

BN Ice Cold Lake to Hot Tub

Nice Group Shot, but this was as close as we got to the mountain...

A decent southerly front whipping up some fresh straight from Antarctica this week called for two things, Uni Closed and Ski missions in the Port Hills!

An even rarer line in a paddock up the port hills over looking Christchurch

Mount Olympus - Valley of the gods. Where dreams can come true, and be shattered along with our cars transmission!

Peak Hour traffic on a Tuesday morning up to Mt Olympus

Firstly all the best to Austin the Yank, who had made it all the way out to NZ to shred some pow with us only to have blown his knee on his second weekend riding. Losing one of the crew this early in the season definitely put a bit of a downer on our first mission up to olympus for the season, but having said that we still managed some nice turns. Hope ya knee goes back together right (for the 3rd time?!) and look forward to shredding some fresh with you soon man!

Vinny

Fresh afternoon air.

Yesterday we pushed on for a midweek mission up Olympus again, and for some stupid reason I let frenchboy drive-up. Safe practice is for myself to guide 'the hulk' (our Suby) up the hills in the AM, and if everything fine and the stars are aligned, then vinny will drive home back to Chch in the arvo. Anyway on this occasion I had had a late one in the books so Vincent was driving. We had almost made it up the notorious Olympus access road when vinny somehow failed to stop for a boulder (the size of a small house) in the middle of the road. We got some good air, and luckily the transmission fluid was leeking slow enough for us to get to the top of the hill for a ski. Getting back to Christchurch was another story however...

Hucking good fun

So despite the drama, the terrain and snow at Mt Olympus failed to disappoint as usual and we had another epic day it the sun.