An overseas adventure: Export 33 Extremes

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Back in Melbournia, AUS. New Zealand feels like a blur, a far off island in the clouds of dreams and pow. Yes, it did snow sweet sweet pow the week I left and yes I am very upset about it. Let's just leave it there.

Ahhh, well at least I'll always have the memories. Like that one time we road-tripped to Whakapapa for the Export Extremes with one car, five people, way too much luggage and a lot of faith. There is an 'i' in mission but there is no 'i' team- so a team mission is all about teamwork and that perfectly describes my last trip in NZ. It all started one chilly morning at 6am in Wanaka about 2 weeks ago.

team truck: Jess Oundijian, Jamie Adcock, Jase Waters and Harry McFadden and me!

Plan: drive the odd 17 hrs to Mt Ruapehu for the 4star FWQ Export 33 Extremes.

It was a vague plan, we knew we had to be in Wellington for the ferry the next morning, we planned to eat pies, fish and chips and anything that would work in the car. Creativity was the name of the game and we totally won!

tip: electric tape is always handy for securing extra skis that don't fit on the ski rack, why it was always my skis- who knows but Liberty made them to last!

children's nap time- tip: kips are important for curing grumpiness

tip: use all opportunities to sleep- even on ferries

So we made the ferry, found a bed in Wellington and then bartered down the price, ate McDonalds and started racing a rival ski bum team to Mt Ruapehu. I guess luck was on our side in more than just one way- the rival team was cut down by a big hill and a faulty car.

the race was called off- and we all became friends again

hanna and her silly car being towed away an hr from Mt Ruapehu

wooooohoooooooo it's a volcano!

Something around 1200kms later we were at the base of Whakapapa getting ready to shred the big one. Whakapapa is one of several resorts that cover the active volcano, Mt Ruapehu. It was my first time skiing on a volcano and I all I could think is "oooo.....volcanic".

carpark of Whakapapa

friends! on a t-bar

volcanic terrain is EPIC!

We spent the afternoon shredding the slushy west side of the mountain and concluded the day with a quick inspection of the qualification face. The Extremes is a 3-day comp with a score from each day going towards the overall placings. Gnar-bar: consistency is everything.

zak hogg and sam smoothy making use of the afternoon light

sssshhhhiny

As expected the face was a massive ice block with some slush dotted in between the ridges.

apres ski team briefing

DB'S necessary

As I said, the team mission was all about the team and after joining forces with Hanna's car we managed to rent a house in National Park just before night-fall (thanks to Hanna and Kristina). 8 people in a 10-people house wasn't too bad; group dinners and an open fire place left everyone happy and sleepy.

DAY 1
Slick as- pardon the language- a bitch. I have never been so scared getting to a venue. We hiked to the top of the far east t-bar and started the traverse to 'Lego Land' to find the final traverse a slope of sheet ice, I can't believe the snowboarders even made it up there. Ropes and ski patrol were necessary for the crossing. Thanks :)

LEGO LAND!

I was fairly stoked for my line, a steep- not such a great landing- drop to a little double at the bottom. However, after the encounter with way too much ice, I forgot my drop entry and decided to take what I thought was going to be a much more mellow drop for the 1st run....oops. It wasn't huge but it was way bigger than expected and I landed pretty much without a transition. I pulled it through to finish my run to only then crash through the finish after a skidded turn. DOH! 2nd run wasn't much better.

2nd run drop

I found the drop entry- took the take-off the wrong way and bum skidded my landing. I actually turned to swear at the drop I was so livid. It was super bad light and all refrozen but that is really no excuse. My performance landed me last place. Nothing more frustrating than a wooden spoon.

DAY 2

policeman's- 2-day finals face

The cool part about the 3-day format is that you definitely get your money-worth. There are no cut-offs after the 1st day, everyone proceeds into the finals.

side-view of venue

It was my second chance and I took all morning to scope a solid line with some airtime and lots of space to shred- I didn't feel like getting involved in any rock-hopping crap.

hike time

Sketchy was the way to describe the hike! I had a lot of fun. A huge thanks to the ski patrollers who spent so long digging out footsteps for us, putting in rope lines along the exposed areas and pretty much holding our hands over the scary stuff.

The clouds were totally attracted to the face and caused a few problems but without too much delay all the competitors got down.....relief! Well there were some bad stacks including that of Zak Hogg who slid full speed over a rock after crashing out of a landing. But now he's ok!

I skied a solid run, took my top air as planned but changed the bottom air as I was not 100% on the take-off. I skied well but as always in hindsight, I wish I had skied faster. However with some tough turns I took out 3rd for the day and 6th overall. Not too bad for a wooden spooner.

Daily Dumps coverage of Day 2, check me out in the pink pants jumping over things:



DAY 3

We came, we hiked and we waited. All the way to the top of the venue there was no visibility except for the blue sky that mocked us from above. Following 3:30pm we skied down the side of the face miserable. Because there was no comp- there would be no party. Everyone drank a beer in silence and then slowly shuffled off the mountain.

DAY 4

It's on like donkey kong. The inversion cloud was still lurking around the face but we tried to ignore it. Once again we hiked the face, sighed about the horrible ice side-step and got ready to charge down the now more melted, more frozen venue.

3rd time lucky

Unlike the last 2 days on policeman's I was fairly sketched out by the conditions, all the forerunner could say was that it was very firm at the top and less firm in the bottom section....yum, not really, all I could imagine was hard painful landings. Girls were dropping first, the light was flat and the clouds just overhead. In many of the technical areas the snow was a lot icier and faster than previous days. We all made it down in one way or another. Briar (a very lovely local) was bruised and battered after a crash after the first cliff band and Nicola (also a lovely local) took a massive stack down rocks and steep icy sections (scary)! I am stoked that she came out without too many injuries- including a purple ass and a broken wrist.

With another solid run following a similar line (just a little smaller as many of the take-offs had melted away) I managed to take out 2nd place overall. Being my first podium in a FWQ you can imagine how excited I was! I even managed to start a beer fight.

Sam Lee shredfest 2011

The clouds parted as the men's field kicked off, they followed suit to the girls with heaps of stacks, lots of amazing skiing and a few near death experiences. Highlights included Sam Lee and Ed Dujardin's creative line choices as well as the safe put sick skiing of the top 5 boys. At one point the judges had to radio to the top to let the top several boys to take it easy as the conditions were making meat out of earlier skiers.

And then we were done. Finally an excuse to drink copious amounts of free Export 33's, a chance to not hike the face again for at least a year and to mellow out.

hanna fischer- telling it how it is

jess, myself, hanna and kristina drinking a well deserved beer

The Daily Dump sums up the final day in 5.38mins:


Finally following all the intensity we partied. Free beer, winner's bar tabs (thanks Smoothy), too many bottles of spirits, full legality to drink on the streets, the Natty Park disco and a bonfire. Then we slept, ate breakfast, watched movies, talked about frequenting hot pools and did it all again with the accompaniment of the Rugby World Cup.

breakfast of champions

This mission was many things, fun would definitely come in first followed by intense, silly and a barrel of laughs. I heart rode trips and being my last week in NZ I would not have spent it any differently (however a pow comp would have been nice)!

After a final slush mission at Whakapapa with a ratpack of 13 + including all my favourite people we began the long drive home.

moody scenery on the way home

Silly Car: hanna, colin, harry, kristina & me

tip: stinky feet belong out the window.

This time I jumped in with Kristina, Hanna, Harry and Colin in the Silly Car. We boosted to Wellington, took the ferry and I was kicked out at Christchurch to Dan and Vinny's house where I proceeded to explore Christchurch, learn about Moas, eat pies and finally fly back to Australia. :(

sunrise over the sea: Wellington

only a speck of the crazy destruction from the earthquake in Christchurch

All I can say is thank-you: to everyone who took me, let me ride in their cars, took me mountain biking, laughed at my lame jokes, let me sing in the car, shredded hard with me, put up with my after skiing grumps when all I could think about was food, whispered confidence into my ears, to all the comp organisers, everyone who cut shapes with me and gave me hugs. You all rock.

HUGE UPS TO MY SPONSORS: for helping me make this trip everything it was.
Thanks Liberty Skis Australia, POC, Hestra, SOS and Icebreaker.
I can't thank-you enough for all your support.