As you know when i moved in Queenstown I was planning on working on a ski field, but I find out that it was much more difficult than expected to get a job there, you don’t have to have a good CV you just need heaps of chance or whatever I apparently don’t have … as most of the staff of the Queenstown ski field was really bad at their job, some of them never seen the snow before but still get a job on the slopes … and I didn’t ….
Anyway, I still enjoyed my winter here!!
The ski resort are not a small town up the mountain like in France, or just next to the highway like in Quebec… it’s usually just one building with ticket, rental, and restaurant, and one big car park, accessible only by a dirt road 15 to 30min drive from a real road and 30 to 60min from the nearest town
Like Cardronna :
Around Queenstown there is two resort managed badly by the same company, cornet peak and the remarkable. Cornet peak is a bit lower and have only groomed slopes. The slopes are not too bad for New Zealand.
The remarkable have only few and very easy and boring groomed slop, but have a terrain park that is ok and a lot of back country possibility. You can see some photos from the only very good powder day of the winter just under I think.
And around Wanaka(1h away from Queenstown) there is treble cone, Cardronna, and Snowpark.
Treble cone is a bit too far so I couldn’t go there but apparently is the best place for nice slopes and awesome backcountry.
Snowpark and Cardronna are halfway between Queenstown and Wanaka and I went few time in both of them, Cardronna is quite big, a lot of slopes an awesome terrain park with big jumps and a good halfpipe.
a bit of Cardronna very early, waiting for the lift to open
Snowpark is really small, only one lift and it’s basically just a big terrain park with the triple line (some hard rails and few huge jump) an awesome halfpipe and line with heaps of rails and some small jumps.
the bigest jump on the triple line at snowpark :
me on the side of the kicker and the view from the top of the kicker during the set up of the course for burton high five. the jump is about 75ft (23m) that mean there is about 23 meter between the bottom of the kicker (where I am on the top pic) and the start of the landing after the flat where all people stand on the bottom pic) I really loved this jump but didn't get to take it as much as I wanted as it was close for the competition most of the time.
The best part of the winter was definitively the volunteering work I did for some freestyle event. Two times during the winter I get to spend a week up to Snowpark. As Snowpark is one of the only resorts that have some accommodation available up the hill we were staying up there the whole week.
The first event was the Burton high-five, a snowboard competition with the best rider in the world. We were about 15-20 people volunteering and all get along very well during the whole week. We had to get up very early to start setting up the course at 6AM. When the course is ready we had to do a bit of marshalling (checking the landing of the jump and close the course if there is something in the landing) and a lot of time off for riding, and that was very relax. Sometimes the evening there was night skiing so we enjoyed more riding. And to finish the event there was a big party in town in Wanaka that was awesome.
6am on the lift, the course set up, one rider on the last jump and a night skiing pic :)
the halfpipe with the sun at the right place !!
Few weeks later there was the Freeskii open, which was same kind of event as the burton highfive but for skiers. We were about 8 but this time we know most people from burton high five. And the snow wasn't that good so we replaced the night skiing by spa and beer …. And thanks to Jamie, drinking games tequila and gin and bailey...
It was a bit more difficult to wake up and set up the course with hangover, but so much fun. And again the closing party in Wanaka was awesome.
These two events were really amazing, a huge terrain parks some free beer, awesome place and most important, some amazing people…. That made my winter and makes me want even more to work on the slope someday.
This winter around Queenstown and Wanaka wasn't really good we didn't get much snow, September was better and unfortunately everything closed around October 7th. And after that there where a lot of snow falls up the mountains that was a bit frustrating, I think there is more snow now than during the whole winter …
me from the remarkables looking over Queenstown
the only pics I could get from me on jumps, at remarkables on the 45" (15m) jump ....
unfortunately not on the right time ....
