World Heli Challenge!!!
Posted by finch | Filed under Uncategorized
I just finished what I must say is my best day snowboarding ever! I am going to have to go ahead and make that official. Why you may ask? Today I rode Mount Albert, which is a crazy steep peak with big gnarly spires all over it. Very pleasing to the eye, but from the top it looks wild! After sitting out 10 days of rain, wind and just some crazy stormy conditions we finally have perfectly clear conditions. Mt. Albert collected all the snow and none of the wind amazingly. These rock cliffs and spires had snow stuck to them so they were actually rideable. Yes, it was deep and it was steep! Cheesy, but no better way to explain it. I was completely lost for words after my run and had no clue how to express my self or harness what had just happened. It was impossible to take a bad line! You could put your self in the gnarliest exposure and didn’t have to worry. Because it was so steep, when you edge into a spine you would find yourself flying 30 to 40 feet before catching another soft pillow.
Now for some details. This was the second day of the World Heli Challenge in New Zealand. First day was a free-ride day very similar to the natural selection. We had one run to build a couple features then two more to throw down our best tricks. I must say it was very confusing trying to pick a line that would flow and then figure out what tricks to do. That first day was hard icy crust layers all over with some fun powder pockets. Most of us tried to land in the pow except for Mike Wilson who threw a double back off this icy knuckle down 80 feet to ice. Ouch! There are 40 contestants and we pretty much track the heck out of the runs, but today after two runs, there were still plenty of sick lines untracked. Going over on our heli budget Harro the event organizer made the call we had to do a second run because of how good the conditions were. This much snow normally would be very high avalanche danger, but this snow stuck to everything helping to make it the perfect day!
Tomorrow is the Last day of the Heli Challenge. I placed second both days and am currently tied with Quintin Robins for 1st. This last day will determine who wins the event. The last venue is a Chinese downhill. Start at the top and first one to the bottom wins. Stay tuned for final results!
