Another Early Start and a Selection of PiesMyself, Sarah and Gareth had another early start today for our roadtrip to
Treble Cone (TC). After yesterday's near miss with the crash barrier, decided to go the long way round (118km to Wanaka instead of 59km) - doesn't really take much longer tho cos road's way better. Got to Wanaka and went off in search of the Hammer and Nail workers' bakery - oh and was that worth it
!! Stocked up on sausage rolls, pies, chelsea buns and coffee - all cheap and great stuff. Hidden away on an industrial estate, you see, so no tourists. [Note: Snow Park pies are still winning].
Where is everyone?Yeh, so there we are arriving at TC, almost 10am and must've been only about 25 cars in the car park. Riding up the lift, still barely anyone around. Bits of powder around (they'd had 75cm+ since last Friday), but mostly tracked out and fairly windblown. I found this out for sure when I went down a black called Drop Off for my warm-up - pretty hard work!
Off to the Motatapu ChutesWith some very dark clouds looming over the back of the mountain, Gareth and I thought we'd better get a run in on the chutes. Funny, these were the same ones that gave me the FEAR a couple of weeks ago, but was definately ready for more today. Headed towards a nice big one bounded by huge cliffs. Jeez! How much untracked pow!? Wind had been blowing all pow from the rest of the mountain and dumped it nicely in the chutes...sweet as! Funny bit in the bowl at the top, light went really odd, both of us found our legs were all of a sudden up on our chins - hadn't noticed ground just dropping away below. Such quality pow tho.
That pic above has got some notes on it if you click through to the Flickr page - show the 3 we've done so far. *** of a hike back out of there though, telling ourselves it was worth it all the way up, by the top were convinced it wasn't. Funny, though, on the lift back up immediately decided to do it again! The idea this time was to try not to end up quite so far down - Gareth managed this but Sarah and I missed the turning and ended up right down the bottom again! D'Oh.
Riding the Gun Barrel and a lot of Wind
Started getting really gusty in the afternoon - lifts kept stopping, so was time to call it a day just after 3. Got a couple of runs in down Gun Barrel though - still not quite enuf snow on it, but I just love it - probably one of my fave runs in NZ. Like a natural pipe all the way down the mountain, so great to pop 180s off the sides. Not that elusive switch BS though.
Still hungry?Cafe up at TC is great news - NZSki could learn a lot from them. Had to make sure we stopped at Red Star burgers again in Wanaka. Got myself a huge Cajun Chicken one this time - so, so good. Best ones around. Although GBK Northcote Road is still the winner!
And that's the end of my riding for this week. Been an epic 3 days, defo not the cheapest, but maybe best conditions of the season so had to take full advantage. Alan is now on my back and I'd best get some work done for the next 4 days. Until then, au revoir and love your work
Sloth
xx