The Life of Sloth

August 2007 - Posts

• Can't drive past Ohau though

  Love it so much up at Ohau, there was no way I was gonna drive straight back to ChCh - time to stop there overnight again. Got up the mountain Monday morning - another bluebird day . Now apparently they'd had 390 people up there on Sunday - busiest day of the season. Only 40 or so today, most of whom were riding for a couple of hours before going to a wedding down by the lake - what a day (and location!) for that! Yeh, anyway, so despite there being all those people up on the weekend, I was pretty stoked to hike up the ridge and still find some nice powder to ride! Hit the kicker on first run of day, bit of a mistake as was icy and landed on my ass. Started softening up as soon as the sun did its thing and I was loving it. Did a Jamroll special up and over the top of the quarter pipe, managed to hit the barrel thing somehow, 180s off everything in sight, so damn close to landing a 3, just a bit more rotation. Even time for some massive euro-carve action (lib still lets me push it even with no edges) Struggled to get myself off the mountain and back in the car, but wanted to get back to see SJ before she flew to Auckland. Great drive back, stunning scenery again, then it gets dull as anything as soon as you get back to SH1 (1.5 hours of straight, featureless road ) Road trip done. Sweet.    Posted Aug 20 2007, 10:50 PM by le_sloth with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2007, roadtrip, Ohau

• Time to head back, via Cardies

  Well every good roadtrip comes to an end at some point, and today's almostthat day. Time to leave Queenstown anyway and head back...sloooowwwwlllyyy.Another layer of cloud hanging over the valleys this morning, but up atCardrona it was pretty much bluebird. They've had plenty of good snowrecently, so although not a pow-pow day, was a good few hours' riding andwish I'd had time for more. Thanks to Sarah for my free pass too! From there, I drove into Wanaka then onward and upward, over Lindis Pass andto Ohau. Staying in the lodge for the night, gutted forgot my swimmos coswould've loved to jump in the spa (overlooking mountains and the lake!).Anyway, Alain is tired and Sloth needs to get up the mountain early, do abit of riding then finish off the journey to ChCh. And that will be that. Both boards need some loving. Rome needs all the ptex available to mankind.Loving the Lib now, even with blunt edges it's still grippy. Published with BlogMailr Posted Aug 19 2007, 08:14 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Queenstown, Winter 2007, roadtrip

• Remarks Chutes

  After a few ales, gin and Ferg last night with Miss Gutkin and Sam, gettingup super-early was not gonna happen. Although still managed to get out thedoor by 9ish I think. Snow reports were a bit odd, cos as far as I knew ithad been snowing all night. Yet Remarks was only saying 2cm. Ok then.Nowhere else had more than 5cm and couldn't be arsed with a long drive, soRemarks it was.Wish I hadn't given a lift to annoying yo-boy yank, but then you never know.Got up there, popped out above the layer of cloud into bluebird!! Sweet. Anddefinitely a lot more than 2cm - prob up to 15cm in places.Only did 1 small run thru some untracked pow, then straight up Shadow tohike up to the chutes. Patrol reckoned Elevator was the best conditions andthey weren't wrong. Seems everyone either drops straight down the first onethey come to, or keeps going right to the end, leaving me with deep, whitegoodness to farm out. The whole lot round this side of the mountain wasgreat, love the run-out across the frozen lake, nice few hits, then dropdown thru a gully back onto the piste. Follow that with natural pipe I'dnever noticed before and it's all good. Take all that lot, repeat 4 times and that was my day. Alan got the betterof me. Hiking up there 4 times is a good enough work-out itself. Love it,Remarks back on the list.Coronet fell down again though as went to go up there for some night riding,only to be told "no discount" on an evening pass. No way I was paying morefor the evening than for the day, funk that, so straight back down againbeeeatch.Now it's time to go and get all the shit together again cos back on the roadfrom tomorrow. Gonna ride Cardies (got a free pass), then prob up to Ohauagain, stay the night, ride Monday morning then it's back to ChCh. 6 days'riding in a row makes Alain a tired alien. Published with BlogMailr Posted Aug 18 2007, 11:19 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Queenstown, Winter 2007, roadtrip

• Coronet : That's The One

  It may get slated all the time for ropey conditions (Concrete Peak), it may get too busy some times, but Coronet Peak is definitely the one for keeping you busy all day. So much more terrain to play around on, hits everywhere and good lifts. With night riding on too, was hard to tell myself that's enough for the day and to come back down to crack on with some work. Met up with Miss Gutkin and her bloke Sam, should be heading in for a few handles later, Ron. Been snowing since about 1 this avo, getting pretty heavy and powder collecting in parts - if it keeps up like this, tomorrow's gonna be awesome. Of course, the weather forecast knew nothing about it, saying it was gonna be bluebird. Hmm . And another thing, loving it so much have been trying some 3's - almost there, just about another 70 degrees to go and I'm sorted - gonna love it if I can nail them!! What else then? Pizza still awesome down at Heidi's Cafe, somehow they can make decent coffee at the main bit, and damn good muffins. All good, all good. Right well I'd better get back to work..   Posted Aug 17 2007, 07:14 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Queenstown, Winter 2007, roadtrip

• Reasonably Remarkable

  Needed a bit of a lie in after yesterday's epic mission. Was dreaming ofOhau powder, needing more of that action! Got up to the Remarks pretty quickcos the road was in the best condition I've seen it - actually better thansome of the roads round Queenstown! No new snow but they'd had plenty lastweek so was all looking pretty good.Went up Shadow Basin first, light was a bit flat but snow was ok, if trackedout. The new park is massive compared to last year, with plenty of swingsand see-saws to play on, if you're into that sort of thing. Kickers were abit big for this Sloth, and baby park not built at the moment. Had a go inthe pipe, but still no idea how that works. Ramsey and I both stacked on thesame feature at the same time. Not sure what it's called, but is like 2quarter pipes back to back, made of v slippery plastic. Pas bon. Tried thewall but lost speed on run-in. No doubt Mr Jarmarl and Goodey would've gonestraight over the top.Other than that I get a bit bored up at Remarks unless it's a big pow day.Pistes are short and not enuf features. Ended up just riding switcheverywhere cos that was more fun. Published with BlogMailr Posted Aug 16 2007, 07:09 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Queenstown, Winter 2007, roadtrip

• Breaking Alan's Balls (and loving Ohau powder)

  This was a long day, A very long day. Alan was trying his best to get the better of me, but I wasn't letting him in. Drive Christchurch to Ohau Up at 5:30am, in Rosie and on the road. Compulsory Maccas stop on the long dull boring road to Ashburton and beyond. Once you turn off there though and get past Geraldine, this is one of the most scenic roads in the country. Rolling green hills, lambs running around and all backed by snow-covered mountains. Oh, and perfect blue skies. Check this lot out:    On past Fairlie, Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki (bright turquoise and views of Mt Cook) then past Twizel and finally to the turn off for Ohau. Got up to Ohau before 11 then on with the day... Straight in, no kissing Sarah (The Canadian) and Ramsey had already got up to Ohau, having driven up from Queenstown. Got myself ready and straight up the lift. Warm-up run? With all that powder sitting up there waiting? Nothing like a 10 min hike to warm you up then - didn't actually see anybody who wasn't hiking it!  Dropped off the ridge and into barely-tracked, dry, light pow-pow. That's the schnitzel. Back up the lift and hit it again, filming the others from the bottom. Hmm, and this is where it went a bit wrong. Sarah didn't know/had forgotten about the rock minefield hidden under 10cm or so at the bottom of the freshies. Bang, crash, somersault, elbows vs. rocks, rocks win. And it's all on video. Down to Ski Patrol for some fixing up, gas and bleeding. Looking like both will need some stitches. Gutted cos that was only her 3rd run, but was a great one anyway! As last time, Ohau just doesn't get busy - only around 40 people there. Myself and Ramsey kept farming it out for the rest of the avo - so much terrain to play around on. So many rocks for me to hit though, my poor old Rome is done right in - seems to have some sort of very efficient rock-finding device. Managed to hit an unidentified block of stuff going off mini-hit, landed on tete and shoulder. Shoulder not good, but wasn't letting that finish me. Rode the day out then back in the car and on the road.   Ohau to Queenstown Stopped in Omarama for plenty caffeine and stuff, then over Lindis Pass and on forever and ever. Damn this road is remote and long. So, so gutted when I got over all that to see another 91km to go . Arse. And a very very dark night. This is not the time to drive down Kawarau Gorge Road. Never again. Finally got to Queenstown before 8pm, followed by beers and pizza. Alan tried but not hard enough. Ohau is so, so good. Up there with Sainte Foy on my list. All the photos are here. Posted Aug 15 2007, 10:34 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Queenstown, Winter 2007, roadtrip, Ohau

• Porters: I can only take so many T-Bars

  And now for somewhere different. I'd been wanting to ride up at Porters all season, but was waiting until they had all the lifts open (severe lack of snow up there - only a 40cm base!). Finally, it looked like time to go, with 24cm in the last 24 hours, and closed yesterday bcos of Mr Lanche. Got up far too early and drove on out, not the best thing having to drive on perfectly straight roads first thing in the morning - need something to concentrate on. Mondays are 2 for 1 lift passes, handy if you've got someone to ride with, not so handy for me. Still, only cost $50 with my nzski pass. Seems very remote up there - barely any sign of life for the last 50km! First impressions were "hmm, well there's powder, but there's also a lot of rocks". No wonder they'd turned the webcams off. Up the first T-Bar (1km of pain), over to the second (shorter but damn steep), then 3rd wasn't open yet. Powder was pretty dry, but barely any base at all. Got back up and the 3rd t-bar was just opening, so I was the 8th person this season to get up there. Well I hadn't noticed the better stuff up to my right, so came down thru this bowl. A bowl of lightly-covered rocks. On my new board. Arseburgers, time to get the rockhopper out. Well anyway, there really wasn't that much to ride in the end as there's just not enough of a base (or any at all on one side), so spent the rest of the day riding...the cat track. Great. Is that really worth going through the pain of 3 t-bars for? Core-shot to rockhopper, it'll live though. One box in the park. Home time. Another below average day. I'm waiting for a miracle to happen because I've had enough of all this. My riding's gone to shit, I'm sick of riding on my own, I'm sick of driving, I'm sick of rocks. Someone remind me why I'm doing this? Actually I don't know if anyone's reading this anyway. At least the new series of Spooks is on tonight. Some pics anyway:   Posted Aug 06 2007, 06:59 PM by le_sloth with no comments Filed under: Snowboarding, New Zealand, Winter 2007

• I need a girlfriend

  Brilliant! Now you don't even have to put a DVD in to watch Mr Warwood and Mr Gendle, here you go. Genius. <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/9ZobNHBxfvE">http://www.youtube.com/v/9ZobNHBxfvE</a></p> View original media here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZobNHBxfvE   And there's plenty more on Lockdown's MySpace site too.  Posted Aug 03 2007, 09:59 AM by le_sloth with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Fancy That Productions, Video