Back to chamonix where the snow had started falling again. I had contemplated going to the Czech ride on the way home but needed some time off comps to enjoy the snow. As soon as i was back i was back up the mtn with Gus hurst shooting. This time it was the aiguille du midi. Getting in and amongst the crevasses we managed to get face shots with the snow powering over my shoulders. It was really fun exploring the area and improving my glacier experience and knowledge.
So the kiwi boys pete and neil had scoped out a rather large hit earlier on in the season. Finally the snow was there to hit it. i went up and joined them. The drop was around 60-70ft depending on which point you hit it. A couple days earlier pete had already grasped an attempt but there was so much snow above the cliff he got sluffed off the end landing on his side. It was a pretty gnarly fall but luckily the snow was deep enough for him.
So neil drops first throwing a big front flip, no big deal haha! On the radio pete gets his call for his drop. He skies down it with the events of the other day in the back of his mind. the same thing almost happened but he managed to hold it together and get pretty much one of the shots of the season which i was stoked about. I was last to drop. With the large crowd that had gathered on the trail below and the many people that had come to check out what was going on the nerves began to surface. Pete gave a shout from the bottom to say all was good and to keep the speed up. I dropped the radio after a last word with Gus and then it just happened. I controlled my speed taking off from a different spot from the other boys to get a clean untouched and long landing. All went well except my binding spring exploding, with a quick front role i skied off with one ski on. It was definitely one of the bigger hits that we had all hit and definitely the hit of the season.
First airport of the season, geneva-oslo. We had to charge down the motorway as we got caught up in chamonix with team useless on form, the kiwi's with the help of myself a scott. We averaged about 110mph, not something to be proud of but it had to be done. We only made check in by 15 minutes! It was the quickest trip towards geneva i think i have ever done. We met tino one of the other boys heading our way going through the securita. He had come from that notorious spot they call Verbier.
On the other side Anna-May Slinning met up with us and took us around oslo, her home base. She properly sorted us out with a full night of bbqing at her friend seamus' place. It was cool to meet him and see what he was up to, being a surf brand importer/distributor from australia you can imagine how interesting it was to chat with him. Christina, Anna-May's sister took us around oslo the next day with a shrimp lunch by the pier, a stroll through a derelict castle, a quick look at the opera house and a few mischievous antics along the way. The fresh shrimp was delicious! this all rounded up our oslo days before we had to jump in the car for a 6hr roadie to roldal. the scenery was amazing!
Having all the info from the meeting the night before we got up early and onto the mtn to scope our lines. Conditions were variable! We soon got a shout, from the organizers zooming around on a skidoo, that for the time being the contest was postponed. 'An Icelandic volcano had started spewing ash'. Such a random reason but air space was closed meaning the emergency helicopters couldn't fly if they were needed. This must have been unheard of! The whole crew from the contest hung around the contest tent area where just above there were a few rocks and cliffs that looked really fun to jib around on. I got a few people to hike up and do some of the hits. Each time we walked up the number of people hiking doubled. Natural 360's and 180's were busted out amongst front flips, backflips and Lincoln's. Kato one of the organizers was going huge on his backies and side flips. There was even a 540 from a friend Christen and an attempt at a 720 by our very own Neil Williman. It was such a fun session! Pete and I had caught the tail end of a stomach bug or maybe it was just to much red bull.
On day 2 with a fleet of ambulances on hand the contest was able to go ahead on a different face. The usual scoping of lines was done with the use of binoculars as we got familiar with our lines. from the top it was really difficult to see anything as the face was full of cliffs and rocks that rolled over like big moguls. The snow conditions were really firm and hard. Neil did well storming down the face laying down what was to be a 4th place run. I had an interesting run down the middle of the face and put it down as well. The girls rode well too! There were a lot of people falling or missing their lines because of the misleading conditions and the way the face was so it made it feel so much better having completed a run without any major mistakes! That night there was a party for the contests 10th anniversary. It was pretty big although the party the next night was to prove to be even bigger. We had a team norwege/kiwi/loan scottish crash pad in the car up there where we drank our own beers and whisky at times through the night.
The following day the so called final didn't go ahead due to snowy weather and dangerous avi conditions. This left us to chill through the day up till the final party in the evening playing yahtzee and games on the games console. Pre-party we had mexican tacos to line our stomachs. There was word going around that the International flights hadn't started flying again in Europe but we just rolled with it as we usually do and thought we would deal with it back in Oslo. The start of the party was similar to the night before but far to much cheesy music was being played. Tino being his usual crazy upbeat self was almost swinging from the roof, jumping from the dj stand into the crowd, getting topless and inspiring the rest of the guys to do so as well. He got man handled by the bouncer as he got chucked out of the venue 3 times, haha. Then there was charlotte sporting a pillow and back protector on her head to protect her if she did anything stupid while doing her circus tricks. This comes from a long history of bashing herself up at parties like knocking herself out the previous year at Roldal. She was even getting money thrown at her for her efforts.
After the bar closed there was an after party in a barn up the road. It was owned by one of the norwegians i had met in nz back in 2006 so it was cool brushing shoulders again. It was an amazing environment for a party, there was a back room, a raised area and a hay pen. There were loads of tools you would expect to see hanging from the walls and the ceiling as well as old ski equipment and sledges. The hay area was my favorite area. it was basically a wrestling ring. There were several wrestling matches through the night, pete, neil and i decided to have a ruckus between us which didn't last so long but later i got challenged by a bulky norwegian. I think my endurance rescued me as i managed to hold him in a lock for ages. He got loose once and we had a bit of a tussle but i managed to regain composure getting him in another lock and ended up tiring him out to the point of mercy. it was pretty fun actually! At the end we were all swinging from the beams upside down until there was a bit of a local and non local norwegian clash, need I say any more! 6am time to go home, conclusion, Norwegian's party hard!
Back in oslo we had one day before our scheduled flight. We hit up the central park with a long board and a pick-nic and checked out the rows of naked sculptures. From men to women and children there were several combinations all intertwined together. There was even a huge pencil monument in the middle made up of naked body on top on naked body! We went back to the hostel keeping our eyes on the airport news and contemplating whether to go early the night before to see what was going on with the flights. We ended up staying and having an early night!
We rolled up to the airport and ended up getting transfered onto a flight to Nice the next day as flights to Geneva wouldn't be opperating until past the weekend. After working out what to do i discovered that Dog Tag insurance through the snowboard club is useless! Apparently each situation for claiming is all on the documents and if it's not there it's not covered. Insurance normally states things not covered but not one word or explanation on the document or by the company was given to prove i wasn't covered. After reading the terms and conditions of norwegian which were written in black and white and made public to us they proved to be as useless by not adhering to the code that they follow. They tried to catch us out by putting us in a situation that would have made any case by us void! What can i say, i got helped out big time by some friends who were covered.
At last we got back to France all be it Nice. It was a fresh feeling to be at the coast after a long winter! We had a quick dive in the med and then we were off through the narrow windy mediteranien streets up onto the motorway. In a crammed rental car we made our way up towards chamonix. We had a few crazy moments like, Neil: 'Oh shit where did my wallet go'. I have to say it was a relief to finally see mt blanc in the ditsance after a long trip with so much uncertainty.
Not much snow left so back in the park in the slush in grand montets. The bigger of the jumps is quite often closed so some quick words with the park boys and we get it open. I had a really good day getting all my base tricks back including corks which i hadn't even touched for 2years. There was one day neil, pete and i got motivated to try double backs. After my experience of busting them off bc kickers in the past i came up with the conclusion that they are not meant for the park, haha! Not on an 8-10 meter kicker anyway.
