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Posted on Tuesday September 15th at 6:00 a.m.
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M - We wake up to another epic day. Blue skies and no wind - how did we get so lucky? I don't know about Janina, but driving to the landing zone in Makarora again in the early morning, my butterflies kick in full force. Yes, yesterday's Free Ride day was epic fun and super relaxed, but today was the day of all days - the big mountain day. This is what the top female international skiers and boarders have come for - it is their discipline, so basically in short.... it's on!
M - The heli's land and we jump in, and same as yesterday we are being taken to an undisclosed face being dropped at the bottom to scope it with binoculars and such, and then flown to the top to do our two judged runs. As we fly over a ridge and the face of which we are going to ride comes into view, my jaw drops and I am amped! Never before in my life have I seen a venue as amazing as this one with my own eyes. Sure I've watched riders such as Victoria Jealous ride mean Alaska lines on video - but to see this and to know that it is filled in with epic pow and to know that we have the privilege to do two runs on it... well - look at the pic and see for yourself!!!
The venue!! Mt Albert in all its glory...
The venue!! Mt Albert in all its glory...
Sweet view from the heli I suppose!
G - Yeah the venue face was pretty sick. Driving into Makarora you could see this face from the highway and everyone in the car was like ‘wow look at that face. Imagine if we got to ski it'. I was sitting next to Geoff Small in the heli and when we came over the ridge and saw the face and realised it was the face we saw from the highway we were so stoked -yelling and shit. When I came out of the chopper the first person I went up to was maria and the first thing we did was high five each other. It's the big mountain day and we get to ski some pretty cool terrain. It's pretty rare to ski Mount Albert so filled in. I feel like we were blessed that day.
Nervous onlookers!
M - From now on my butterflies I was feeling before turn into excitement and ampedness. Janina and I scope the face and our lines together, always giving our ideas and points of view. We end up deciding our lines pretty much straight away. Janina kills it and hits a massive cliff at the bottom of her line - attacking the mountain on her ski's in the same way a dude with big balls would doesn't really surprise me, but definitely stokes me every time I see it!
Camilla and G the ninja...
G - The start list was reverse order for the Big Mountain day which meant Maria went second last and I went last. I always get super nervous when Maria goes before me but watching her drop in and rip to where her line was got me so amped and then seeing her blast out from the bottom made me know she had a super solid run. I dropped in found my line no worries and then crashed on my last cliff. Dam! What a waste of run... na never a waste... but let's try and stay on my feet next time! It was cool to come down and see Maria waiting for me just like ‘oww yeah nice one!'
The day is done and G is stoked!
G - Maria took first place... 2 wins in 2 days. Yeah girl. Next up is the VnC Chinese Downhill. Can she take all 3????
M - Janina ends up taking second place behind top female international ludar-famous big mountain skier Ingrid Backstrom... pretty insane! I just pull through by .3 of a point ahead of American shredder Susan Mol. All in all a wicked day and ends again with beers in the sun in the green grass at Makarora... epic!
Even though it was an epic day - nothing beats getting back down to the warm grass and cool beers!
M - Check out the vid below if you want see more of the big mountain day...
M & G
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