Comment Share Posted on Thursday October 29th at 7:24 p.m.

Winter 2009 wrap up; why I love NZ, my friends, the club fields and my gear. Also help Neil find his jacket!

There are a bunch of photos in this, most of them are slideshows, make use of them little arrows at the top to check them all out.

What I've been up to, this 5th winter in a row of mine....

Early season;

Opening day! http://snow.co.nz/blogs/neilwilliman/2009/8/223-o-o-opening-day

Backcountry, climbing and skiing Rolleston. http://snow.co.nz/blogs/neilwilliman/2009/9/403-death-and-also-life

University jib comps, Lincoln and Canterbury. Also wandering aimlessly around Hagley Park and spotting a double kink urban with a 45 degree bend to the right from the down to the flat (photo in slideshow below).

Jib the Foundry (Canterbury); Awesome ruckesness at the student pub thanks to CUBA. Official writeup by Anna Pearson with photos by Riley Bathurst; http://www.nzsnowboard.com/articles/547/aug_4th_09__the_cheapskates__cuba_jib_the_foundry_night

I had a great time, jibbing with my friends and showing off to our other friends who don't ski or snowboard. Photos by Riley Bathurst and Martin Doms, many thanks.

LUSA Winterfest (Lincoln); Another rad jib setup at a student pub. Such a good effort to get a structure built, snow in, a jib setup and music from Rhombus and State of Mind. Epic. Ash Guthrie and Ben Coomber ripping it up and throwing down to take home cash and a snowboard, same as Jib the Foundry. Check it on Facebook for more photos (like Ash's tweaked as one footer!) and some writing; http://www.facebook.com/LusaWinterfest?ref=profile#/album.php?aid=4400&id=1829265218

Mid season;

Got an invite to go filming with Jason Hancox of Basket Productions, stoked! The man who made Tumeke and 2meke wanted me to come filming with him. Hancox has done so much for NZ skiing, support him and our homegrown industry and talent by buying his ski movies for only a green piece of plastic with pictures of the Queen and a Kea on it at http://store.nzskier.com/store/category/4/dvds

We spent three days filming at Temple Basin with fresh pow and blue skies along with Tom Brownlee, Tom Dunbar and Todd Windle. Camilla Stoddart of Whiteroom Pictures was shooting photos (hopefully they'll be in NZSkier next year) and Hancox made an amazing edit, check it out at http://snowtv.co.nz/105

Then a reckless roadie with my boy Charlie Lyons. Left Christchurch far too late to make it over the snowy Lindis Pass to the Southern Lakes. Ended up at the pub in Twizel because we had nowhere else to go. The lady behind the bar offered us her couch and we gratefully accepted, well Charlie took the couch, her 5 year old son was away so I slept in a very short bed with a WWF duvet; the wrestlers not the pandas. I love NZ. 

The snow that had closed the road dumped 30cm at Ohau (next to Twizel) and the road to Wanaka stayed closed for the morning so we went and shredded pow with next to no-one around. Somehow Hamish Acland had snuck over from Wanaka so we went for a shred with him, and my buddy Erin Farrel had made it down from Christchurch, good crew, good snow, good times. I love my friends.

Made it to Queenstown and skied Remarks the next day with Pete Oswald, Anna Smoothy and my sister Kate. Still a little fresh around to be had for a hike. Wanaka the next day to hang with Si Reeves, Nat Vonloy, Becky Dennis and my family. Then back to Christchurch for university, what a comedown. SOMEONE TOOK A PHOTO OF MY PASS FROM OHAU THAT SAID 'OHAU I LOVE POWDER DAYS AND ROAD CLOSURES' DURING THESE DAYS AND I REALLY WANT IT, WAS IT YOU? PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME!

Organisation stations for developing nations (and universities); I organised two events mid season. One of them was an inter-university big mountain competition and party at Temple Basin called 'Gnomes Freeride Weekend', it worked out really well! I wrote a blog about it, check it out; http://snow.co.nz/blogs/neilwilliman/2009/8/328-gnomes-freeride-weekend

The other was non skiing related, along with some friends we organised a fire dancing night at the dux de lux to raise money for water and sanitation projects in the Solomon Islands (this was before the Samoa tradgedy). This is also included in one of my blogs; http://snow.co.nz/blogs/neilwilliman/2009/9/403-death-and-also-life

Skiing pow at the clubbies with my friends, never gets old. Here are some photos of one of the many good days from this season, pe-yow-der at Broken River with Jonny Loughnan and cronies. The last two photos are of a double; I dropped off the first one and dogdged rocks and tussock to slash a windlip on the pad, which gave me one of the biggest, longest faceshots of the season. Pity I'd forgotten to put my goggles on. Somehow kept it together as the snow stung my eyes to air the second drop, though it's hard to see me as I'm being engulfed by that faceshot, which is still going. I love the clubbies.

Comps;

NZ Open, came 5th. I was happy with that since the venue of the finals got changed to Alta Chutes at Remarkables where I'd never been before (it was going to be in the Motutapu chutes at Treble Cone but the avalanche danger was too high there). I looked at a picture of it, had one inspection run down it and then it was go time. I was happy to magic up a line good enough to take 5th, especially since the top 4 included some of NZ's best ever big mountain skiers (Geoff Small, Sam Smoothy and Tom Dunbar) as well as a super sick Swiss dude. Official writeup results and highlights video (look for my green pants) is at; http://snow.co.nz/news/2009/8/263-kiwis-reclaim-north-face-big-mountain-titles

The Chill series was compressed into one day at Olympus and I won hooray! My first ever podium. I wrote a blog about it; http://snow.co.nz/blogs/neilwilliman/2009/9/377-someone-gave-me-money-skiing

And footage of the comp is at; http://snowtv.co.nz/157

The Temple Basin Black Diamond Big Mountain competition was back on this year and I went along to see how I'd fare at a comp at my home field. The snow conditions were springy and variable but we found some good lines, Smoothy and I sending a sizey drop but crashing, bummer. Next run I tried to ski down a frozen waterfall which didn't end well either (can't find any footage of it though!). Could've stayed for the second day to try to claw my way back up the scoreboard after my two crashes but instead I went to Porters to coach the junior freestyle team, which I was doing part time this year. Footage of the comp at; http://snowtv.co.nz/173

Late season:

Backcountry with my old man and my longest time friend at Rainbow, where I hadn't been since I was 16. A roadie to Blenheim and Nelson lakes with Anna Pearson. Slightly fuzzy photos from my slightly fuzzy phone.

So now I need your help. I left my jacket at The Foundry (the student pub at the University of Canterbury), my friend who works there put it in lost property for me, and then one of the bouncers stole it. I really need that jacket its the best one I've ever had! It's super warm, waterproof, comfortable and I think it looks really sweet too. I'm flying to France in 6 weeks and I don't know what I'll do if I can't get it back. It is a light blue Surfanic jacket with lots of little white dots all over it. I'm bummed I lost it because it's so much better than my old jacket. I love my gear.

IF YOU SEE A GUY WALKING AROUND CHRISTCHURCH WEARING THIS JACKET THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW! IT HAS GNOMES SNOWSPORTS FREERIDE TEAM WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE LEFT SHOULDER SO IT'S UNIQUE. IF YOU HIT HIM UP I'M SURE HE'LL GIVE IT TO YOU BECAUSE HE KNOWS ITS SO RECOGNIZABLE. IF NOT THEN JUST LET ME KNOW WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE (because I don't know which bouncer stole it) and maybe his liscene plate if he's driving.

As it gets warmer my mind drifts to other things... I haven't seen a summer since the start of 2007 and I'm relishing the chance to wear shorts and jandals. But the snow still calls me back as always. Spring days at Broken River, same as the last couple of years, with unexpected treats like night skiing with Si Reeves and Ally Kerr (team Gnomes). More nights spent at uni than anywhere else, finishing my honours year of Natural Resource Engineering. Light at the end of the tunnel though, I've had drugs tested on me during this time in return for $4300, which I've just used to buy plane tickets to Chamonix for the northern winter, stoked! Photo of being a lab rat in the drug trial below. Wearing sunnies inside becuase they turn on the bright lights at 6am.

I'd like to leave you with a thought and a photo to go with it that I think is beautiful. This photo was taken of Lake Ida on a day where we (Ben 'Laundry' Pritchard, Jethro Neeson and myself) had unsuccessfully tried to go to Mt Olympus for a powder day. After waiting at the base of the skifield for 5 hours for the road to open we eventually gave up and went to hang out by the lake. There were a lot of people waiting and some of them were getting really angry. Although it was a bummer not to get the powder that we had been waiting for I didn't mind the day of chilling, we hung out in the sun, talked and laughed, ate good food and practiced with transcivers.

After a while we went and hung out by the lake, laundry and his girlfriend went fishing and I went and sat in a tree overhanging the water and thought about not much at all. After a while I started thinking about how lucky we are here, that we get the chance to get angry about not having as much fun as want to instead of spending our days struggling to provide for ourselves and our families. That we live in a place where a pristine lake and beautiful mountains and so close to where we live and if we feel like hanging out next to them we can have them all to ourselves. Have you ever read a book the describes the outdoors with passion? How about this: 'The grass was tall and golden yellow, it waved in the wind and caressed our legs as we ran through it whooping on our way to our favourite spot by the waterfall. We sat by the waterfall and ate freshly baked bread with soft cheese and the juciest of apples. The pool sparkled a thousand shades of blue and white, lazily overhung by the greenest of foliage and mirrored by the puffy clouds that floated in the afternoon sky as they swapped shapes in a never ending dance.' I just made that up but we have this, and a thousand wonderous variations of it, so easily availble to us. Step outside, take a breath, and powder or no powder make it a good day. Look for the beauty in the things around you and you'll find it in vaster quantites than you may have imagined it existed. Till next winter.... Peace.