Turoa update from our Roving North island reporter Kingsley.
Hi again,
A warm welcome from up in the north. And a warm welcome it was on Thursday
10th Sept when we arrived at 9am into the Turoa car park. What I mean by
that is 5 degrees, warming to 12 throughout the day. Excellent spring
riding conditions with the famous Turoa slush around.
So Thursday, well, a good friend of mine from a few years back got in
touch with me and we started talking and found out that each other were
into snowboarding, so we decided we oughta catch up after 3 years and hit
the mt together. Little did I realize his interest in the sport was only 2
and a half days old. So we hit the mt with some mean excitement. i was
stoked to be riding with my old mate from years back. But that soon had a
wee downer when I suggested we hit the High Noon for some sweet runs
before the forecast wind picks up when he humbly mentioned that he knew
how to stop, but not anything else. So oh well, I left him at the winter
garden learners area and I made it onto the High Noon express for 1 run.
The rest of the day was history. I decided I had better get to it and
teach him a thing or two. So we started out abit rusty but as we went on,
he soon began progressing quite nicely.
A few hours later and the wind had picked up at the upper mt and she was
blowing something real strong. But I decided he was doing ok, so we headed
to the Express for his 1st taste of the full Mt. Anyway, with all the
teaching, learning etc behind us for this report, with the wind blowing it
was shifting all the snow off the ridges and entries to the upper runs and
over to the bowels and further down the runs. So once hitting a few meters
down the runs (vertigo, big bowel etc) it was almost like a freshie day!!
How awesome. I ended up ditching and doing a few runs on my own towards
the end of the day and all in all it was sweet.
So with that one down, we watched the forecast for our next day available,
which ended up being Sunday 12th. No new snow had fallen, and knowing the
wind was blowing I wasn't expecting too much. I not much is what we
arrived to. Friday and Sat had been raining so the lower mt is now very
patchy with only just enough snow to cover the Alpine meadow and Clarry's
track (intermediate run between upper and lower learners). Even the upper
learners had suffered. So we moved on through to the Express again and
half expected ice ridges to be glaring at us on the way up. But much to
our surprise it wasn't. The rain had even reached the upper mt which has
softened the ice into that 'Turoa slush' we're so famous for (apparently).
Good thing was that this allowed all the back country areas to be opened
up, so finally we headed out into Solitude, the western backcountry area
in wich we found some sweet wide open runs, headed down to a 8 or so foot
drop in finishing off on a huge steep bowel to ride out through. So we
pretty much hit them all day, shot out to the east into the Hamiltons
dropping into Black and White. It was great. Ended the day rocking out the
park for a while, one of your crew splitting his shin on a rail.
So, overall, with no new snow anywhere on the forecast I think the Mt is
due for a quick melt. With 12 days now under my belt and 16 days being my
goal for this season, I think I will be spending the next 4 days in the
park working on my airs and jibbing etc. Hopefully I will be able to pull
off afew sweet spins and flips with no breaks aye. Hoping to hit the XL
before the season is out!!
Wish me luck :-D
~Kingsley~
