Coronet Spring Training

We have just had the last few days of on snow training before a heavy dryland programme begins.  The spring skiing at Coronet Peak has been, for the most part, particularly good for this time of year with great snow cover.  Super G training from the top of the GS race start down through Robin’s Run was a lot of fun and the snow conditions on Race Arena have made for some excellent training.

Perisher Slalom Course

August was a pretty packed month of racing with mixed results but I was fairly happy with the way my health has progressed over the season.  Races began at Cardrona in early August and these were quickly followed by the National Championships at Coronet Peak.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to hold on to my title this year with team mate Willis Feasey on top form, but beating me by just 0.11 second!  After the Nationals we flew over to Australia to start the ANC cup series with the first races in Perisher. Perisher is huge, we had to take four different lifts just to get to the top of the race, and had to take a train (the ski tube) under the Australian alps to get up to the ski area. After pouring rain all night we actually ended up having a pretty nice day!  The slalom races were a bit of a lucky dip with the top guys finishing way off the pace with the crumbling snow deteriorating quickly. I was pretty happy to have made a result in the first GS with 17 points in spite of the challenging conditions.  Lots of bad weather and poor snow conditions saw the second GS postponed a couple of times and moved on to follow the ANC races being held at Coronet Peak at the end of August.  .

ANC/Winter Games Slalom, Coronet Peak

On arriving back home, it was straight into another five days of racing the Winter Games/ANC Cup series, a day off and then races for the season finished with a slalom and giant slalom at Treble Cone (4th, 5th September) along with plenty of fresh snow to make it a little more challenging.  Managed to pick up 3rd place in the slalom  amongst some stiff competition so it was a good way to finish off the race season.

Coronet Peak GS Race

Pre Race Warmup Photo Cred: Philip Green

View from Rocky Gully over Lake Wakatipu

We are now into a heavy dryland programme for the next few weeks before a final block of on snow training at Cardrona.  Spring is definitely here with warmer temperatures and hayfever season about to kick off.

(National Champs Slalom podium.  ANC Cup series Yellow bib presented by Ken Read)