Action Man

It's been a busy week in Paradise. On Tuesday I went skiing, which might come as a big shock to some of you considering my penchant for snowboarding, but guess what? Skiing is really fun! I used to ski a fair bit when I was a kid, but it's been at least ten years since I strapped on the planks. I rented some boots and borrowed Geoff's alpine touring setup, then rocked up to Coronet Peak with my Kiwi friend Gemma and my Spanish friend Dominique (both avid snowboarders). Domi decided to play it cool and head for the bunny slope, but Gemma and I jumped straight onto the lift to the summit. It was a cold and sloppy day, with wet snow hammering down from the dark clouds above, but this meant we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves. Empty slopes are good when you're learning to ski. I felt like I got into it pretty quick, making nice turns and getting progressively more comfortable going fast. Below is a shot of Gemma and I just before our first run.

You might be wondering "why is Dustin learning to ski again?" The answer is that I've been invited to join a ski touring expedition through the Southern alps with Andrew and several of his mountaineering friends at the end of September. We will be in the mountains for 4 days, traversing lots of peaks and glaciers in the Mount Cook area. It's going to be wicked.

So that was Tuesday. On Wednesday I drove up to the Remarkables with Andrew... in a GARBAGE TRUCK! Awesome. There was some fresh snow, so we just kept hiking up to the high ridgeline and dropping into the back chutes, which are very steep and fun. On a snowboard this time.

The next day Andrew and I drove north to Wanaka to do some rock climbing. Wanaka is the "other" ski town in New Zealand, and though it shares some similarities with Queenstown it is a bit smaller and a lot more low-key. My great friend Sam Zighmi lived in Wanaka a few years ago, and he's been chiding me for not making it my base. I think maybe he was right. Just outside the town there are extensive cliff formations all over the place. Most are right off the road, offering easy access to lots and lots of great climbing routes. It was cloudy that day with occasional bits of light rain, but all the rock faces we jumped on stayed nice and dry. Mostly because they were overhanging. Which made them difficult. I won't go into a long description of the climbs, but we both left very satisfied, having pushed our limits and gotten worked over, but eventually reaching the tops of each climb.


After work that night I went to our local concert venue Revolver to watch the premiere of their new snowboarding film. The Revolver crew makes a movie every year of all the Queenstown shreds, some of whom are pretty proficient in the terrain park. It wasn't a great film, but it was pretty entertaining, and I knew some of the riders onscreen. The place was packed to the gills with a rowdy crowd that was real stoked on the movie. Afterwards I went to a few more pubs and drank a lot of beer and didn't get home until 5am, which was just when Pip and Geoff were leaving the house for a trip to Mt Hutt. They were surprised to see me.

I slept late on Friday and didn't do anything cool, but on Saturday I went back to the Remarkables for a sunny day of snowboarding. It was a park day for sure. And I was ON. My main goal was to start hitting the big jumps, and hit them I did. And big they are. I've done jumps of comparable size in Aspen, but not since April. I was also killing it on the rails and boxes, but I over-rotated a few frontside 360's on the smaller jumps. Gotta practice that.

So yeah, it was a good week. Here's a rainbow: