Big Week.
Hi Guys I have got the glacier guide job. I start on the 5th of Sept.
This weekend I have been busy. On Saturday Hayden, Liv and I went snowboarding. The Mtn had lost about 5-10cm of base since i last went but they had got 15cm of new snow on Friday night. Hayden also had a big night on Friday which was why we had to stop 2 times for him to "Have a Breath of Fresh Air" on the way to the mountain. He was also so impressed with my skillful driving up the access road that he had another in the ski field carpark(car park pic not included).









Once,












Once again only closer(you can see chunks on the ground)






















Twice.















Look carefully at these 4 photos of Liv and see if you can pick the odd on out. ( i will give you a clue, it is the one where she is on her feet)
















































There was actually another showing her carving a turn, but I cut it out to make her look bad.











Who is this sexy masked man??????


















Today (sunday) Andrew and i went back to craigiburn where he showed me the track i was looking for a few weeks ago. We climbed up a ski road to where the single track cut off across a scree slope.
The single track was 99% ridable although there were some rather exposed bits. It is not nice to come around a tight sharpish turn to find that there is a big drop on your right. I walked a few bits cos i was too pussy about falling off the mountain. Most of the single track flowed down under Beech trees. There was one point where we had a wee climb on the singlr track to get over a 1200m sadle but from there is was all down and by the time i got to the bottom, my legs were sore from standing too long.

That was my weekend and tomorrow i am waking up at 5am to go hunting. If you boys and girls are lucky i might have some blood and gore hunting photos for you on my next post.

Go West Young Man


Last Friday I had a job interview at Fox Glacier on the West Coast. Andrew and I went over on Thursday night. Andrew is one of those lucky people who's boss does not mind if he takes a few days or half days off now and then as long as the work that needs doing is done. He thought that my interview with Alpine Guides would be a good excuse to take a day off and spend the weekend ice climbing.
Friday started with me going on a half day glacier walk "FOR FREE" all applicants got to go on one of the walks to see what was expected of guides. My interview was a 2pm i got to chat with the boss and the head guide and the HR manager. It was great and i think (read hope) they liked me.
Andrew spent the day solo climbing on the glacier.



This was the view as i drove out of my motel on the way to my morning glacier hike.

This is Franz which is about 20km Nth of Fox where i am trying for the job. Franz is a bit bigger than Fox but the view of the mountains is better from Fox. I think i could really get to love looking at that view as i bike to work.







I got back from my interview and went into the glacier carpark to see if andrews bike was still there. It was and he had just got down off the ice.
this is andrew playing in the carpark.










Me my first time on the ice.


















Another time



















another time



















Andrew looking cute.

It was a great day on the ice and if i get the job I think i can see myself spending a bit of my spare time sticking my sharp shiny tools into bits of ice. You have to be a little more carefull on the ice compared to rock. when your foot slips on the rock there is no danger of you cutting up your other leg with the sharp spikey bits on your feet.

Snowboarding at Mt Hutt with Lou and Arthur.

This is the View from half way up the access road.

This is the first time i have been up on the snow this season. Seeing i have a seasons pass to Mt Hutt this is a bad thing. In the last week Hutt got about 25cm of snow. Which is the first snow they have had in over a month.
The conditions on the Mountain were great. Not alot of snow but not too much wind, sunny and clear. There were a pile of rocks showing through so we had to stick to the groomed areas (although a few of those had rocks showing too). New Zealand Ski areas are kinda famous for the access roads that everyone has to drive up to the reach the mountain top fields. The roads are tighter than the Filthies when Jerry is looking for beer money. More twisted and dirtier than the girl of Duncan's dreams and uglier than my left collar bone (which is pretty damn ugly). The most excitement we had of the day was the drive home down the road. Traffic was backed way up behind some buses and camper vans (RVs for our Nth American cousins) no one was looking interested in passing the heavy vehicles. I performed a very safe but interesting over taking manouver getting past about 10 of the cars who did not seem to want to pass. I got behind the camper and bus that were causing the block. I waited until we had a clear veiw down the road and started to pass them, then the camper decided to pass the bus. They pulled out with no turn signal (unlike me) and we came within 2-5 cms of being side swiped and about 20cm from me being pushed over the dropoff below the road.




If you look at the horizon above my head you can see some hills. They are the old volcanic hills behind Christchurch. They are maybe 80km away. How is that for clear skys.











This is the view Nth of Hutt. It is looking towards where i climbed the small Mtn last week.














Me from behind on the snow:-)














Me far away












Up close and Ugly














Me and Arthur "chillin" waiting for Lou to catch up to us.

Rock Climbing At The Thors

Today was supposed to be shitty and wet and cold. However the front that was going to put lots of snow on the mountains for me to go boarding tomorrow did not really happen. It was sunny at 8am raining at 815 and fine by 1030. In the afternoon i went climbing on rock for the first time in maybe 6 years. Debs Andrew and I went to the Thors. This is funny as it was also the last place i went climbing on rock 6 years ago. The sun was just hitting the rock face when we got there. It was great to be out and on rock. The feeling of greatness kinda went away when i got one of Andrews brand new $160 cams stuck in a crack. Andrew was able to rescue it so it all ended well.




Me getting stuck


















Me still Stuck





















Debbie Climbing through the bit where i got stuck.
















Andrew still not happy with me whimping out and not trying the "stuck bit" again












Looking South

This is a shot Duncan took of me in Korea it is riding the first Mt at Bundang.














This is the top of foggy peak about 1760m.
it is looking back over the plains towards Christchurch. You can see the shitty weather stops at the mountains i am standing on.











same photo on an "Arty" angle















this is looking the other way the clouds are just starting to push over the pass into the basin

















this is looking towards craigiburn where i went biking in my last blogg



Climbing up this mountain was not too hard but coming down killed me. It is not 2 days after and my quads are achin like hell. If I sit down for too long i almost fall over when i stand and try to walk.

Craigiburn ride June 05

This is the top of the Broken River Ski area road. We actually went up the wrong road we should have gone up the Craigiburn Ski area road. At the top of the other road you can access single track. At the top of this road you can access a ski area and lots of nasty steep rocky mountains.








Once we ( Me and Sarah, who boards at my mum and dad's house) got to the top. the only option was to go back down the way we had come up. The road was mostly hard and fast not too many icy bits. Most of the road was through nice beech forest so it was a pretty ride.













Pretty
















Even Prettier













What a sexy car













this is the bottom of the ski road. The rest of the road is much nicer


















more pretties











This is driving home. The good thing about Christchurch is often when the weather is shitty you can drive one or two hours and get clear blue skies. The clear sky photos are west of the first mountains which block some of the shitty easterly weather.