Into The Light

I took the photos immediately above and below while standing in my backyard yesterday evening - no editing, filtering, tweaking or fancy camera settings required. In the far background is Mount Niger, which sits next to Treble Cone in the heart of the Mount Aspiring National Park. I took the bottom photos at sunrise on the same day, the first while in the middle of our morning commute and the rest from Treble Cone. On our commute as the sun rose above the horizon, Lake Wanaka turned to fire, and we stopped the staff van on the side of the road and all had a "moment of zen" as we took in the light show.

The circumstances of all of these photos are a sure sign that Spring is approaching here in Central Otago - the sun rises before we get to work and the sky is still light when we get home at the end of the day. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I may endure two winters every year, but I am blessed to be able to experience the joys of Spring, twice. It's already been an exceptional season of skiing and riding at Treble Cone. We've had an amazing amount of snow, we've been quite busy in the Snow Sports School, and the quality of the teaching and skiing of our instructors has been inspirational and quite gratifying given the hard hours put in by those of us responsible for the management and training of our staff. There's still over a month left of the season, and I'll enjoy all of it while looking forward to looking back on it from the warm embrace of Spring.

Line 'Em Up

A picture is worth a thousand words and, in this case, a lot of snow. We're in the middle of an amazing storm cycle here on the South Island of New Zealand. At Treble Cone, we had a big storm Thursday night into Friday morning, and another storm Sunday morning with some heavy snows and then sunny skies in the afternoon. There's a massive storm due to hit us on Tuesday morning, another on Wednesday morning, and (for those who are counting) a fifth storm on Thursday. At the moment, avalanche danger is pretty severe in the resort, so ski patrol is working overtime and we're all trying to temper the excitement of everyone anxious to head to the backcountry - a big task given the amount of backcountry access at Treble Cone, the large number of TC skiers who routinely venture to ski it, and the astonishingly large crowd that came to our resort today after word of our fresh powder spread.

The pictures here are from an awesome weather prediction website called MetVUW. They show the next three storms we're expecting on each of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings. It's a big line up of weather and, if all goes well and our hard-working patrollers can help keep Treble Cone safe from avalanches, we're in for some pretty serious powder.

Patience Rewarded

On Friday, July 31st, Treble Cone was closed due to severe weather. As is always the case when this happens those few times during a given season, the staff of the resort and the staff of our neighbors at Cardrona and Snow Park were all wandering aimlessly around town all day, sipping coffee at any number of cafes, and generally working hard to appear occupied. This morning, August 1st, there were clear skies in Wanaka as we left town on the staff transport, and the storm lifted from Treble Cone just as the crowds were beginning to line up for a great powder day. We conducted our regular morning instructor training clinics with the sun striking us head-on, making turns in a foot-and-a-half of fresh powder (on top of some already great conditions). I was fortunate to be able to ski all day - first while conducting a clinic and then with some guests who ski well and know the mountain's particular nooks and crannies. It was a terrific day without qualification, and we definitely reaped the rewards of patiently awaiting the end of the storm. There are another few storms literally lined up and waiting their turn to hammer us with snow here on the South Island of New Zealand, and the skiing and riding should continue to amaze even those of us who work here. I hope to post some more ski specific photos in the coming weeks, but today I was a little too busy actually skiing to stop and pull out the camera. This photo of skiers' tracks off the Treble Cone summit this afternoon will have to suffice in the meantime.

ABS, Again

Blah, blah, blah; yutta, yutta, yutta; ho hum. Ok, enough already. I get it, the sunrises from Treble Cone are absolutely gorgeous and the scenery from town is stunning even on the worst of days. I mean seriously, the beauty of the natural environment here really does get monotonous after a while.

I have a friend who grew up on a lake in Minnesota and lived most of his adult life on the coast before moving to Santa Fe several years ago. When we first met he explained to me that he had been reticent about living in the high desert of New Mexico because he thought the landscape would bore him compared to the ever-changing views on the shore or the lakeside. What he found was that the quality of the air and the sunlight in the high altitude mountainous desert meant that the views of the landscape around his home changed every minute of every day, just as on the water, and that it never got old for him. Here in the Southern Alps it's much the same. The biggest problem is deciding whether to take photos and with whom to share them.

Here are a couple of photos I took this past Friday from Wanaka and on a recent morning from Treble Cone. Please understand that no photo can adequately capture the scope and beauty of the place. I hope you enjoy them nonetheless, '"another bloody sunrise".

Change in the Air

After weeks of the same drudgery, day after day of stunningly gorgeous weather with blue skies, no wind, and no precipitation to speak of, we've finally got some change in the air, literally. On Saturday evening, the wind is blowing at Treble Cone and if all goes well, it'll bring with it some weather bearing some snow for us. The skiing remains outstanding, so perhaps we're being a little selfish, but a powder day would go a long way to bolster the spirits of a resort staff that has just completed the busiest two weeks of the season.

Schnitzel Fest 2009

Take a fillet – sometimes pork but traditionally veal, pound the heck out of until it is flat as a pancake, dust it with flour, dip it in egg, coat it in breadcrumbs, deep or pan fry it, douse it in lemon, serve it with spaetzle or potatoes, accompany it with a good beer, and you’ve got the Austrian national meal and one of my favorite words these days: schnitzel. As in “that’s not exactly your Uncle Hans’s schnitzel”, “the light this morning was as flat as your grandmother’s schnitzel”, or “I’d take that meal over your schnitzel any day”.

In Austria, being a ski professional – whether as an instructor or as a coach – holds a vastly different status than in the US. Skiing is, after all, the national sport there and its importance is such that government funding is an essential component of the national sports institute, the national instructor certification programs, and many of the resorts. It’s not an accident that the highest level of instructor certification is the “statlicher”, meaning state certified. What this means, in my experience, is that the Austrians I’ve worked with both on the race side and on the instruction side of the business take a vastly more career-focused orientation to their jobs than their average American counterparts. While it is true that many of our best instructors at Okemo and elsewhere in the US only teach skiing part-time or do so either before or after other careers, the fact is that few people choose ski or snowboard teaching as their dedicated vocation. Given this professional view, it’s no mystery that the Southern Hemisphere resorts often have Austrians at the core of their staffs, and here at Treble Cone that’s certainly the case. In the Snow Sports School, we have a few Austrians this year, including our new director, and the immensely successful Treble Cone Race Academy has quite a number of them.

Despite our view at Treble Cone that we are and must remain a Kiwi organization, we have precious few Kiwis on our resort staff, and the rest of us occasionally feel quite foreign despite our best efforts and our love for the place. Sometimes we all simply need a small slice of home, and it is for this reason that a little over a week ago I attended what I have been referring to as “Schnitzel Fest 2009”.

Imagine a large great-room of a lodge, one of several in town normally used to house our many overseas athletes enrolled in the Treble Cone Race Academy, filled with a convivial atmosphere, jolly conversation, real gemutlichkeit, and only three non-native German speakers in the place. Beyond the twenty or so Austrian coaches and instructors, diversity was provided by me, Kiwi big mountain skiing legend and TC ambassador Geoff Small, my friend and the TC race administrator Megan from the US, a Swiss couple, and the German lodge manager. Yes, that’s right, the German and Swiss people made it diverse. The schnitzel was flying, the homemade strudel was outstanding, and my friends from Austria could relax, speak their own native dialect and feel that they had a little slice of home before the season at Treble Cone got really busy. For me it was a fun evening even without any real understanding of the language. It was really great to see my friends and colleagues in easy, native conversation.

I should note, selfishly, that Schnitzel Fest 2009 was followed a few days later by a proper July 4th BBQ at my house with real hot dogs, hamburgers, yellow mustard, actual Heinz ketchup and my annual ribbing of any and all of the British people present. Hey, that’s America, even if it is in Wanaka. And a little slice of Austria too.

Holidays

We're in the middle of a two-week holiday period for the schools here in New Zealand and in Australia, so it's the busiest two weeks of our season. It is a strange and challenging thing for us that the holidays fall so quickly after we open for business, so there's an enormous premium on training our staffs, working out all of the kinks, and getting ship shape. Thankfully, Treble Cone seems to be working like a well-oiled machine and our Snow Sports School is providing some of the real highlights. It's a wonderful thing to be at least partly responsible for what, so far, appears to be a remarkably gifted, hard-working, cohesive and fun group of instructors providing an exceptional product for our guests.

The long busy days mean that I arrive to work in the dark and leave in the dark, but at least I get the chance to see the sun rise and set in stunning surrounds each day. The photos here are of a sunset a few days ago. Enjoy.