OZ Splitfest with Firstlight Snowboards and Adam West

We were in a two week dry spell when I left New Zealand for Australia which was off to a solid season with a deep snowpack and awesome corn snow to be had not to mention it was great to see Adam West.

Leaving the West Coast of New Zealand

I landed in Sydney and Lee was kind enough to pick me up. Within 30 minutes of landing we were off to Jindyebyne, the Wanaka of Australia.

Perfectly round boulders in teh middle of the desert

I was lucky enough to join forces with John Blankenstein and he took me to the secret steeps on OZ.

We're going over there

People have the perception that it’s nothing but rolly hills in OZ which is true but if you know where to go there are some proper steep lines.

I know, I was thinking the same thing

We made sure to work with the sun to give us the softest snow possible and it worked.

John tearing it up

Time to bootpack

After riding to the valley floor we transitioned to bootpacking and rode a sweet looking gully.

I'll take a thousand feet of this

Then we climbed back out of the valley and the 8 kms back to the parking lot

OZ Spines?

I could get used to these bridge things

The next day I hung out with Graham and Adam Flemming while we had a fun day checking out local terrain and the gum trees.

Damn gum trees

The Kingdom of Rhime ice

And there were some ridiculous telemarkers.

WTF?

But the Snowy Mountains is a beautiful area.

The Guthega dam area

Icebergs in Australia?

Guthega Dam

and I was able to do a little bit of guiding on the side to pay for my plane ticket.

Making that coin teaching the value of a low angle skin track

I am super thankful to Adam at Firstlight, Lee for giving me a ride, Adam Flemming and Jamie for the awesome tailgate party and John Blankenstein for showing me his backyard. See you guys next year.

Thank you for reading and If you enjoyed reading this and want to see more ski tours abroad check out this link

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