"Another day, another shuttle and another Delta lady. Bye Re! New plane, new bags. :You guys like the Braves? Hotlanta here I come!" Plane change again. Where to now? "Hola! Hablas ingles? Anyone?" Awesome, another ski bag. "Sup bro, you’ve seen better days. Why all the gray bandanges?"Oh, you’re Suzanne’s bag! What? We’re going to Santiago!
"Touch down. Conveyer belt. Quit pulling on me Mister. Why’s the Misses in such a rush! I’m Re’s. Why you taking me through customs. Please, someone, help!” What’s that sign say? "Las Condes, Chile" Wait this can’t be right. Re and I were heading to Las Leñas, Argentina.
Curva 1…Curva 12…Curva 20. I’m going to puke. Check-in Hotel Valle Nevado. Nice ski runs. Up to the room. Ziiiiiip. Why are these people YELLING! I’m the hostage!! Quit pulling on my green tag, hey that’s my tag, where you going with that! Back in the shuttle van. Curva 20….Curva 12….Curva 1. Airport, another airport! Why am I at the airport? I thought I was going skiing. Take off, touch down. Mendoza? Where am I? Where’s Re? She’s never left me for 2 days straight before. Another dark room. Whose this guy? Van says "Talavera." More corners, we must be headed to the mountains. Air’s getting thin, I can’t breathe. Wow, those mountains are big! Las Leñas, the sign says Las Leñas! Re, Re! Where are you? We’re passing the hotels and into the ghetto. I see Re! She’s paying the Talavera guy. That’s a lot of cash Re! Why you staying in the gringo ghetto?
Ziiiiip. Socks, jacket, pants, fleece, long johns, Pieps, shovel, probe, poles, skis. Where you going Re? Skiing without me! I just got here. I feel so empty…"-Holly Walker
When I picked up POWDER’S Porter Fox and Dave Reddick, 4FRNT founder Matt Sterbenz and Tahoe ripper Jeff McKitterick from the airport last week, my first thought was how the hell we were gong to fit all their gear in my miniature kiwi wagon. Somehow we all crammed in and immediately headed to Temple Basin Club Field, stopping halfway to meet recently crowned NZ Freeski Open Big Mountain champ and Kiwi native Hamish Aclund and enjoy a round of New Zealand’s legendary meat pies.
After Lucy and the crew chugged up to the parking lot, we loaded the gear onto the Goods lift while Porter freakishly became obsessed with New Zealand’s alpine parrot known as a Kea. Once the gear was sent off on the dodgy lift, we tramped up a mountainside for over an hour to Temple’s lodge. At one point, my sorry ass had to grab onto Hamish’s backpack strap to maintain balance as I constantly slipped on my Wallaby boots resembling a first-time figure skater. Eventually we all made it intact, including our gear, and stared up at the towering moonlit peaks that we would call home for the next week. High-fives were thrown as the AK-style lines streaming down Temple’s surrounding white faces induced feelings of pure joy.
The boys hiked and shredded hard all week with Reddick capturing both the awesome display of skill from Sterbenz, McKitterick, and Hamish and sheer beauty that is New Zealand. Without giving too much of the upcoming magazine story away, the week was a big hit, despite Porter’s loss to McKitterick in a grueling, deuce-filled championship match of ping-pong. -John Stifter
Today’s Slopestyle event for the 2006 NZ Freeski Open was one of the most groundbreaking in recent memory. Sixteen year-old kiwi native Jossi Wells threw a switch 630 onto a gap to down box on the last feature of the super-rad slopestyle course. CLICK HERE FOR THE STORY...