"Best Camp Intro Ever"

After a much needed night sleep in our first-class condos I awoke to pouring rain at 6am. Departure was put on hold for a moment, but only a moment. By 8am the skys cleared and we hit the road. The mountains are COVERED in snow and the scenery is amazing, even for NZ. We figured out the tire chain situation and ripped up to resort.
The mission for day one was to get to know the resort and get a feel for riding again. The first lift ride was a bit overwhelming, so much terrain to choose from, all of it covered in fresh pow. As I stood in awe and confusion at the top of the lift I was almost knocked over with a bear hug from behind. It was my good VT hommie Danger Dave who had been out for 3 weeks already and was more than down to show us around. For the next two hours we ripped pow and dropped rocks. It was the perfect way to start, no one even tried to get to the park.



Pheobe, Makayla and Serena are a badass crew of girls, so fun to ride with. Much of this style of riding was new to Phoebe, yet she did not hesitate to drop the rocks with us (and she loved it). Mike and I just looked at each other and laughed. We both had the same thing on our mind but he said it first, "Today is the best start of a camp I can remember". Scotty agrees, and what a great intro to NZ for him! Liz is killing it as guest coach and I loved seeing her stress-free, slashing pow and dropping rocks. Its great to have grads stay involved and I know we are going to see some shredding from her in the next few weeks.
After lunch we headed to the park/pipe. At this point the wind picked up and things got a bit gnarly. We were still able to check things out. James and Spencer were on point, like they had been riding daily up to today. Spencer nailed a backflip off a rock, a front 3 off another, and 4-5 nollie fronts. James is always willing to check the jumps for the crew, and he did so today, even in the wind. Hunter got the shot of the day (up top) blasting a method off a rock into powder.
At the day's end all were safe, sunburned and stoked. We are ready to start pipe and park riding tomorrow, but for one of the first times I can tell that it might be hard to keep the kids in the park all day!