Training has finally 'officially' started for the Australian National Ski Cross Team here in Thredbo.
I've been here in NSW for the past week training early mornings, starting on snow at 7am. Although it's early and requires waking up in Jindabyne at 5:15am every morning, the skiing at this time is unbeatable and well worth it.... beautiful sunrise, perfectly groomed snow and no one on the hill. We've also been training on the ski cross course which Thredbo gratefully built for us. It has some cool features, including a wu-tang at the start, some rollers, berms and a big table jump.
On Tuesday I competed in the Rip Curl Freeride Pro for the first time. It's a prestigious big mountain competition held every year at Thredbo for Australia's best big mountain skiers. A few international competitors also came for a chance to show off they're skills.
The weather happened to be perfect, with blue skies and 15cm of fresh snow from the night before. The top four female skiers make it to finals, and I finished in fourth. Unfortunately finals on Wednesday were canceled due to gale force winds, so results went off qualifications. The Buller girls dominated, taking out the first four places in the comp. First was Zoe Jaboor, second Anna Segal, third Nat Segal, and myself in fourth. Go Buller!
Here are a few shots from the comp...
(The girls enjoying the sunshine... Myself, Zoe, Anna, Nat and Karinya)
(Going big off the hip jump)
