Simone’s Wedding 2

Racers Edge and Wanaka's very own Simone Maier fashionably optimistic!

OK… Poor title but I couldn’t resist. No, Simone Maier is not about to get married, but with the Sione’s Wedding film sequel about to hit our screens soon, its a nice lead in for Simone’s own sequel this coming Saturday.

Last year she killed it with a second place at the Challenge Wanaka main event. This year she wants a podium but is naturally coy about stating a time and a final position. All she will say is she wants to beat her own personal benchmark of 10 hours.

The bike leg last year was a killer with the tortous wind – everyone suffered, but added to that Simone lost her entire food/nutrient bottle only 45km’s in which she admits hurt her. She says that will not happen again.

She knows it will be tough going this year with 6 pro’s in the field but she’s feeling strong, confident and her equipment is in race ready condition. “Looking forward to it…”

Challenge Wanaka, Biking and more!

Challenge Wanaka is New Zealand’s fastest growing iron distance triathlon and part of the global series of Challenge long distance races that includes Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Austria as well as New Zealand. The race is the flagship event of the Challenge Wanaka Triathlon Festival that runs from 10-16 January 2010 and also includes Puzzling World Junior Challenge Wanaka, the Radio Wanaka 5km Fun Run, Swim the Course, Contact Cup Sprint Triathlon and the Lake Wanaka Half.

Many locals are well under way with training for Challenge Wanaka. Including Racers Edge Bike Manager Lucy Fullerton and staff member Abby Carrington. Racers Edge employee Merryn Johnson who was the second woman in last year’s Challenge Wanaka has been assisting Val Burke with over a hundred members who are training for the 2010 Iron Man. Challenge Wanaka brings a huge amount of people and business to the town of Wanaka as well as some great atmosphere! The organisers of Challenge Wanaka rely greatly on volunteers so any one who is interested please fill out a form in either the Challenge Wanaka office or at Racers Edge. Racers Edge Bike is the Official Bike Sponsor for 2010 and will be checking every bike and helmet that is going to be used in the race. They will also be there on the day for any emergency servicing, maintenance or accessories that competitors may need.

Hamish Fraser recently placed 14th in the Garston to Bannockburn Gutbuster after getting a flat tyre whilst in second place. With a finishing time of 3hrs 30min Hamish was pretty disappointed in losing a top three placing due to the flat tyre. The boys in the bike workshop have also been out training for upcoming events including the Bannockburn Classic on the 30th and the Lake Dunstan Cycle Race on the 10th of January. Anyone who is interested in a ride and a few tips is welcome to join them and director Lucy Fullerton on the Monday night group rides meeting outside Racers Edge Bike at 6pm!

Touring Black Peak by Charlie Cochrane

It was 4.30pm on Tuesday the 23^rd of September, finally the weather had broken and we had a clearing in the clouds with more settled winds. The forecast was bang on and all going well Wednesday was going to bring us a fine day before the next front pushed through.

 

Andrew Wardell, Alexa Wood, Neil Kerr and I got our gear ready to load and James Ford the pilot loaded Aspiring Helicopters Hughes 500 E model.  Before long the chopper was powering up and we were air born over Aspiring Helicopters base and out over Cattle Flat. The view is spectacular looking at the gateway to the Mt Aspiring National Park one way, Wanaka the other and below deer hanging out on lush green rolling flats. We sidled up round the hills as we ascended up the valley and over Goldrush Saddle and up to Black Peak hut. This hut is amazing as it’s nestled in behind Black Peak with 360 degree mountain views and a west descending sun.

 

The hut is owned by Aspiring Guides and fortunately for us Andrew Wardell does some work for these guys so we were allowed the key. The hut sleeps four and is totally decked out for Alpine Ski Touring, Climbing Trips and Guided Walks with gas cookers, crockery, sleeping bags and essential supplies.

 

We dumped our gear in the hut, attached our skins and headed out for a quick ascent to the summit of Black Peak to score some wind blown powder. The wind was howling again but the light was amazing as it was nearing 5pm and after an hours grind we had reached the top. We soaked up the view which was unreal, you feel so small and exposed amongst the vastness of the mountains and Wanaka sitting quietly miles away….epic is more the word to describe it. We made fast work of the ski down, the Volkl Gotama and Marker Duke eat this terrain for breakfast. The Duke maybe a couple of hundred grams heavier than other touring bindings but when you’re skiing you can completely trust it and know that it will suck up the biggest of cliff drops.

 

Neil cooked a mean dinner and we warmed our stomachs with a couple of glasses of Scotch and turned in for bed. I woke at about 6.30am to find it snowing, windy and totally clagged in. We had a chopper out of there booked for 5pm, but the worst entered my mind and I thought we would be skinning back to TC. I crashed out for another couple of hours and by 9am it was improving. We made a decision to skin to the ridge and call Aspiring Helicopters and get a weather report. By the time we reached there the sun was out and they confirmed things were on the mend.

 

Ooh yeah, we dropped in to the front face of Black Peak and skied all the fingers that we have been in awe over since we were lads. Expecting spring corn we stoked to score 10cm of fresh and we all claimed a chute each. The terrain is awesome and we lapped it couple of times before settling on a rock for lunch with our outlook towards Fog Peak and the endless white peaks of the Southern Alps. We lapped it a couple more times before we were all buggered and pushed on for our last skin up and out to the ridge. There was a bit of blood sweat and tears but we made it unharmed. One last moment lapping up the epic view back to Wanaka and we dropped in for some primo turns back to the hut.

 

The chopper picked us up bang on time and Fordy (pilot) made easy work of getting us back to base. We sealed the trip with a couple of cold pints of Brewski back at Kai Whaka Pai with the outlook to Black Peak.

 

If you are ever interested in a trip like this then get in touch with Aspiring Guides in Wanaka and they will give you the trip of a lifetime and if you want to try a pair of Volkl Gotama’s then pop into Racers Edge, as I might know a guy that can help you out!

 

 

Fed team photoshoot

Racers Edge Freeride Federation team went out for an exclusive photoshoot with photographer Miles Allan of Alpine Images at Cardrona on the weekend.  It was a perfect sunny day and all members were amped on hanging out and ripping in the park.  Team members that could make it on the day included Amy Sheehan, Chris Dinham, Mikey Austin, Olly Allan, Fraser McDougall, Henry Schikker and Hannah James.  All members were going huge as can be seen by the photos..

 

 

go to http://www.racersedge.co.nz/racers_edge_freeride_federation_104.html to check out more pics of the team. 

Best of luck to all members for the Junior Nationals next week!

Keep up the good work.

heli ski, water ski, brewski

2009 has been an epic season in NZ. For a bit we experienced an Indian Spring with warm winds and hot sunny days and people busted out shorts and tee’s, they dusted off their bikes and got ready for summer activities. How foolish they could have been. It was the warm before the storm and from 20th of August onwards Wanaka experienced cold winter conditions and some of the driest powder fell this season, and I mean shite loads of the stuff. T.C had an all time day with 75cm in the saddle and a day which got better as the light improved.

Of course it was Wednesday and that meant that I was opening Racers Edge and Shaker (one of the other owners) had the day off…..typical. However he knew he couldn’t hold me back on a day like this and Neil Kerr (owner of NZ Skier Mag and Racers Edge legendary boot fitter) called me up and said he was picking me up at 9.30am. We were late for a bit of Powder Bowl pow but we scored knee deep freshies all morning down Sundance Ridge. As we were riding the chair they opened the saddle and we watched hundreds of powder junkies frantically trying to be the first to the saddle chair, I can tell you that this is more depressing than the effects after 2 Big Mac’s and flat coke. We did manage to get about the 50th chair and with local knowledge we scored our stash from top to bottom of 75cm trackless pow twice before it got discovered. After an early lunch the Summit was opened and we literally sprinted up there and I’m sure I could taste blood in every breath my lungs were burning so hard. Two runs off the summit and an afternoon charging with Neil and Fraser McDougall who was pulling 360 Mute Grabs and Front Flips all day like it was his job (well it is really as he’s a Volkl grom) topped it as the day of the season, right up until yesterday……… when I went Heli. OOH YEAH!

The Heli Trip of a lifetime. 10 good mates who charge, a B2 Squirrel with Nigel the pilot from HMH who could park it like it was a taxi, a private charter of 11 runs each, two ripping guides from HMH (Grommet and Rodger) and steep terrain with more chutes than a paddock of sugar cane.

The day was bluebird and we were air-born by 9.30am the first run was a nice warm up and then we got into business with some epic landings on rocky outcrops and more billy goating than a mob of Thar. It was worth it though we scored lines with as high a degree of difficulty as you wanted to push it and some blower pow. The light did flatten out and the wind got up but with a change of goggles to an orange lens it was like someone had turned the lights back on and of course between Rodger, Grom and Nigel the HMH crew kept feeding us great runs with loads of features. Due to wind we couldn’t nail a couple of killer lines called ‘Great Expectations’ which looked amazing but I secretly think they knew it wasn’t possible but just wanted to tease us a bit to keep us in the loop for what else HMH has to offer Trust me there’s plenty for everyone. We called it after 11 runs and the chopper getting low on fuel but for $690 bucks it was a killer heli-trip.

But wait there’s more! It was only about 1pm by the time we finished so we ate lunch back at Cattle Flat and nailed a few local brewed ‘Brewski Beers’.

The beauty of living in Wanaka and taking advantage of it’s mecca for outdoor sports came into it’s own and we found ourselves drinking beers listening to live fat tunes at Kai Whaka Pai until Olly Chapman arrived at the front beach with his jet boat and we went waterskiing with the backdrop of some of our terrain we had just skied in the background.

We finished the day off celebrating Hamish Acland’s 30th over a BBQ, and reminiscing over the days’ activities. One thing is for sure and that’s Heli is worth every penny and Wanaka rocks!

work hard play hard

 

After getting over the staff party we had another busy week this week at Racers Edge! 

The staff have been keeping themselves busy with ski and snowboard rental, ski tuning and loads of boot fitting this week….

Luckily we employ the best staff in the industry so they can keep up with the rush and continue to have a good time!

Good work team and thanks for all the hard work

 

Staff Blog – Jade

With school holidays well under way in Wanaka a few of us from the shop – Marc, Ryan and I decided to take a break from the punters and the lift lines and get some turns in the Treble Cone Backcountry.  It was a foggy and cold day on the lake, but after a short drive up the hill we were privy to a beautiful sunny day.  After a quick ride up the Saddle chair, we checked our gear and headed out of the control fence.  A short boot pack brought us to the ridge above the Hollywood Bowl where we were able to strap on our skis and ski our way down to Gottleibs Ridge.  From there it was bit of a climb to the summit and we decided to try our luck on the steeper of the 2 routes.  Kicking into what little snow had stuck to the face and using the tussocks as hand grips we pulled out way to the top.  Once reaching the summit of Gottleibs we had a quick chat about our decent route, took a photo or two, strapped in and headed off towards the valley floor.  The turns on the way down were what I would have expected in the deep spring, but not in the middle of winter. I’m learning more and more that ski conditions in New Zealand are unpredictable and conditions can change dramatically from day to day.

After the skin back up to the resort and a fast trip back to Wanaka, Ryan and I were able to make in back to work…….almost on time.  Not a bad split shift.