LondON

...And oh boy was it ON this weekend! In the haze of a misty October's lunchtime I set off with Matt & Hannah to London for a weekend of Mayhem, Mischief and McChicken Premiere...

After a quick pizza at Hannah's I branched off and made the journey alone to "the Nest", Joe's new place in Forrest Hill. It's just great, just 3 footsteps of a small child from the station (look @ the map) and bus stop opposite. It's only 7 miles from London Bridge so everything's pretty accessible.

Joining forces once again with M & H and later, Kester and his other half, Alice and Joe's flatmate, Christian we headed out with cash, cards & cheque books for a fun and ever-so-slightly expensive night in Covent Garden. After a few drinks and some unbelievable dancing from Joe & Mark we entered easily the best part of the evening: McDonald's.

It's fair to say I over indulged, but it was all worthwhile: i got a good feed and felt none the worse for it the next morning. Needless to say i wont be having a Big Mac for a while.

Joe works right in the centre and on Sunday we walked his journey to work, across London Bridge, past Tower 42, the guerkin and Subway. Destination: Spitalfields Market for some Celebrity spotting. It was a fruitful exercise, with a good 30 seconds walking in front of Damien Lewis, and i also bought a tie with a chairlift on it (nope, still not over it!).

One National Express and an icky M&S smoothie later we were back in Portsmouth. Photo of the weekend? We have a winner...

Summer of Snow - Part 4: Life

So...With my amazing job on the mountain and the awesome social scene in the village, life was good, but my job hunting wasn't over.

I applied and got a position working in The Last Post Cafe (& Restaurant), working in behind the bar, but mainly waiting on the restaurant floor. This was amazing fun and i made more really good friends as well as earning that extra bit more cash!

The mountain employed lots of staff, and as most were resident in Methven the pub in the evening was pretty much dominated by staff. This was great because everyone knew everyone, so the atmosphere was usually great.
Most popular was "jug & curry" night at Steelworx on a Tuesday night. This was also Jam Night, and i managed to play a couple of times, once on the piano and once on the...

....The find of the season would have to have been my Accordion. Financed by Dan as my Birthday present, it's brought me many hours of pleasure (and a lot of pain to everyone else!!).
I managed to take it pretty much wherever i went (never made it up the hill though) including the Last Post staff do at the end of the season, where we danced through the street to Jingle Bells etc!!

I also did a gig with a blues band in the Blue Pub in August, which was great fun!


The Lift Department social club took care of several nights out and fancy dress parties and i threw a big Toga Party for my Birthday. Ski Patrol also organised a cocktail party at the end of the season. The mountain management also organised a few events and chucked in some free drinks for us all. We also had Formal Dress Day on the mountain, where each department wore a suit/dress to work, but the Lifties went in fancy dress - i was in my cactus costume from the Mexican party!

We took plenty of time on closed days to explore, and one trip took us right through an area where Lord of the Rings was filmed, Mt Sunday, or Edoras as it's called in the movie apparently. Amazing scenery. Also saw a lot of Christchurch - city not too far away. Some good nights out and good shopping too!

And also the snowboarding and skiing was great! We got 2 days a week off plus lunch breaks on our work days, most of which we spent riding on the hill, so my boarding has come on a hell of a lot! I had a bit of a fall whilst playing for the staff volleyball team, dislocating my knee. It put me out of riding for 2 weeks, but i could still work, so all good!

I'm probably running out of things to say to describe the season. I'm gonna upload all my photo's sometime, but there's a few for the time being. Altogether an amazing way to spend my UK summer. I've been offered a job next year, which I've accepted, so the fun will begin again soon!
...Oh and the burger was my leaving present - triple bacon & egg, chilli-beef-and-cheese pie burger - They know me too well!

Summer of Snow - Part 3: Work

So...after a good tip-off from someone in the Blue Pub (who later turned out to be a good mate, Ryan) and a day's skiing i headed to the staff room on the mountain to see about a job - i was in luck, the season was so-far considerably better than last year and they hadn't employed enough staff. The day after i began my training to become a Lift Operator on the hill.
Dan had been pre-accepted a job in the snowsports school, and we had our induction together on the same day - it couldn't have worked out better.

Being a 'lifty' involves most of the operational aspects of the ski field, from vehicle chain fitting to car park management, to snow clearing, to de-icing, to access road patrol, ticket checking, as well as operating the chairlifts on the slopes. My average day started at 7:30am, when the staff buses left in convoy for the mountain, then at 8:15 we were out on the field setting up the lifts. This involved full checking and running of main and backup electric & diesel engines for each lift, emergency stop testing and line checking. those lifties rostered to the top stations were whisked up on snow-mobiles or on a chair if their lift was operational, to set up unload fences etc. the field opened to the public at 9am, and our job was to keep everything running until closing at 4pm, when we did everything in reverse to pack away. Those lucky enough to be stationed at the summit got a ride down with the whole field to themselves, usually heading down long after patrol! Having packed everything away the day ended at 5pm when we took the staff buses down.

If the weather had been bad there was usually a lot of snow clearing to be done. At the start of the season we would frequently have 35-40cm dumps of snow, and this would leave a lot of drifting on the slopes and around the lift stations, along with heavy quantities of ice on the chairs and lines. a De-ice Start begins at 5:50am, and for most of the season i was on 2 of these a week. It was great fun - leaving the village and driving up the access road in complete darkness in sometimes waist high snow and ice for 15km about 3 feet from the edge of the road...and a very long drop off the side of the mountain. Driving on ice and snow was a skill i really mastered, although i never had to drive in the dark! By the time we reached the mountain the sun was about to start rising, and once we were in full deicing harnesses and slowly making our way through the waist high powder on the slopes to the summit on the back of a groomer we would see the entire sunrise - what a sight - worth getting up so early for!
Deicing is the highly technical process of climbing each pylon on each chairlift and hitting parts of the structure with a big wooden stick until the ice fell off. Not so great if you're afraid of heights, but i loved every minute. a Deice start could happen on a beautiful sunlit morning after a 50cm snow dump, or in the middle of a whiteout with 80kph winds and visibility down to about 2 metres. This was less fun, and remembering to hold on is quite important. The strong wind and low temperatures create rime, which clings to anything in it's path. When we reached the summit in these conditions pretty much everything was covered, and a lot of deicing was needed before we could get through the door of the lift hut, let alone run the lift! If the conditions were still bad we would end up covered in rime too, which froze everything - jackets, gloves and hats, and built up on our goggles as well, making work VERY difficult. On several occasions my jacket hood had frozen sufficiently that you could punch it much like a football and it remained solid. Also my gloves would freeze, and although my hands were quite warm inside, the fingers of the glove would not bend, making anything other than pushing and hooking things very difficult.

With this heavy snow the chairs would get stuck in the lift stations, and in teams we would push them through (6 people cannot pick up a single chair, they're very heavy), which was not easy in thick snow and zero-visibility and solid pants! The reward was usually a good powder run from the top once we were finished, although in 1 metre vis. it wasn't quite so fun when you didn't know where you were most of the way down!


The lift crew was about 35 strong, and we made a great team. Working in conditions like that requires teamwork, and it brought us all very close. I'll miss everyone, but most will be back next season

Summer of Snow - Part 2: Mt Hutt Village

So... Dan and I moved into 29 Colcord Place, a small 3 bedroom bungalow in Methven covered in knee-high snow. The place wasn't too bad - fully furnished, open fire, really sweet old lady next door etc. As the photo shows the driveway was quite long, and only a shovel-width had been dug to walk through, making it very difficult to get cases and snowboards to the house. The following day we spent a good 2 hours digging snow, only to give up and pay a man with a digger 20 bucks to do if for us! lazy bastards are we.
The mountains in New Zealand aren't really suitable for hosting a resort because of the crumbly rocks and also the weather can be very crap, so it would either slide or blow off the side. hence the 'resort' is off the mountain and a short car/bus journey gets you to the slopes. Methven is really a farming village that accommodates Mt Hutt staff and visitors to the hill when the snow falls. It's very surreal to see farmers mixed with ski instructors in the bars, but generally speaking there's a local for the farmers, and the rest of the pubs are for the mountain!

Summer of Snow - Part 1: The Journey

So...i'm back! Finally you lucky people get a report on my adventures in New Zealand!
Dan and I arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand after a 2 day (inc. ~25 hours in the air) voyage halfway around the planet!We had a very cool 5 hour wait in LAX, which meant we were able to get a taxi to nearby Santa Monica for a stroll down the beach, a big steak and a drink in Hooters (could not be missed!). It was quite surreal to be halfway to a season of snowboarding, yet sitting on the beach in 35 degrees!
Back onto the plane, Qantas this time. I fell asleep in the departure gate, and was woken up for boarding. I crawled onto the plane, fell asleep in my seat and slept for the whole 12 hours! Had a bit of a run-in with the large man sitting to my right: I dreamt i was in a window seat on the right (starboard side if you will) of the plane. i was actually on the left in the middle seat, but this didnt stop me from leaning right to take a peek out of the window in my sleep. Unfortunately for both of us i was awoken by the man to find my face just inches from his, my window turning out to be the other side in reality. he wasnt too impressed, and moved after take-off.

12 hours later we were in Aukland, and after one more flight, a Qantas domestic we touched down in Christchurch - our final destination. A light dusting of snow on the ground here, but on the car journey to Methven we were to see just a bit more!

Methven - Mt Hutt Village, had been host to about 50cm of snow earlier that week, so we arrived in a winter wonderland with knee deep snow in all directions. Probably the most snow i've ever seen not on a ski field! Graders had been through the village and made huge piles either side of the road, leaving a single lane in the middle. It really was quite incredible, but we'd arrived and it was to be our home for the next 4 months. I couldnt wait!