Abby Lockharts snowboard life: August 2012

This winter we have had a slow start snow wise yet its still been great park riding here in Wanaka. We had the the world heli challenge set and ready to run a few weeks back conditions were not great at the start of our 2 week window for the event so everyone waited it out with fingers crossed that the storm in the forecast would hit? Sure enough some snow came and we flew 2 days in the last 3 we had possible it seemed to me like not much snow had come at all, to my surprise there was a good 20 cm on top of what was soft for our free style day it was sick so much fun, we did have a delayed start due to some lingering low cloud once we were up there it was all on! Everyone ripped it up on day one and had an unforgettable day in the Buchanan mtns looking over lake Wanaka.

Day 2 Extreme day we flew to the same mtn as last years extreme venue MT Albert more north west of Wanaka taking off from Makarora, it was another beautiful day early start with a pretty pink sky every one was excited, conditions were looking epic as we flew in everything was different to last year as the base was allot less. We all got up there and had a great day everyone ripped it up Will J was a stand out and he rode awesome I was so stoked for him! The vibe was great this year a small crew of riders and skiers that all got on great, its such a fun event and anyone who gets the chance to take part in this event should its like no other!!

The prize giving is held the following week so there is a little wait before the final result is released
Will and I ended up winning the mens and womens snowboard overall we both won both days so that was awesome we were both stoked! Will also won the X factor award which is a trip to Alaska so thats very exciting!! Markus Eder and Nat Segal won the overall ski. Everyone had a super fun fun night and all in all the event was great to be apart of and I was stoked to defend my title for my 2nd year!!