Caution pays dividends for speed ski-ing initiation

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 31

Caution pays dividends for speed ski-ing initiation

Doing things by easy stages is a great philosophy in tackling a sport like speed ski-ing. For the top speed skiers in New Zealand ideal requirements are long skis, a helmet, a skin-tight suit and an iron nerve. At Mount Hutt last Friday I had the helmet. It was a chance to experience life in the fast lane for a few seconds on a special speed track set up well away from the recreational skiers. The occasion was training day for the first event in the 1986 New Zealand Speed Cup series and by invitation or gentle persuasion three or four extras were in the start list.

Preparation of a relatively short course about 300 m long was completed by early afternoon with much help from a Mount Hutt snow-groomer. The top of the course was the "Virgin Mile” ridge out to the right of the second platter — and that is where the bit about doing things by easy stages comes in. The further you climb up the hill the faster you ski down, and once on the track it is too late to get off.

Members of the speed ski-ing fraternity such as Henry van Asch (holder of the national record of 161.39km/h), Roo Thomas and Martin Jones climbed all the way to the ridge and were buffeted by an 80km/h wind for their troubles.

In my case a rather more cautious approach seemed appropriate with the need to be able to stop safely in the run-out zone a priority.

Reassurance came through the downhill helmets supplied from the New Zealand Speed Skiers’ pack and van Asch’s briefing to the first-timers. We were told not to come out of our downhill tuck too abruptly in the run-out area and what to do in event of a fall, “which won’t happen.”

A cowardly first run from a low start-point on the course brought a speed of only about 45km/h through the 25metre timing trap, but at least all limbs and my regular-length 194 cm skis were intact. After that run van Asch found me a spare set of downhill poles (the sort that seem bent out of shape) to add a measure

of authenticity and I climbed several metres higher up the hill.

This time there was more sensation of speed and coming to a stop took longer. Going through the timing trap took 1.62 s — a speed of 55.42km/h. Two days later, on official race day, three skiers exceeded lOOkm/h and even the media “record” went with 3ZM’s Biff Urquhart timed at 61.60km/h. Van Asch with 240 cm skis and his Darth Vader-style helmet was the fastest with 103.81km/h. The four-race New Zealand Speed Cup series, which will continue at Cardrona, Craigiebum and Turoa, aims to show that speed ski-ing in a controlled setting is perfectly safe and a lot ot fun.

Members of the public will be able to take part in the forthcoming events, giving good intermediate and advanced skiers the hard-to-resist opportunity to ski straight and fast without damaging themselves or anybody else. A tip: By choosing a low race-start point your speed might be slower, but you do a lot less climbing. Summer task Peter Curtis, an American ski instructor with seven New Zealand winters under his belt, will not be adding to that total this year. Curtis, who was 2IC in the Mount Hutt ski school, was obliged to stay home in California. According to Mount Hutt’s ski school director, Tony Graham, the American was “tied up with his job at Kirkwood — and his new Porsche.” Curtis, who is director of the Kirkwood ski school, has the

summer assignment of setting up what is being billed as the world’s toughest triathlon. The course apparently includes a 3km swim in Lake Tahoe. Powder hounds Some of the best ski-ing in the world awaits the winners of this year’s Salomon New Zealand powder eights competition in the Harris Mountains near Wanaka. First prize is free entry into the 1987 world powder eights championships in the famed Monashees and Cariboos, Canada, including five days helicopter ski-ing with a maximum of about 23,000 vertical metres. The New Zealand competition, scheduled for one of the next four days, will involve 18 pairs of skiers making perfect figure eights in powder snow on steep, untracked terrain. Among the entrants are last year’s winners, Steve and Sue Bounous, from Utah, and two of the Ohau Ski Area’s directors, Robin Judkins and Mike Unger, along with Jon Jarvis and Nigel Taylor, Wolfgang Kiehne and Werner Hanni, and the 1983 winners, Stu Blakely and Mark Vryenhoek. Prizes apart, the attractions include the now standard gourmet buffet luncheon on Black Peak and in the evening a helping of gluhwein and angels on horseback (lightly heated oysters wrapped in bacon and dipped in Worcester sauce) served at the Edgewater Resort Hotel. Gas problem A young American couple on their honeymoon in New Zealand found in the course of a ski-ing trip to Mount Dobson last Saturday that it does not pay to trust petrol gauges. When their rental car came to a halt near the top of the access road the gauge was still showing three-quarters full — after 350 km of motoring around Canterbury. "Goddamn, I’m out of gas,” the rugby-playing American finally realised. Fortunately for the visitors their luck changed. They got a ride up to the field, had a good day’s ski-ing with no queues and managed to buy some “gas” from some other skiers.

Warm week-end Ohau ski-field staff are still picking up “golf balls” as part of the aftermath of “the first Irish ski week-end” last Saturday and Sunday. The sporting events included a ninehole mountain golf classic, with teams teeing off from the top of the T-bar and balls were lost all over the place. According to the assistant manager, Craig Ovenden, there was a turnout of about 700 for the week-end and everybody became involved in the activities. This included the Uphill Downhill with competitors skiing uphill and rolling down. “There was gluhwein in the tow queues,” Ovenden said. “Everybody was warm and happy.” Bad run The downhill racer, Bruce Grant, of Queenstown, still has a pin in his leg from the knee down to the ankle as a legacy of a ski-ing accident in Austria last January. But at least he is back ski-ing again after what was his fourth serious injury in the space of four years. The New Zealand A team member has had three broken limbs and a severe knee injury and admits to being “pretty hacked off” with his run of bad luck. The latest injury came about when he hit a barrier held by a metal pole and suffered a break in his leg about boot level. Grant, now working as a heli-ski guide, is using telemark skis for most of his ski-ing because his leg hurts on ordinary alpine skis. He hopes to be “ski-ing normally” in a week or so. Skiracing will be a little further away for the young man who represented New Zealand at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics. Grant has been keeping fit with bike riding, tramping and lifting light weights, but at last report could not run. The pin probably will not be removed untl the end of the ski-ing season, when he can work on strengthening his leg.