Queenstown Snow Cats

This was definitely the funnest day of my Southern Hemi Winter so far. With such a rad crew, I knew it would be a blast no matter what. Rachael Oakes-Ash, aka Miss Snow it All from theSydney Morning Herald was there to document our adventure, with Camilla Stoddart taking photos and Jase Hancox logging all the action on film.

The trip was based around two sets of sisters aiming large in the snow industry; Nat and myself from Australia and Janina and Maria Kuzman from NZ.

We met the Queenstown Snow Cats team, located in Kingston, 40 minutes out of Queenstown early in the a.m. to run through safety briefings and our schedule. We were then surprised with a heli ride up to our stomping ground for the day- obviously this was not your usual cat skiing operation.

Once we were up in the mountains it was time to play! We spent the day jumping off stuff, scoping lines and generally just shredding the gnar.

Before we knew it, we were being ushered back into the heli and flown back to reality.

Such an epic day with a bunch of inspirational people. Much love to Queenstown Snow Cats andRachael Oakes Ash for putting this all together. For the full story on the day, stand by for the northern season mags and Channel Nine in Australia (July 2012) for the one hour TV snow special.

Katya wins at Hotham

Remember we posted the edit of Katya's rigorous between-season training sessions ? well it looks like all those indoor and outdoor activities are starting to pay off BIG TIME!!!

She just had amazing results at the The Australian National Championships / Australia New Zealand Cup Ski Cross event which was held at Mt Hotham last week. The event attracted a number of international competitors to Australia - athletes from Japan, America, Switzerland, Finland and New Zealand. And Katya was on the podium both days!

Says Katya "A few days before the race we battled extreme weather conditions, with torrential rain almost wiping out the entire course before the races even started. Fog and high wind also prevented us from training on the course, so instead we just trained in the start gate. Luckily by Saturday the storm had passed and we finally saw the sun, giving Hotham a chance to build what turned out to be a fast and technical race course with plenty of big rollers, jumps and banked turns.

Being the first race of the southern winter season and the only ski cross event in Australia, I was very excited to be racing again on home turf. It’s always great to come home from a 4-month World Cup season in Europe / North America, and test out your skills on Australian snow.

 "My major competitor this year was World Cup racer Fanny Smith from Switzerland, who had a World Cup victory last season and is currently ranked number three in the world.

 On day one I qualified in second position, two tenths of a second behind Smith. I made my way through the quarter and semi finals, finding myself in the final head-to-head with Smith, a Japanese competitor and another Aussie. With a fast start, I managed to take the lead at the top of the course and maintained it all the way to the finish line, feeling Smith on the tail of my skis the whole way down. I crossed the line in first, and as you can imagine, I was very excited to have beaten such a highly ranked world-class competitor. A very proud moment for me!


On day two, I had another great day of racing however couldn’t manage to beat Smith to the finish line in the final, and finished in second place.

Overall, a very successful and enjoyable weekend of racing in the sunshine. I finished with a first and a second at the Australian National Championships…not a bad start to the season! It feels great to take the National title again, making me Australian National SX Champion two years in a row."


Katya is now in  New Zealand, competing in the New Zealand Winter Games. This event is held every two years, and attracts a large number of international competitors. The ski cross will be held in Cardrona, which is renowned for being a world cup standard course.

Good Luck Katya !!!

THREDBO edit

Thredbo made an edit of the Chicks with Stix session!

throwdown!

Are you ready for the Chicks with Stix Throwdown ?!


Ok girls, here it is, your chance to enter an entry level, grass roots, freeride skiing event. The Chicks with Stix throwdown will take place in the Skyline Park at Mt Buller on the 4th of September. For girls that are regulars in park events, this is your chance to get some comp experience and nail a solid slope run.

For those of you that have never competed before this is a great opportunity to try it out in a fun and encouraging environment with CwS coaches close by, ready to lend a hand. The event will be a jam style format.

Please remember to register for this event by emailing CwS and let us know that you are coming. For those of you that are not part of TBR, or Team Xtreme, please make sure you fill out a waiver form (chickswithstix.skiing@gmail.com) and bring it along to the day.

We have some GREAT prizes up for grabs.......so grab some friends and head to Skyline, Mt Buller, for a fun session in the park with the CwS crew!

Baw Baw !

check out the sweet edit that Baw Baw put together for us !


Little Mountain: She-Shredders. Girls ski & ride days. from Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort on Vimeo.



thanks guys !

thredbo pix

Our new buddy Steve "cuffy" Cuff from website skitracks.com.au was on hand last weekend when we had our CwS session at Thredbo. He's taken some great shots which he very kindly sent through for us to use.

Cuffy is one of Australia's leading ski photographers and has spent every winter on snow since 1992. As well, he is the official photographer for SSA and has covered the last 3 Winter Olympics. Check out his site HERE for more pics from the slopes.

heading north - into NSW

The Chix took to the road for an adventure into NSW,  hitting Thredbo on Friday night and holding our first NSW session for the season. Zoe, Anna and I were joined by locals Karinya Turnbull and Hanna Fisher.

Luckily, we had quite a few coaches on hand because not only were we shredding the mountain with a whole lot of new girls, we had our own media contingent! Photographers, film crews and journalists all tagged along with us and we were feeling a bit like we had the paparazzi on our tails!

beginning of the day

Zoe gets in the swing of it

Anna chats to Reggae Ellis

We had a ton of fun, starting out easy with a bit of free skiing and finishing in the park where everyone really pushed it to the limit. Best part ? every chick went home having tried and succeeded in something new. One lucky chick even went home with a new pair of ARMADA SKIS!

Over the next few weeks we will try to post the stories.... but let us know if you see any media featuring us, please! We had a film crew from Thredbo who are editing a short segment about us, as well as Reggae's new show On The Edge, we had Ben join us from mountainwatch.com and Steve from brand new site skitracks.com.au and The Snowy Mountains Newspaper.

We were also joined by Miss Snow It All who was also celebrating a birthday- it was her 21st I think!

- Lorraine

Zoe says :


Wow! It was an awesome day at sunny Thredbo on Saturday where CwS awarded a brand spanking new pair of Armada Cantika skis!! This ski is the perfect all rounder for any chick who loves to shred. Although it is built for all mountain skiing, any lady who rides it will also discover that it loves being in the park!

Amanda, a local instructor for Thredbo won 'Chick of the Day' and will soon fall in love with this ski. It is a great ski for Amanda to perfect her switch skiing, 180's and 360's on.

skis matched her outfit - how awesome is that!

Thanks to all the girls who turned up to support chicks who shred. Congratulations again to Amanda for her brilliant effort on Saturday. We can't wait to catch up with you again next season at Thredbo!

- Zoe

AND REMEMBER - THIS WEEK IT'S PERISHER SUNDAY 9AM AT BLUE COW TERMINAL!

PS: keep an eye out for Zoe this weekend - judging at the National Mogul Championships .... as well as Anna this weekend - presenting at the Slopestyle comp on Saturday night. Come and say "hi"!

guest coach - KARINYA

Last weekend the Chix team hit Thredbo, with two guest coaches Karinya Turnbull and Hanna Fisher. Here, Karinya gives us her take on the day..............

"On Saturday the Chicks with Stix Team consisting of Zoe, Anna, Hanna and myself (KT) met beneath the sunny skies of Thredbo resort for the first ever Thredbo CwS session. Fifteen girls turned up for a day of freeride and freestyle fun and for my first session as a guest coach after judging last year’s throw down event it was a fantastic way to see how a team of girls can make a difference.

Heading up the Gunbarrel chair we skied across to Merrits where we split up into groups with those girls who wanted to learn 180’s, switch skiing and fast GS turns were able to get some one on one coaching from some of Australia’s top experienced freestylers. After some basics the group progressed through to the parks on High Noon and under the Cruiser chair for some rails, jumps and even some for their very first 360’s!! What an amazing effort!!

Zoe + Karinya give some pointers

We were very lucky to have four coaches there to share their hard learned lessons on park techniques, new jump progression, how to get through that scary first step of spinning and even a few awesome demonstrations.

at front : Karinya, Zoe, Hannah, Anna

We finished off the day awarding our Chick of the Day, which went to Amanda who was ecstatic to receive a pair of brand new Armada skis to help her progress her 360’s in the park. Bianca, a seasonal local won most improved and a Chicks with Stix T-shirt with her first 180 and 360s attempt and finally Kit also walked away with a CwS T-shirt for her positive attitude and determination.

All of us had successful day and CwS would like to thank Thredbo for their efforts publicizing the event, supporting the program and being an all round fantastic program partner.

From all of us at CwS in Thredbo we look forward to seeing you all next year!!"