The 2024 Gritt Coaching Camps literally got off to a rocky start with Mt Olympus unable to open for the planned event due to lack of snow. Being no strangers to the reliability of a New Zealand ski season in the Clubbies, we managed to juggle various commitments and NZJFT dates to find a backup in September.
Without knowing it, these dates ended up being some of the better days of the season, although you wouldn't have picked that when we first arrived. Icy conditions and flat light were what welcomed us to Mt Olympus on day one. But this didn't stop the group getting to work, starting with the gnarlom style race course (a race course set through a mix of drops, jumps and other off-piste features to make it extra challenging), avalanche safety training, and some hiking.
The icy conditions weren't to stay as a heavy front rolled in before lunch dropping a casual 10 cm of wind blasted snow across the mountain. We were all surprised when the clouds parted and we were treated to fresh face shots all afternoon. The ski patrollers even kept the tows spinning "for as long as everyone is still having fun" - A risky comment to make with 30 stoked kids in the vicinity. We eventually packed it in with the coaches tiring out before the kids, and headed in for one of the famous Mt Olympus dinners.
Day two was exactly the day we had all been hoping for. With a couple of extra cm's overnight and not a cloud in sight, we got straight into the warmup laps before strapping the safety gear on and hiking lines all over the Back Ridge and Little Alaska terrain. It was great to get some of the younger generation hiking in the steeper terrain for the first time and they were full of great questions along the way.
After everyone had hiked their hearts out, we got to building some jumps in the Frozen Waves run. Most of the kids were building on what they had learned at last year's camp, dialing in their grabs with tricks, backflips and flatspins. The jump session was closed out by a couple first time landed 360s and backflips which was the cherry on top.
A special thing about this year involved extending our coaching panel to further include previous camp attendees. It is our intention to continue into the future to provide a sustainable, circular model where the clubs can keep a healthy youth community engaged and involved, while making friends and learning key skills to stay safe in the mountains.
We would like to extend our gratitude to our supporters, without them, this wouldn't be possible. Thank you for believing in Gritt.
Supporters:
Coaches:
Craig Murray
Kenji Boekholt
Jamesa Hampton
Harry Cookson
Tom Freeman
Henry Freeman
Film and Photo:
Jeremy Black
Nicole Hawke
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