Season Recap: New Zealand

A lot has happened over the last 6 months and since I have some free time right now, I'm finally going to write about it. It still amazes me how far I have come in such a short amount of time, and I couldn't be more stoked to be where I am right now.

Snowpark

Last summer I made a really good decision to go to New Zealand. I love traveling and I have always wanted to go there, so when I got my invite to compete at Junior World Championships down there, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. After exploring the South Island for a couple weeks I met up with the US team in Wanaka and started training for the comp. Skiing in NZ was awesome. I was so happy to be there, I didn't care if the pipe at Snowpark sucked, it was all fun. I met a lot of really rad kids and a pretty cool coach that I've been skiing with all season.

Cardrona's pipe on comp day

The day of the comp turned out to be the worst weather we'd had all week, with snow in the bottom of the pipe and a huge cloud engulfing the whole mountain. You could barely see 10 ft. in front of you, and although we waited several hours for the cloud to clear out, it never did. Riders were sent whenever there was a big enough break in the clouds for the judges to see your whole run, but that was at a slow pace. We ended up having to call it quits after everyone got one run in, which put me in first.

It was my first major win of my career and I was beyond stoked to be on the podium with some sick skiers like Keltie and Devin. Overall, it was an amazing trip and I was stoked to  go home and start the season on a good note.