For our first Aussie Winter Mission we wanted to dive into a mission that not many, if any Aussie snowboarders have ever done before! It’s unusual to hear of crew travelling by air to snowboard in Australia…but we wanted to take Aussie Olympic riders Tess Coady & Valentino Guseli on a day they will never forget.
We hit up the crew from Alpine Helicopters to take us from Jindabyne, New South Wales all the way over to Victoria to ride two resorts in one day, and make it back in Jindabyne for afternoon beers in one of their choppers.
Looking for the right weather window, we eyed off the best day and pulled the trigger. Lucking out, the day ahead was forecast for nothing but blue skies, making it perfect to travel by air. Let’s GO.
Tess Coady is hands down one of the best female snowboarders at the moment, coming off the back of a strong Beijing Winter Olympic campaign, scoring a Bronze Medal in Slopestyle plus a load more for the trophy room across the Northern Hemi winter competitive season.
Valentino Guseli, is the 17 year old who’s marked his name in the snowboarding scene globally. Boasting 6th place in the Beijing Winter Olympics halfpipe, a world record the the biggest air out of the halfpipe and all round domination. He’s the hottest rider Down Under and is always up for a mission…especially when the word ‘Helicopter’ is dropped.
The crew met at the Jindabyne Airport Hanger, loaded straight into the Helicopter and we were off, flying across the Australian Main Range to the Victorian Alps. A crazy perspective of the Aussie mountain ranges from up high. First stop, Falls Creek.
We landed in Falls Creek, and the hot lap program kicked straight into gear. Tess and Valentino are two of the best park riders in the world, so we let them get after it. The Heli landed right at the top of the Falls Terrain Park and it was all systems go.
We headed back to the conveniently located chopper and loaded up for our second stop, Mt. Hotham. Park laps all morning, into mountain mobbing around Hotham all afternoon.
We landed in at Mt. Hotham at lunchtime, a few hot dogs on the heli pad to refuel and it was time to get deep into the gullied out terrain. Hotham is boarders paradise with side hits, steep runs and surfy terrain.
Once the legs were well and truly cooked for a huge day riding both Falls Creek and Mt. Hotham it was back to the heli-pad for a celebratory Pirate Life to cap off the epic day.
A huge thanks to our Winter Missions Partners – The North Face, YETI, GoPro, G Shock and Pirate Life Brewing.
