Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
More than 20 years ago I used to chase my friend and fellow photographer Kenny Mutton around the slopes of Ruapehu to shoot photos of each other jumping off cliffs and skiing or boarding the fresh snow. Kenny was as mad as a cut snake on skis – always looking for a challenge. So, it was no surprise this past week to discover that his eldest son, Zack, was no different.
Zack is 17 and spends most winters tearing up Treble Cone Ski Area. He knows the terrain well – he's dropped every line and trained on the steepest racetracks. But our goal was to find somewhere cool to capture the magic of the Treble Cone backcountry – easy accessed lines that radiate out from the summit and powder caches at the end of calf-burning traverse lines and ridgeline hikes across impossibly perfect faces. If you like to get fresh tracks then there are few ski areas in the Southern Hemisphere with more options than Treble Cone.
Zack quickly finds some fresh lines to run before turning his attention to a little wind-whipped kicker.
"I think with a little shaping I can do a backflip off this one," he declares. I'm a little bemused. "Have you ever done one before?" I ask him, as he gets to work on the ramp. "No, well, not successfully on snow," he replies with a grin that reminds me of another crazy Mutton 20-plus years earlier.
The last time Zack tried a backflip on snow he landed hard on his head. Although he's a dab hand at them on the trampoline and off clifftops, so I took his matter-of-fact confidence as a sign that he did indeed know what he was doing. Needless to say he had it dialled from the first attempt to the final one, hitting his landing and skiing out each time like it was nothing more than a walk in the park.
As talented as Zack is at skiing, this is not his apex sport. Back in July Zack qualified for the K1 semifinals at the Canoe Slalom Junior and U23 World Championships held in Bratislava, Slovakia. He finished eighth in the final and would have been in the medals had it not been for two penalty touches in his final run. It was only the third time a Kiwi had made the Junior World Championship K1 final, with his coach Mike Dawson the first and Tauranga's Callum Gilbert the second.
Zack still has another year in the Junior ranks.
"It's very motivating for me. This goal once seemed impossible and now it is right within my reach," he explains. "I'll be building to this again now, but I also want to do well in the selection races – to make the senior team and have a chance to compete in World Cups."
"There are a lot of steps to get there – a lot of boxes to tick on my journey," he shares.
You can follow Zack's journey here: Zack's Instagram or Zack's Facebook page.
While we were up at Treble Cone we also met up with two The North Face athletes: Fraser McDougall and Sam Smoothy. These are two of the world's great free skiers and they were dedicating their day to sharing some of their wisdom with 14 lucky young Treble Cone skiers. It was pretty cool to see these superstars filming the young groms and helping them to progress their skiing. Very inspiring ...
See you at the beach ... Derek
PS Here's one for your diaries: The Port Chalmers Seafood Festival takes place every two years and the next one is scheduled for September 30, 2017. Don't miss it!
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: