Alta hits Dobson

• August
• 15

10:04 pm snowboarding

After spending a couple of days at 2009 Burton Product Launch, which included a day riding the new offerings and another in the classroom being schooled up, we decided to make the most of the epic snow conditions in Canterbury and squeeze in another days riding before heading home. The latest snowfall had been Monday night and a whole day had gone by since that, but upon hearing Mt Dobson had been closed all day Tuesday due to too much snow on the road, it was pretty obvious where we would head!

Snow line was a good distance down the road and we were all a little excited. Check the half buried bulldozer and the near fully buried sign!! Mt Dobson operates one T bar and one Dbl Chair. Crusing up the chair for the first run Dave and I were amping. This was only my second day for the season (thanks to a recent move to AKL) and although Dave had been hitting Turoa regularly this season he’d be the first to admit ” you dont really get snow like this in the Nth Island”

After a mellow little pow run down under the chair we charged over to the T Bar, jumped straight on and caught up with Matt and Jamie at the top. Thanks to 3 snowfalls in the past two weeks dropping nearly two metres at Dobson there was plenty of snow all over the mountain. The last fall 36 hours ago, although not yet ridden on, arrived with some very stong winds too. So although conditions were fantastic the snow was still quite variable. That said we had plenty of fun and charged half a dozen T bar runs in quick succession. Jamie spotted a sweet spot to build an easy booter off the top cat track, so that became the focus for the next few laps.

Early afternoon Matt, Jamie and Dee had to bail as they were heading back to Queenstown. As Dave and I had a little more time up our sleeve, didnt have to get back to Christchurch till later that night we decided to take a small wander for the arvo.

Check dave chillin at the summit and hows thise mountains in the background. Heli would be nice!

Last run was sweet, but these two Nth Island part time snowboarders were knackered. Pulled a couple of beers out of the snow and chilled by the car. By the time we were ready to hit the road there was only the staff van left in the carpark. Take a look around at the snow, the facilities and the surroundings. Dobson, like all the other club and small fields we have dotted around NZ, ROCK’s!! Go check them out.