2024 Gritt Camps

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's 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 sponsors, without them, this wouldn't be possible. Thank you for believing in Gritt.

BR is one of our favourite camps. The community is always welcoming and we love connecting with the young skiers. Broken River Ski Club always provides the grassroots vibes while simultaneously facilitating high performance progression, and notorious lunches on the sundeck. 

Leading up to the Broken River camp the snow conditions had been turbulent. Luckily skiing at BR is not all about the conditions, but about the adventure and sharing it with like-minded people. 

The 2024 camp saw us with a full roster of 30 young skiers. We had a large number of returning kids and some new faces. This season we also expanded our coaching roster, by including some of the now experienced and developed skiers, who originally came through our camps as kids five years ago. It was a pleasure to welcome Harry Cookson, Henry & Tom Freeman, Ruby Hewitt and Mari Henderson who had all participated in the camps themselves in years past. 

Arriving at Broken River in late September we were greeted with an impressive snow base. We made our way through the icy car park and up to the main basin where we found some beautiful wind-blown fresh snow. The terrain is great for working on a range of skills, with a steep, rocky, gnar above, flowing down to rollers, wind features and jumps. It truly caters to all abilities and is the perfect coaching set up, all viewable for the parents from the infamous Palmer day lodge. 

The energy levels were high and we were thankful to have such a great coaching crew to help give advice and pointers to the young guns. We had some people wanting to learn backflips, others even more technical tricks, and some skiers who wanted to dial in their technique. 

After a progression session on Saturday we headed into the lodge to recharge some tired bodies (mostly ours). We had a great classroom session with four different workshops. Avalanche safety, media and filming, different careers and pathways, and longevity in sport. 

The following day started in a storm, we awoke to the native beech forest brushing across the tin roof. We had a quick breakfast and headed up the ridge and onto the mountain. After getting soaked on the way in, we decided to set up the avalanche safety and rescue clinics on the upper mountain to get above the freezing level. With three groups, we rotated through the key aspects of equipment and rescue techniques, before burying two transceivers and doing real scenarios. 

After a spectacular lunch which wasn’t enjoyed to its full potential due to time constraints. We were back out setting up the clubs casual freeride competition that was a perfect way for any of the kids to try to put what they had learned to the test. Open to all ages, there were plenty of categories which created the best spirit and camaraderie you could ask for. With a relaxed format, almost all of the kids took a run through the course and finished with big grins at the bottom. We stressed that it wasn’t compulsory so a few riders worked on different skills for the afternoon. 

To wrap up we had two prize givings on the deck, with everyone getting at least one prize, it was another special way to acknowledge everyone that attended, the energy, enthusiasm and positive attitudes they brought.