The 2024/2025 ski season kicked off for me in the southern hemisphere – 4 months of training and racing down in Queenstown, NZ with QAST (Queenstown Alpine Ski Team). I’ve been with QAST since I learnt to ski and did the Learn to Race Holiday Program right back ‘in the day’! Having not trained in the Southern Hemisphere for a few years, it was fantastic to head back down under!
I left Italy, my northern hemisphere base, in mid June – directly to Queenstown. As always, the journey down was long but pretty much pain free: I flew around 12 hours to Hong Kong, had a layover of 12 hours in the airport before another 12 hour flight down to Auckland, then a quick 2 hour window in which to change from the international terminal to the domestic terminal and finally another relatively short 2 hour flight to Queenstown. Once I arrived in Queenstown I was picked up by the Caramello/Mccaw family who I stayed with for my time down in Queenstown.
The 2024 Season
When I arrived, the ski season was semi under way. The region had had a little snow but actually, things weren’t looking so great! After a few days to acclimate to being back in winter and having a flipped time zone, I joined my QAST FIS team, coached by Angus Rose. We started off with a few days skiing at The Remarkables because the snow conditions at Coronet Peak were not ideal yet. After around a week of drills and free skiing with a focus on ski setup, technique and really finding my feet again and getting a sense of the snow conditions, we progressed into some simple course sets and simple drills in the gates. This set us up well for the more challenging pistes and longer more technical course sets over on Coronet Peak once the snow finally arrived (late and scarce but we made the most of it!)
Racing in NZ is always hit and miss. This year we were challenged by a lack of snow.
Our first races were hosted at Cardrona Ski Field, about an hour & 20 mins drive from Queenstown. Normally I’d skip racing at Cardrona as It’s a super flat slope with only one short semi steep section at the very end. With my skiing, I perform better on courses like Kranska Gora in Slovenia or Reiteralm in Austria. More rolls with steeper pitches and a few offset turns. Cadrona went a little bit better than expected however. I ended up scoring some decent points in one of the races and thanks to an unforced error by me, I struggled in the second with a missed opportunity.
But, racing was not the driver for my time down under – getting in a decent GS training block was, and after the Cardrona races I was pleased to get in a few weeks with some decent training. In saying that, the temperatures were still quite high so the snow was still a little soft and at times very challenging.
After the Cardrona races, I only raced the national champs down Hurdle at Coronet Peak. I unfortunately DNFed in the first run. The conditions were not great and the snow didn’t hold but that’s skiing and sometimes we have to push through and stay focused on the process and the longer term goals. And unfortunately, because of the marginal snow conditions, all other GS races in New Zealand were cancelled so in the end, only 3 races were run this year.
As is often the case, about 2 weeks before closing, we had a late season snowfall, which resulted in the best training conditions of the trip. Luckily for me, most, if not all of the international teams had packed up and left New Zealand which meant it was just my coach Angus and I for an entire week on piste! I had an entire course to myself for 5 days and got in 3 x GS and 2 x SG days of quality training. Despite the late snowfall, it was still warm and although the snow was still a little soft, I definitely had the best week of training in the entire season.
Because it’s so rare for me to get home, I took off to see my grandparents and family who now reside in Australia. So after 2 weeks of sun, sand, surf and being surrounded by family (and probably stacking on a few kgs in weight…), it was time to reverse directions and head back up to Italy.
Returning north, I transited Singapore instead of Hong Kong, where I had a 17 hour layover this time. Unfortunately I didn’t get to leave the airport and explore the city as there was a huge storm with torrential rain. Instead I camped out in the terminal and drank more coffee in those 17 hours than the normal person consumes in a week!. I am now back in Europe and preparing for my upcoming European season.
For my first trip back home in a while, yes… I achieved what I went down for – a much needed GS and SG training block and reconnecting with my friends and family. It also served to inspire me to keep working towards my goals.
A big thanks to all those who helped me with my trip and made it possible. The Caramello/Mccaw family for having me, QAST for the Training and all my sponsors and my family!. A big thanks and I Look forward to doing it all again next year.