When you live for skiing and the snow-covered mountains it’s hard to call the flat, peat plains of Hamilton your home. But for some of the year anyway, this is where you will find 16-year-old Big Mountain skier, Matt Sweet.
When caught between the northern and southern ski seasons, Matt returns to Hamilton and St Paul’s to not only see his mates, but check in with his teachers and go through the schoolwork that has to be attended to when he is away.
Like many others his age that choose competitive snow sports as their passion, fitting in schoolwork between training and competing is the reality, especially when you are going between northern and southern hemispheres in a quest to chase the snow. So while Hamilton is his between-season home, Matt also calls the beautiful ski resorts of Wanaka and the ‘freeskiers’ mecca’, Breckenridge, Colorado, ‘home’ as well. This is the northern hemisphere base of Matt and other young up-and-coming Kiwi freeskiers.
Like them, Matt chooses to leave behind the summer surf and sunbathing for the high-altitude alpine environment of some of Colorado’s world-renowned ski resorts. For Big Mountain skiers like Matt, this is where the snow is deeper, the terrain is bigger and some of America’s best youth Big Mountain skiers turn up the heat on competition day.
Following a successful February and March training with Team Summit, a high-performance Big Mountain team in Breckenridge, Summit County, and competing in a number of junior Big Mountain events, Fitness Journal caught up with Matt before he heads south for the New Zealand ski season at the end of the school term. We found out that living the ‘Sweet-life’ is actually pretty hard work:
Matt, tell us why you love Big Mountain skiing? It’s a type of skiing that we haven’t heard of before.
Big mountain skiing, or Freeride, is all about skiing natural terrain like cliffs and chutes that the mountain has put there itself rather than skiing man-made features like jumps and rails. Big mountain competitions are held on a steep face filled with lots of different terrain options, giving the skier the choice to ski and link up whatever they want.
The competitions are judged on five categories; the technicality of the line you choose, how fluid you ski your line (if you are stopping and starting and doing big traverses you will get a low score here), the creativity of your line (as it’s boring to be watching the same line being skied 20 times over), your control and technique when you ski and finally your style. This is how you look in the air and on your landings. If you are flailing your arms or landing back seat (out of control) your score will be deducted here.
How long have you skied and how did you start competing?
I’ve been skiing pretty much all my life. I started when I was about two as both my parents are really keen skiers. I started out competing as a racer when I was 11 but moved to Freeride when I was 14.
What is it about Big Mountain skiing that you love so much that you want to compete in it?
I love the freedom of Big Mountain skiing, being able to pick your own line down a face instead of having to ski the exact same course and features as everyone else like in slope-style or alpine racing. I love pushing and scaring myself, so jumping off cliffs lets me do both of those all the time.
What’s the goal? Where can you go with Big Mountain skiing because it’s not (yet) a Winter Olympic event is it?
That’s right, Freeride is not an Olympic sport at the moment. The biggest event for us is the Freeride World Tour (FWT). My big goal is to make it on to the F WT but that comes when I turn 18. At the moment my goals are to podium this year at the NZ Junior Nationals and to first qualify, and then make top ten at the North American Freeride Nationals next year.
What is a typical training day in Colorado compared with New Zealand?
In Colorado we have the advantage of great snow. Because of this, the coaches have us spend a lot more time in out-of-bounds areas or extreme terrain, practising jumping cliffs and growing confidence by skiing lines and linking features together. In New Zealand at Cardrona skifield, I ski a lot of terrain park (man-made features like jumps and rails) with the rest of my team as it gives me a good environment to learn tricks before taking them to natural hits as the snow in extreme terrain areas is often very variable and sometimes un-skiable in New Zealand.
What skills do you need to specialise in Big Mountain skiing?
To compete in Big Mountain, it’s really important to have a solid technical skiing base (racing) before focusing on just Freeride. It’s also a big advantage to have some skills in slope-style skiing as it makes tricks in the backcountry a lot easier.
Are there many Big Mountain events in New Zealand?
There are three or four Junior Big mountain events in New Zealand. I’d love to see a bunch more being set up and a bigger turn out to all of them. In North America there were at least 60 kids in my age group at each competition, compared with NZ where we get about 15-20 turn up. The more people that I’m competing against, the more experienced I’ll become. I finished some top ten places in Colorado this season and was up against the best in the country so that was pretty cool.
Tell us about going in a Big Mountain competition. What’s your routine?
I always start with a big breakfast, something like mince on toast always does the trick. I then try to chill out and not think about the comp too much until I’m at the venue. When I’m at the venue I just put in the rock tunes and try to visualise the line in my head. When I’ve got my line sussed I tend to push it out of my head and have fun with my mates so I don’t overthink it and get super nervous. In America as well as the NZ Opens at the Remarkables we typically have to do a 15 minute hike up to the top of the mountain from the highest chair-lift. This is with skis over our shoulders. That gives me some time to also think about how I’m going to approach my run.
How about your schoolwork. Isn’t it tough to fit it all in?
Yes, staying on top of schooling is always a mission for me. I go to Kip McGrath tutoring centre in Wanaka to do most of my schooling while I’m away down there. They’re awesome. They keep me motivated when all I want to do is be up on the mountain. My teachers at St Paul’s also stay in touch with me when I am in Colorado, but I schedule in days at the library to get it done, sometimes with some of the other Kiwi guys over there.
What does a Big Mountain skier need to pack in his back-pack before a comp?
It depends a lot on the venue. If it’s a venue that isn’t within the ski area boundary and regularly gets bombed by patrollers, then it’s really important to have all your safety gear in the pack. Avalanche transceivers, probes and shovels are needed if there is a risk of the hill sliding. We only have a few comps like this as juniors though, because most are in bounds where there isn’t too much avalanche risk. Food is important to have in your pack as well. A big bag of scroggin’ to munch on at the top of the venue always helps ease the nerves.
What type of training do you do when you aren’t skiing?
Pre-season training is very important to me. If you are fit and strong going into the season then learning new tricks becomes a lot easier and you’re far less likely to get injured. I do machine biking to keep my fitness up but keep the impact on my body low and I get my gym training and stretching programmes from Suzie Nevill, an awesome functional movement specialist in Auckland.
Tell us about the skiing injuries you’ve had. You must crash a bit jumping off cliffs or training in the park on the big-kickers?
Yes, injury management is a big part of any skier’s life, I have been fortunate to only have broken a few bones from skiing but I have had countless other muscle and ligament injuries from hard crashes. My gnarliest one for sure was falling off a cliff at the end of last season and nearly breaking my kneecap. I’m lucky it was at the end of the season as it put me out of action for a while and I missed Junior Nationals. I quite often need a physio after these crashes so it’s awesome to have Michelle and John from Advanced Physio in Hamilton to put me back together.
Last season results
- NZ Junior Series: Cragieburn Chill Big Mountain (Aug 2014): 1st
- NZ Junior Series: Treble Cone Big Mountain (Sep 2014): 4th
Big Mountain Skiing
Big Mountain/Freeride is an event which sits within the NZ Freeski pathway for athletes to develop skills and experience which heads them towards the Junior or Senior Free-ride World Tour.
Big Mountain or Freeride requires skiers to descend steep mountain faces, airing off natural features and adapting to un-groomed terrain. There have been four NZ Snowsports sanctioned Junior Big Mountain events throughout the 2014 season and it is hoped a similar number will occur during the 2015 season.
These regional competitions provide the perfect environment throughout the winter allowing athletes to gain critical experience leading into the NZ Junior Freeski Nationals held at Cardrona skifield each October.
