The Snow arrives in Queenstown!

We have been getting some of that magical wintery stuff over the last few days here in Queenstown, giving us the beautiful snow capped mountain we so love and live for round here. Check out some the majestic Remarkables this morning as seem from the Browns Ski Shop office window, not a bad view! Gorgeous contrasts and colours which the camera will no doubt no do any justice but here they are anyway! Not long to go know until the start of the season, and Browns is ready to go. The retail shop has been open for a few days and the rental shop has is pretty much good to go also, with new skis and boards arriving every day! There is a great vibe in the shop at the moment and we cannot wait to be up and running and get out on the snow!

Coronet Peak extends season!

Coronet Peak is to extend it's season by an extra week following a great late season storm cycle which saw bucket loads of snow fall over the Southern Lakes district. This is great news for all those season pass holders and local businesses who could see a final little boost for the season.

It seems that just over a month ago scientists were talking about the Polar Vortex and how it was on the move from antartica after being stuck there for a several weeks more than usual. This meant we saw an unusually warm August, meaning we just weren't seeing those cold polar fronts coming up and hitting us to give us our usual winter snowy conditions. But it seems they were right and we got hit by front after front bring daily snow dumps day after day for over a week! I dont think we have ever seen it snow so consistently in Queenstown for such a prolonged period, let alone at the end of September!
Anyway, the end result is that we can now play in the snow at Coronet peak for an extra week, where as previous years it was just Remarkables left open! A great decision, favoured by locals and ski bums alike! Great decision nzski!

Spring snow dump takes us back to mid-winter!

Who would have thought a week ago that we would have been back in the midst of a winter cold snap, with oodles of fresh snow around! A week ago Queenstown was bathing in 15 degrees sunshine where sunbathing and getting out on the mountain bikes was the order of the day.
Not anymore, a welcome storm, one of the biggest seen in the country for many years, has taken grip and we are right back in the heart of winter, with some beautiful snow around to play in. Below are some pictures from Coronet Peak back bowls today, where we were skiing in some beautiful light powder. It was nice of the storm to give us some clear skies for the afternoon to allow us to take advantage of what it had delivered to us the previous few days. Forecast is looking like more is on the way over the next few days! Just in time for the Aussie school holidays! Woop woop!

Finally....we get a break!

It feels we have been waiting for a day like this all season, a day where all the elements and deciding factors came together to allow us to finally go for an explore in the backcountry! You would think it would be easy to plan a mission in this town, but what with conflicting work shedules, an unstable snow pack, and unsettled weather, it seemed like we were destined to ski inbounds for the remainder of the season. But finally, with a favourable mixture of moist/wet snow consolidating and good frosts refreezing the wet new snow the snowpack started to look more stable.
We decided to head to the Remarkables ski area as it gave us the quickest access to the backcountry. We started early heading up to Wye Saddle and then east towards Doolans Creek, and the carried on a traverse in a mostly southerly direction. We were in unfamiliar terrain, and the aim of the day was to stay safe and familiarise ourselves with the area.
We decided on the peak we wanted to summit, and we chose it because it had a nice north facing slope, and by the time we got to the top, the good old sun would have played it's part in softening the snow and giving us some nice spring corn.
We got the the top of the peak, sitting at an altittude of 2115m, giving us a spectacular vista, with the very imposing looking Single Cone peak (check the pictures!).
We dug a pit to check the snowpack, planned our route back, took some pictures, re-fuelled, buckled up and strapped in and we enjoy the fruits of our labour with some beautiful spring corn skiing all to ourselves.
Two hours later we were back at the car with big grins, a good day for the soul, and a good reminder of why we live in this place.

Roundhill....more like Bighill!

The recent storm that passed through the South Island saw the centre of it focussed on the small town of Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie country.
A few of us were up skiing at Roundhill skifield on Saturday to check out the new "Heritage Rope Tow" that they have installed for this year. Having never been to Roundhill before, I had heard that until the new rope tow had been installed, it was a very small skifield, with very much a family feel to it, with just one T-Bar and a few learners tows.
I had been excited ever since hearing that Roundhill had installed this new tow, as I have seen pictures and heard what the terrain that the Two Thumbs range offers. I wasn't disappointed, the 1.5km tow has opened up a vast amount of skiable inbounds terrain which bascially takes away the need to ever want to go heli skiing again! A huge amount of vert, with some of the best snow conditions in the country and views to die for.
Skiing on the Saturday was great, there had been no fresh snow for a week or so, but it was a warm day, and the sun did it's part of softening the snow on certain aspects giving some great spring corn skiing. Five runs on the Heritage Tow and we were done for the day, and I was left thinking that I couldn't wait to get back here after a fresh snowfall. Well, just as we were leaving the field the predicted weather front was coming in and snow was starting to fall, but we couldn't hang around as we were off to Ohau to ski on the Sunday.
We awoke the next morning to find out that the snow gods had come up trumps and 70cm of snow had fallen at Roundhill! That much snow had meant the field was closed for the day, but talk was of the front passing through and Monday was going to be a clear day!
Monday rolled around and we rocked up early to Roundhill, it was still a bit cloudy but the sun was trying to break through and every so often you got glimpses of the huge untracked face that the Heritage Tow gives access to. The word on the hill was that they were going to try and get the tow open by mid-day. Patrol had been working since 4.30am that morning to do avalanche control work and dig out the tow from the 70cm+ of fresh that has blanketed it the previous day.
The anticipation of the tow opening was immense, there was a great buzz in the air, with about 60 or so skiers and boarders lapping out the t-bar on the main field, checking in the poor patroller every 5 minutes to ask if the lift was open!
It finally opened at 2pm that day after a fantastic effort from the patrol, along with some volunteers to get it open. And boy was it worth it, the pictures will do the rest of the talking. Needless to say after 2 hours of everybody trying their best to track out the vast amount of terrain, we probably only managed to cover a quarter of what is there. Once thing is for sure, Roundhill is going to be near the top of my list from now on, a great ski field with insane terrain and endless backcountry. I'm already planning my next trip back!

August snow conditions are shaping up great!

Snow conditions in Queenstown are shaping up great for August, just as the "Moon man" predicted! Long range forecasts said that August was going to be a very snowy month and who can argue with them so far, with several large dumps hitting the South Island over the weekend.
The Southern Lakes region saw some great dumps, ranging from 30-40cm of beautiful dry powder, adding to the already great base we have.
Further up the South Island, in Mackenzie country, 50-70cm of snow fell, with some outstanding skiing on the smaller fields. I was lucky enough to have the day off to head up to Roundhill Skifield beside Lake Tekapo to take advantage of the 70cm+ snowfall they had. Definitely a great month for a ski holiday in New Zealand!

Winter Classic Round 2

It seems Tuesday race days are somewhat cursed for weather, with the snow gods having a bit of a giggle at us! Tuesday rolled around again this week and just like clockwork the heavens opened and we got 12cm of new snow overnight. So the marshalls had a busy morning trying to scrape the new snow off the racing lines! The course marked out next to the t-bar turned out great, with some great times being put in by everyone involved.

The poor racers did have to sit and watch the rest of the mountain get tracked out, with the snow being absolutley beautiful top to bottom, nice and light and fast! Some great turns were to be had out to skiers left of the t-bar, where you could just keep going further and further gettig fresh lines every run.

Anyway back to the racing, the Browns A-Team came 3rd overall this week, with our main man Timmy O-Rock (Tim Cafe) making a sneaky appearance and posting the fastest time of the day! Super impressive skiing by the young olympian!
Second fastest member of the Browns A-Team was Kylese Zaiger, she puts her great time down to all the telemark skiing she has been doing recently.

Browns B-Team had a solid race this week with them taking the win in the B-Division with all the team members putting consistently fast times in. Stand out was Damo "wannabe ski racer" Myers, who managed to complete 2 runs for the first time ever, and as a result beat Richard Stokes for the first time. Rich put this down to the lack of pole planting in his run, which made him loose his rythm.
Bad luck this week again for Simon "Fatcat" Gray who crashed out again, resulting in a DNF. Simon is still one to watch though and definitly can put time up there with the big boys when he wants to.

Results to follow