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!