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!