Getting back into Winter in the Canterbury Ski Fields

It was the beginning of August when the first bit of snow started falling in the Southern Alps.

The view of Dobson from my front yard. Photo by Pow Wigley

For the first day of the storm we skinned up to the top of the chair and Ohau and rode the 100 meter bootpack over and over, it was the only area that had semi decent coverage/

Getting the goods at Ohau

No skins required

When the Southwesterly winds came in and the sky cleared up and we went up to Dobson and started skinning from the chair.

The rare non wind effected snow

Photo by Pow Wigley

I was pulled to living in Fairlie because it was at the Southern End of the two Thumbs Range. To my west was Roundhill and too my East was Fox I had a huge playground to myself.

Getting my first view of the Two Thumbs Range

Endless terrain in the Two Thumbs

Mount Cook and Tasman making an appearance.

It was time to sample the goods.

K2 Ultrasplit and Eddie Bauer Alchemist 30

First white room of the season

Putting in a clean skin track

I can do this forever

It was a good day and I looked forward to many more.

This is my art

The next day Estee and I went exploring to see what area would deliver the goods once the snow pack came in.

This is going to be money

I think we can skin up this waterfall

The next two days 100 mph winds hit the mountains and barraged the Two Thumbs range but Ryan Nicols and I decided to do a ski traverse from Roundhill to Dobson which was about 12 miles and 8,000 feet of vertical gain. Sadly the upper ropetow at Roundhill wasn’t open yet so we toured up tussock from the parking lot.

Leaving the Tekapo Basin

Once we finally made it to the ridge we were stoked on the views but not on the snow. It was bulletproof ice, the wind had stripped away all that beautiful powder.

Mount Misery across the valley

Roundhill slackcountry

Lake Tekapo and the Hall Range

Looking up the Godley and the Macaulay Valleys

Looking into the McKenzie Basin

Looking into the Two Thumb Range

It was decision time. The snow was much firmer than we had expected and the plan was to head south tagging powder lines but we decided to push on anyway and see what was between the two resorts.

Ryan heading into the Two Thumbs

The terrain looked awesome but the snow was terrable so instead of doing a ski tour we turned it into a mountaineering mission climbing along the ridges.

This terrain will be all time in powder conditions

Misery is looking good

Some rad south facing slopes

Lake Tekapo looking rad

6 hours later

In the end the day was crushing without really taking 2 many breaks we kept moving from 8 a.m. until a little after 5 p.m. It had been much more challenging that I had expected but it was good to know what was between the resorts.

Sunset in the Two Thumbs

Looking to the east towards the Godley Valley

Finally reaching Dobson as the sunsets to a full moon

This note pretty much explains what we did until the snow started falling again a week later.

Fairlie is pretty laid back

After the next storm we decided to head out to the Craigieburn Range and see what all the talk was about.

Heading into the Craigieburns

Heading up to Porters

Welcome to Kea country

We made our way to Porter Heights which was opening its upper lifts for the first time that season that day. It was pretty flat white conditions with too many people in too small an area so we made due before skinning out to favorable conditions.

The lower Tbar of Porters

And the race is on to get to the upper mountain

A half hour later it is tracked out

For our final lap we decided to skin to an area that is normal inside the resort but with no snow the only access was skinning.

I'm out of here

Finally some nice steep pow turns in flat light

In all it was a great day and we knew that it would be awesome once the place had a snowpack. The next day we decided to go check out Cheeseman which was potentially going to open it’s upper slopes.

Welcome to the Craigieburns

Classic white knuckle kiwi ski field road

Mount Cheeseman is about as mom and pops as you could get but it has an awesome vibe.

Welcome to Mount Cheeseman

That's 9 cars in the parking lot

Throughout the day we had powder lap after powder lap. In the end it would be one of my top 5 riding days of the season.

Looking down at Cheeseman from Mount Cockayne

Potential backcountry missions

Pana from Cockayne

We would take the Tbar up to the ridge then hike to the summit of Mount Cockayne.

Getting high on Cockayne

Indulging in the white stuff

I could get used to this

That afternoon Estee dropped me off up at Arthurs Pass where I chilled for the next week and checked out Temple Basin while waiting for Ryan, Yossi and Pow to arrive on the weekend.

Leaving the Craigieburns

Crossing the Waimakariri river

Temple is someplace special founded in the 1930 and has crazy terrain. All made better by the 45 minute hike up steep switchbacks just to get to the ski resort.

Welcome to Temple Basin

With only two nutcraker rope tows this place really brings you too some gnar terrain fast.

I think it goes?

but once you figure out the terrain it is a wild place

In bounds riding

and if you want you can stay up at the resort

Temple is ridiculous

I knew that I had to head back to the Craigieburns often as they had so much terrain to explore. To get to know these places well it would take years.

The classic 45 minute hike back to your car

Thank you for reading and If you enjoyed reading this and want to see more ski tours within New Zealand check out this link

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