After a success full season of ski touring in the Northern Hemisphere it was time to head back to New Zealand. This time I around I would take the long route through SE Asia before arriving. Once back on the South Island it was time to find a place to live. After charting upon the maps it was decided to Move to Fairlie. It was the perfect spot because it was close to Mount Dobson, Round Hill and Fox Peak. Not only that but the only road heading North and South went through town.
It was the beginning of August when the first bit of snow started falling in the Southern Alps.
Mount Dobson isn’t the biggest ski hill but it has some fun backcountry. I was fortunate to get my hands on to a License to Chill pass which gave me access to most of the club fields.
From my doorstep I was ski touring at Mount Dobson in 30 minutes.
My friend Wiggles came to town and soon we were out skinning the backcountry behind the resort.
Mount Dobson is situated in the Two Thumbs Range and about two hours from Mount Cook village. From Fairlie I was in the middle of some of the best ski touring in all of New Zealand.
The main thing I had learned the previous season in New Zealand is to pay attention to the wind. What could be ice and rocks on one side could be powder snow on the opposite aspect.
From Mount Dobson we could see Mount Cook sticking out in the distance. There was a life time of ski touring opportunities in all directions.
With the License to Chill seasons pass and my Splitboard I knew it was going to be a great 6 months exploring.
Though the snowpack was thin down lower we were able to make the most of the upper terrain. It was still quite early in the season but we were happy to be riding powder conditions.
As the day went on we just lapped the same aspects that had good snow. The Mount Dobson backcountry was all ours and the only thing to hold us back was our energy levels.
With the snow being really good in our little bowl we decided to take a few laps before moving on.
After a few hours it was time to head back towards Mount Dobson. We looked back and were happy when we saw our tracks in the distance.
Making our way back we decided to go for one last line finding it to be soft corn but super fun.
I was fortunate as it would come to be a low snowpack season but Mount Dobson was one of the only places that had a decent snowpack. We had a small ski hill all to ourselves and with the help of skins it was enough terrain to keep us busy.
Now we just had to keep our fingers crossed and hope for more snow to come.
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