After finishing an 18 day traverse in Mount Cook National Park I had an itching to ride some sweet volcano corn. I decided late spring was the time to head to the North Island and do some ski touring on Mount Ruapehu. After a few much needed days of R and R staying with my friend Ryan in Christchurch I was on a plane heading to Wellington.
New Zealand Ski Tours
This is a breakdown of my experience after 5 years in New Zealand ski touring all over the Southern Alps with a week long Volcano mission on the North Island. Rugged and isolated with famously bad weather where it is so strong ridges don’t develop cornices it’s wild country down there with just a few roads providing access so its a splitboard on your back and takes enjoy your 5 hour approach type of place.
18 Day Symphony on Skis Traverse in Mt. Cook National Park
With a resupply of food in Twizel and a night in Mt. Cook Village Shannon and I met up with Chloe and Dan from Christchurch and my friends Christina and Peter from home in the states. We played our cards right and were able to get take a ski plane up the Tasman Valley. Thought it wasn’t the plan in the end it would turn out to be an 18 day symphony on skis.
Ski Touring in the Macaulay Valley
After getting a ride to Christchurch with Chris I took a bus to Geraldine and met up with Shannon. We grabbed some food at the local Four Square and got our 4wd on up the Macaulay River. Our plan was to spend a few days ski touring in the Macaulay Valley
Powder Day at Temple Basin
New Zealand is full of surprises and after most of the club fields were shut down the Craigieburn Range and Divide received 3 feet of snow. It was time to head back up to Arthurs Pass and have a powder day at Temple Basin ski area.
Ski Touring around the Angelus Hut in Nelson National Park
After Pow and I made it to Queenstown we took the bus back to Christchurch. From there I hitched a ride with Ryan Nicols to Lewis Pass then hitched to Motueka met up with Manu Greer. We made a plan to Ski tour around the Angelus Hut in Nelson Lakes National Park.
Backcountry ski tour on the Routeburn Track
Studying the maps and the weather forecast a plan came together to do a backcountry ski tour on the Routeburn Track. We would base ourselves out of the Routeburn Falls hut and find lines on one of the most famous hiking trails in New Zealand. After leaving Adams place Wiggles and I made our way from Frankton to Queenstown.
A Brief Stint in the Craigieburns and the Remarkables
When everybody had given up on the season the snow finally started falling and with over 30cms of new we were off to the Craigieburn Range for my one and only time riding Craigieburn this season. Huge thanks to Licence to Chill
For the past month and a half there had been no measurable precipitation so people were starved for powder.
Craigieburn Traverse and Temple Basin Splitfest
Damian was kind enough to drop me off at the airport where I waited for John Blankenstein to arrive from Australia before meeting up with Chris Rayner and Pow and we stoked up for a overnight traverse of the Craigieburn Range over about 30kms and 10,000 vert going past 4 ski fields with an overnight stay at Mt. Olympus.
Fortunately I had a Licence to Chill pass so I was able to use the Nutcrackers to get to the top of Craigieburn but John and Pow had to climb the resort.
It had barely snowed throughout the season and we were almost 4 weeks into a drought but we made the best out of the situation.
Muller Hut: A Mission back into Mount Cook National Park
When I got back to New Zealand from Australia we were still amidst a high pressure system. By now we were looking to find North facing slopes and good corn. It was decided that the Muller Hut outside of Mount Cook National Park was the place to go.
Getting back into Ski Mountaineering
When Ryan and Pow arrived up at Arthurs Pass the decision was made to go check out an area called the Devils Punchbowl which we would have to follow a climbers trail up if we wanted to skirt around the 300 foot waterfall.
After clawing our way up steep vegetation for around 2000 feet we finally made it into alpine.
