Mount Barff is a beautiful peak situated in the Mutukituki valley with the Liverpool hut at its base. My friend Ben arrived in New Zealand for a two week trip of ski touring and exploring. We went over different ideas of places to go once he landed at the Queenstown airport. We decided to drive North to Wanaka and after picking up some groceries head to Mount Aspiring National Park. Once there we would climb up to and stay at the Liverpool Hut and do a ski tour around Mount Barff.
Mount Aspiring National Park
Riding an abandoned Treble Cone
With the Treble Cone ski resort closed for the season I decided to take the opportunity to go check it out. I had rode it for a day when I first went to New Zealand almost 10 years back and I wanted to see if my perception had changed.
Attempt at Mount Aspiring
My last ski mountaineering trip was heading up the Matukituki valley with eyes on Mt. Aspiring. I had spent quite a lot of time in the valley throughout the season and I decided to go check it out. I wasn’t sure if or what I would ski but I thought it doesn’t hurt to see how the terrain was up there.
Brewster Hut in Mount Aspiring National Park
The resorts of New Zealand are absolutely amazing but it’s the mountains that make the place so freaking special. When I arrived I had a bunch of experience in the North Cascades of Washington which are famous for long approaches, steep slopes and deep maritime snowpacks but the truth was that I was completely green in this range. What we call remote they call “Taiga Country” what we call a dismal snowpack they call abundant.
After the resorts shut down it quickly became obvious that we were going to have to work for our turns. This wasn’t something new to me but I was going to have to do a little bit of adjusting to get into the Kiwi style of ski mountaineering.
The plan was to spend a few days out at Brewster Hut in Mount Aspiring National Park. The weather forecast wasn’t looking the greatest but we decided to go for it.