Inspiration for Winter
A fine ski tour, highly recommended, with lots of variety. Whale Stream lies directly behind Glentanner heli pad and is just quick flight to the top of the valley. There are 2 branches, the north and the south branches. They are connected by a fine couloir of about a thirty degree pitch. These two valleys…
Sutherland Stream is a truly stunning and spectacular valley. Hemmed in by steep walls there are couloirs galore for ski mountaineers, and a relatively safe route up to the Mt Ben Ross col for ski tourers. There are superb views of the east face of Mts Glenmary and Glencairn, and views of Mt Cook from…
By Joel O’Rourke – Bon-what? Yeah, I said the same thing. A quick google search reveals it’s a mountain near the Routeburn Track behind Glenorchy. There is a small glacier (Bryant Glacier) that hangs above the valley and two couloir, one to the north and one to the south of the peak. Given the recent…
By Manuel Nadler On Wednesday, August 2nd, my friend Jamie Paterson and I set off into the Macaulay Valley to stay in the Macaulay Hut for a couple of nights. The weather forecast looked very promising and so did the snowpack. Our goal was to ski/snowboard some interesting looking lines around Macaulay Hut. With some…
Joel O’Rourke New Zealand’s mountains have waived goodbye to the extended sunshine and has developed a serious melancholy; the doldrums of drizzle, cloud and humidity have set in. Whilst waiting for the inevitable return of consistent good weather the forecast came through with a Saturday of partly cloudy (and no rain!) and plans came together to…
Once or twice a winter, a strong Easterly or South Easterly front pushes snow into the McKenzie Basin. Snow falls to low levels, often affecting SH8, and leaves Mt Cook Village and Tekapo township with 20cm of snow on the ground. When this event happens it is time to head into the Two Thumb Range. …
The Fingers trip report On Monday 3 July Jamie Paterson and I set off for an explore, with the intention of getting to Manuka Hut. Due to a number of factors, namely work and not having a 4 wheel drive we ended having to walk about 45 mins further and arriving at 2:00am. The walk…
This tour was recently described as the ‘King of ski tours from Mt Cook’ . A classic day ski trip in Mount Cook National Park. The views are spectacular and the skiing superb. Its a long tour with route finding needed and also some tramping, so superior fitness is required. View Larger Topographic Map An…
A superior ski tour from Black Peak back to Treble Cone Ski Field is via the Poolnoon Burn. This makes a good long day ski tour using Heli access from Cattle Flat, flying to the summit of Black Peak (Aspiring Helicopters -(03) 443- 7152. The cost should be around $100 mark for the one way…
Mt Ferguson is a day trip ski tour out from Queenstown. Its a valley/basin ski, with some really good views out to Mt Earnslaw, as well as Centaur Peaks, (which incidentally look like they would be a stellar ski). The route up Mt. Ferguson is not difficult and suitable for intermediate skiers with some tramping/hiking…