Mid August 2022

In the upper back blocks of Tekapo there’s a high country farmer who’s always good for a yarn should you be fortunate to bump into him. He has got that Barry Crump kinda story to him, and yep, he’s usually near a Hilux. Kicking about his boots can be found a wee Jack Russell dog, quivering with excitement, who answers to the name of Scrap.  Well if there’s a thing this bloke prefers to do rather than farming, and even more than hunting, its ski touring. He has carved out a lot of ski tracks over the years, and legend has it he has even skied off Cook. I imagine him in the 80’s skiing down Zubbrigans Ridge with a pair Kastles skis, 210cm long and stiff as a yeoman’s bow. He probably had Salomon SX92 Equipe ski boots, or 4 buckle Koflachs… Anyhow, whenever we have a chat I always bring up new routes to ski, to which he always replies, ‘Yep, good skiing that’, as he has skied them all. He did once mention the Haszard ridge. ‘Best snow in the area’ he reckoned. So we thought we’d better check it out.

 

 

 

 

Haszard Ridge is on the East side of the Cass Valley, and is sandwiched between Godley Peaks station to the south and east, and Glenmore station to the west. Godley Peaks is currently undergoing tenure review. Here is a link to the TR proposal, best read in conjunction with this TR map. It is not clear how the public access to Haszard Ridge will eventually be formed, but there is a provision for access to the Mistake River. We shall see…

 

 

And who is the Haszard Ridge named after? I’m assuming it was Henry Douglas Morpeth Haszard, a Land commisioner and surveyor. It handy how those surveyors get to name mountain ranges after themselves. They are worth befriending I think…

 

There are plenty of good sorts around the Tekapo area, and the pilot from Air Safaris is one. He flies a Bell 206L-3 Longranger  which has a 450kg payload. So that’s about 4 people plus skis. It would be possible to fly from Glentanner, or elsewhere, but the good deal we figured out was to be picked up just near to the Cass river bridge. That allowed us to leave a car nearby so that we could walk back to it. If you fly from Glentanner you will need someone to come pick you up.

 

Another helicopter company who has a 6 seater Squirrel is https://mackenziehelicopters.com/

 

So we got our ski gear bundled together, and at the prearranged 9am pickup our heli arrived. The flight was very quick and it never ceases to amaze me just how fast helicopters are.

 

 

The forecast was for NW front to come in bringing a deluge of rain, and indeed the light was flat thanks to thick bands of Altostratus clouds. From the air we chose a spot on the ridge to land, unloaded the skis from the basket, and the heli was off. True to form the snow was a nice dry powder, about 15cm deep over an icy base. That was good to find as it had been a full week since the last snowfall. The Haszard Ridge faces east, though there are many bowls and sub ridges which face different aspects. So it is possible to have powder and sun effect in the same run. There are multiple aspects to ski, so its about choosing according to the snow.

 

 

The southern end of the Haszard Ridge (south of Mt Haszard) has two distinct drainages. For us the light was flat and a we had a deteriorating weather forecast, so we mainly kept to the southernmost of the two drainages. There was plenty of skiing, lots of short to mid length runs with plenty of steeper terrain options.

 

 

The run to ski would have to be the south face of Mt Haszard. An easy boot pack should take one to the top. Even better would be to start the day off by landing on top of Mt Haszard, and then skiing from there.

 

 

The terrain is quite complex with lots of roll overs, all of easy to moderate difficulty. There are great views to the west over the Cass River, and to the south of Lake Tekapo.

 

 

The southern drainages both lead into Mistake River, which would make an ok exit. We took a high route and traversed over pts 2004, 1910, and 1848, following the SE ridge to pt1324. We had really good snow all the way to this point on easy angles slopes.

 

 

Walking out to the car was easy with short tussock and gentle slopes leading towards the Cass. It took about an hour and a half walking from the time of taking our skis off. Remember to bring running shoes for the walk.

 

 

Helicopter price in 2022 was 800$ for the drop off ($200 apiece)

 

 

Overall I would call this an easy to moderate ski tour with wonderful views, and a great stash of good powder skiing.

 

 

The northern end of the Haszard range is between  Mt Haszard 2213m and Mt Radove 2430m. The northern part is a little steeper but it appears that one could get around ok by keeping close to the ridge on the east side. Should conditions allow, there is a stunning looking SW facing ramp leading from pt 2140 down to Ryder’s Hut in the Cass. Fall line skiing for 1000m. Or a ski off Mt Radove?

 

To check conditions on the Haszard Rdige check the AOPA webcam on Mt St John facing NORTH. The west view looks directly at the Haszard Ridge. The avalanche forecast is for the Mt Cook Region.

The Metservice forecast pertaining to this area is the Canterbury High Country

Here is an example of weather that puts a good amount of snow on the Haszard Range.