I understand that Kaimakamaka means ‘knucklebones’ in Maori. If this is so, then the peak is aptly named, as it sits like a solid fist on the ridge; rocky knuckles festooned with steep parallel couloirs. When the springtime snow line is high, a quick flight up to the Kaiamakamaka peaks
King’s Mistake Couloir on Mistake Peak – Manu Nadler On July 30th, after a couple of really cold days with a lot of snowfall, Jamie Paterson and I wanted to ski one of the long east facing couloirs on Mistake Peak at Lake Tekapo. From the opposite side of the
By Joel O’Rourke. After a few days of bad weather and a trip up to Mt Olympus to show Kevin Canning the wonders of NZ Club Fields and nutcracker ropetows, a quick weather window allowed for a quick trip up to Mueller Hut to at least give Kevin a
In early season (July) during some winters a good covering of snow falls in the Queenstown basin. In order to get snow to such low levels a southerly front from deep in the southern ocean must sweep up the country. Southland will be the first to get hit with snow,
The Grand couloir is an obvious ski line leading from close to the summit of the Remarkables, down to Lake Alta. It is a reasonably popular descent, the skiing is fall line and aesthetic. At the steepest it might be a touch over 40 degrees, but the majority is in
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
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
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!)