The Wild Side

It's been a bit of a wild week at Ruapheu this week. Wind, Rain, Sun, Snow, more wind and just a little bit of riding in between.

Yesterday (Thursday) we went to Tukino, the wild side of Ruapehu. Getting there can be a bit of an adventure. I hitched a ride with Conrad (from the Pizzeria, at the Junction @ Ohakune) in his 4wd and, with another girl Rachel, we departed Ohakune for the Desert Road. Tukino access road is well sign posted at it's sandy entrance, the road was fairly pot holey at the bottom and a bit rutted at the top with a bit of snow across the very top section. We were greeted by the familiar face of ski patroller Mike standing in the wind in his thermals and boardshorts and invited inside the Aorangi hut for a hot cuppa.

The ticket office was not running, being a weekday, so Cindy and Mike sorted our day passes over coffee at the table. Love the laid back atmosphere up here. While we were sipping our cuppa's and sussing our nutcrackers, patroller Jordan got the bottom Whangaehu tow running.

There was a cool breeze but the bottom tow was reasonably sheltered and warm and sunny. They'd had some fresh snow overnight, there was some soft snow about, but some of the open spaces were a bit wind stripped and/or icy and softened over the day. Above the bottom tow in The Gut there was a nice stash of fresh pow and a bit of a wind lip which created the perfect spot for a wee jump. We also hiked up The Gut for some fresh turns, niiiice.

The Aorangi top tow opened in the morning. As I have yet to attempt backside on a nutcracker I sent Conrad up for a look. It seemed to be similar conditions up there, sounded ICY, so I just stayed on the bottom tow opting for lots of easy runs rather than trying something new, trying it all back to front for average-ness up top. No one was really heading up there. Anyway, the bottom tow here seems so easy now after my last day on nutcrackers at Craigeburn and its 3 big tows. So thankful I have my own nutcracker and harness now too.

For lunch we sat in the sun outside Aorangi Lodge and chatted to a Chaplin in from NZ Army over sandwiches. There was a big crew of them up here doing some pre-deployment training, and gearing up for a night over in the snow. Nice guys (and gals). Back into it after lunch for a couple more hours, but Conrad and Rachel had work in Ohakune calling so we departed at 2pm. Can't wait to be back.

More info can be found at the Tukino website. It can be a bit of a mission getting up the road, so make sure you check the road conditions first and call ahead if unsure. I stayed up here a couple winters ago, so check out the ski+stay packages too.

PS: I managed my own nutcracker injury today, while hooking the rope up on odd pulleys where it had fallen off, I somehow managed to whack my knee into the lower pulley on that ride. Makes for impressive bruises!

Day 7-10: Avo Days

More from the road... Avalanches, warm temps, and not a frost on the car, what is up with winter?!

We hit Mt Cheeseman on Friday the 14th August, which is now the memorable "avo" day... Cheesy was great. Self loading T-Bars was something new. Good viz, the snow was soft all over, and the place is a lot of fun. We loved our first "cheesy" experience. At the end of our day we were removing our chains at middle hut (on the road) when the roadie yelled out "LOOK" and we spun around in time to see an off piste skier triggered avalanche break away and pass over the two zig-zagged sections of the road we had just driven on!!! To see the brunt of the fall hit the road and soar into the air before carrying on down the face was quite something, and we were rather relieved to have passed by just moments before. Talking to the cafe staff the next day they said it took about and hour and a half to clear the road before they could come down. (No camera handy as it happened, so I just have a sketchy 'after' pic)

self loading T-bar @ Mt Cheeseman

Avalanche across the rd at Cheeseman

Back at the lodge in Springfield we were telling our new Australian friends about it, and they some exciting stories too. One of the guys spent the day at Porters where Big Mama had shed her snow dress, and at Craigeburn two other guys had their day cut short when the face below the Remarkables gave way to gravel. Then, flicking on the news that night, we hear someone lost their life in an avalanche near Methven. Sad news indeed.

Conditions the next two days were warm and moist underfoot, and most nearby fields were closed. We spent the Saturday and the Sunday riding back at Cheeseman and Porters. Our 2nd day at Cheeseman was cut short due to the warm moist conditions and patrol not wanting to risk another slide for a second day in a row. Riding was already restricted on Cockayne Face and Ridge Tow, where we had ridden on Friday. And our "fill in" day at Porters on Sunday ended up being our best day at Porters yet. Sunny skies, spring snow (in winter), and weekend party atmosphere with music blasting from the bottom of T1.

Cockayne closed on our second day at Cheesy

3 slides on Big Mama (Porters)

We'd booked 2x nights at CV, so were hoping riding was on for the Monday before we headed south. Sunday night is kind of an orientation night at Craigeburn, where we got introduced to the staff and they talked about their roles and a bit about the field. The question on everyone's lips was would it open tomorrow? Another large avalanche had self released in Middle Basin while they were closed on the weekend, but patrollers Irene, Larry, and Iwao were keen to get up early and check it all out and hopefully open at least for us lodge guests. We learned that even if they didn't open, they would issue us with tickets so all were accounted for should anything happen.

Craigeburn - access tow and slide below the Remarkables

avo's in Middle basin

Whew, Monday was on... kinda. We tracked in at the ticket office, and informed staff if we were wearing transievers or not. (we weren't, gulp) Riding was restricted to close by the top two tows only. Closer inspection of the avo in middle basin by patrol revealed it was actually a grade 3, rather sizable. Nutcracker riding went without incident - CV is frontside for me on all 3 tows, so that was great! The sun was beating down most of the day, and we realised too late that we had forgotten to apply sunscreen with all the nutcracker and avalanche nervousness.The goggle tan was now set. To descend we had to carefully make our way down on the acess tow line only. It was extremely soft down here on this day, and we were happy to track back in to the ticket office and have our named checked off the mountain. At dinner that night we were told of more avalanches nearby, of particular note was one at Broken River that day in the Allen's basin which thankfully the skier rode out/away from. More guests had arrived to stay and again the question was would riding be on.

back country avo risk was deemed considerable!

....For us it was a no to that question. We'll be back to CV one day but Tuesday was the start of our tiki tour south, more new fields to explore, and the physical comforting thought of being back in the land of the chairlift, ye haa. Oh and a PS on the nutcrackers... we discovered that different people all have different ideas and tips and ways of teaching. But the best advice I have is for us snowboarders and that's to try and keep your gloves as dry as possible... That darn rope got more and more slippery as the day went by.

me on the middle tow @ Craigeburn

Licenced to Chill

The northern girl heads south to chill out, literally....

Soon I'll be en route to Christchurch to start the long awaited "Club Field Tour". (I see in the Winter 09 issue of the NZskier mag they have dubbed it "the Hot Tub tour" - hmmm, maybe we need to rethink this plan...)

It all started way back in Spring 08. The epic long season that sadly had to come to an end on the slopes of Turoa in the middle of SNOvember. It felt like we'd only just hit the beach when the Chill Crew announced a Christmas deal on the all mountain Chill Pass, so we dove straight in!

To date my only other trip to the southern fields was in Winter 08. We got fresh powder night riding at Coronet peak straight off the plane, 12 of us based in a huge house in QT for an awesome week at the local fields, plus a day trip up to the most beautiful Ohau. It seemed right to go back - but we wanted to see more and the Chill Pass was a perfect fit.

It's gonna be quite a journey. Two girls, a skier and a snowboarder, and we're about to master nutcrackers. The learning curve is gonna be steep, the scenery (and the snow) is going to be awesome, and I am really looking forward to visiting new places and meeting new people along the way.

Nutcracker and Harness - let the fun begin!

More Chill info here...

I'll post if/where I can, so stay tuned. Chonnie.