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Best start to the season in years !

AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
35cm of snow in the last 48hrs. So much snow they didn't open the chairlifts until mid morning!
Is that Remarks ?? We got a LOT of rain and are now expecting a LOT of snow so not sure when we'll get open again, hoping for tomorrow x
 

scandium

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Is that Remarks ?? We got a LOT of rain and are now expecting a LOT of snow so not sure when we'll get open again, hoping for tomorrow x
Yes, Remarks! We opted to head there thinking the requirement for chains on 4WD would put people off vs Coronet Peak. This is up Shadow just before they closed it in the first bowl (looking up at Shady Lady). We were wondering why the school holiday coaches were doing the Homeward run so early in the day, and then we saw the chairlift had stopped as we headed back over.
 

AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well we're now a few weeks into our season and conditions are fantastic. We're continuing to get lots of snow but the weather patterns have meant a lot of closed days and not many bluebirds for us in the Craigieburn range so low light lenses it is. Sadly the North Island isn't getting much snow which is a shame for our son who's headed up to Whakapapa to patrol, we're all telling him to get back down here! We're currently in the middle of another storm so pretty much everywhere is closed today which is good news for my knees !! Here's a couple of shots I took with my phone (no filter I promise) off the back of Porters a couple of days ago looking towards the North West and across to the Main Divide aka the Southern Alps x20220724_142752.jpg20220724_142757.jpg
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Not sure the Milford Road is related to skiing in New Zealand at all, but I found the avalanche mitigation efforts fascinating. Seems like a much longer section of road than the road up to Alta/Snowbird in the Little Cottonwood Canyon.

July 2020
 
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AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Not sure the Milford Road is related to skiing in New Zealand at all, but I found the avalanche mitigation efforts fascinating. Seems like a much longer section of road than the road up to Alta/Snowbird in the Little Cottonwood Canyon.
There are no ski areas down there but in a roundabout way it does, the guys that mitigate that road are ex Porters snow safety officers, its an area that my son would love to get into one day if he dosent take the guiding route. Its a super avalanche prone road that gets closed often as its too dangerous to allow traffic through. It primarily caters for tourists heading through to Milford Sound from Te Anau.
 

AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oooh, no thank you. Can you get driven up that road or do you have to do it yourself?
You can get driven up and it truly is not as bad as it looks in this shot, this was after last weeks storm and was part of a post that Mt Hutt put up on their FB page as an example of why they sometimes have to close the road so they can mitigate the bluffs above. If you look closely you can see where the slides have crossed the road. It had also not been cleared by the grader when they took this and that combined with the angle of the shot makes it look a lot worse than it actually is although in saying that it can get a bit hairy at times !
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Photo looking over the back side of Hutt, Saturday :smile:

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Sunday was my first time off groomers this season (between the poor early season conditions and then having a couple of weeks off to illness...!), and wow :D

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This (below) was actually pretty awful to ski, I'm no good at wind crusted snow and I fell and lost my skis a lot, but it looked gorgeous!! :love:

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AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
This (below) was actually pretty awful to ski, I'm no good at wind crusted snow and I fell and lost my skis a lot, but it looked gorgeous!! :love:
Yup we had a bit of a crust yesterday (Monday) which I left for the more experienced and heavier skiers to break up, (Porters ended up having to close on Sunday due to Avy hazard so yesterday was our powder day) what we did get though was INCREDIBLE windblown pow all day, every run was a fresh refill from top to bottom which was amazing !!! If you could brave the winds you reaped great rewards x
 

AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
So it was super windy today so we left early and had a wander along the river that runs beside the access road. It all got washed out last year in a big flood and exposed the earthquake faultline that runs through the area. All the grey bedrock you can see in the pic is the faultline and its pretty cool, it has this weird smooth look about it but when you feel it it's all soft and crumbly .... welcome to NZ x20220804_124824.jpg
 

Eera

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've always wondered why clothing manufacturers quote waterproofing on ski gear - it's not like we ski in rain is it?

Well, turns out yes we do. Remarkables on Thursday was awful, but being the first time on the skis in 2 1/2 years I was bloody well going to give it a crack. Upside was that the snow was just lovely and soft and forgiving, just the thing I needed to get some confidence back. Gave it away at lunchtime and went back into Queenstown as we were saturated, though very pleased at how the Nobody's Princess pants held up against the rain, didn't have any leakage into pockets or anything.

Friday the whole lot froze overnight and I'm not a fan of ice - between the groomers doing their thing and the lifts opening the pistes just set into a texture like granny's washing board. By lunch time they had softened out nicely and it was really quite lovely.

I'm surprised at how many rocks are pocking through; I have memories of the slopes near the lower carparks having much more snow coverage in past years and would have thought with the early season dumping there's be better cover, but I think I might have chosen a bad week to be here too with all the recent rain and not much snow renewalremarks.jpg

Day off today, taking a cruise on the Earnslaw and finding some low-light lenses. Urgh, that's my pet hate of not straightening horizons right there. I'll say that because NZ it's taken in the middle of an earthquake.
 

scandium

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I've always wondered why clothing manufacturers quote waterproofing on ski gear - it's not like we ski in rain is it?

Well, turns out yes we do. Remarkables on Thursday was awful, but being the first time on the skis in 2 1/2 years I was bloody well going to give it a crack. Upside was that the snow was just lovely and soft and forgiving, just the thing I needed to get some confidence back. Gave it away at lunchtime and went back into Queenstown as we were saturated, though very pleased at how the Nobody's Princess pants held up against the rain, didn't have any leakage into pockets or anything.

Friday the whole lot froze overnight and I'm not a fan of ice - between the groomers doing their thing and the lifts opening the pistes just set into a texture like granny's washing board. By lunch time they had softened out nicely and it was really quite lovely.

I'm surprised at how many rocks are pocking through; I have memories of the slopes near the lower carparks having much more snow coverage in past years and would have thought with the early season dumping there's be better cover, but I think I might have chosen a bad week to be here too with all the recent rain and not much snow renewalView attachment 19019

Day off today, taking a cruise on the Earnslaw and finding some low-light lenses. Urgh, that's my pet hate of not straightening horizons right there. I'll say that because NZ it's taken in the middle of an earthquake.
It looks like the rain has taken a fair bit off!
 

Eera

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
It looks like the rain has taken a fair bit off!
Yeah I agree, it's telling that there are no tracks in those off-piste blacks near the road. I heard one of the operators for NZ ski saying that this week going to be a bad one but they are expecting a good dump next week.

After we go home. Of course.

Ah well, at least I've got back on the planks. Trying out a few different models from the hire joint, liking the Black Pearls immensely.
 

AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh Nooooo !! Its already being called "The Big Rinse of 2022" :cry: Hopefully it didnt ruin your trip as I know you were looking forward to it so much. Hard to believe this time last week we were skiing lovely dry chalky winter snow and those that ventured backcountry had the most sublime light dry powder. For those that don't know we got hammered by what the weather guru's are calling an atmospheric river that originated up in the tropics and made a beeline for us causing total havoc. The lovely high pressure system we had last weekend that gave us such glorious cold bluebird days stalled just off the Eastcoast and made it possible for this "river" to create carnage. Some towns have been devastated by the amount of rain so our poor old snowpack isn't really all that relevant but it still hurts :cry: Monday was the last time I got out on ski's due to weather but fingers crossed the snowpack has drained out by tomorrow and I can head back up. Glad to hear your gear held up and hope you get a few more days in x
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh Nooooo !! Its already being called "The Big Rinse of 2022" :cry: Hopefully it didnt ruin your trip as I know you were looking forward to it so much. Hard to believe this time last week we were skiing lovely dry chalky winter snow and those that ventured backcountry had the most sublime light dry powder. For those that don't know we got hammered by what the weather guru's are calling an atmospheric river that originated up in the tropics and made a beeline for us causing total havoc. The lovely high pressure system we had last weekend that gave us such glorious cold bluebird days stalled just off the Eastcoast and made it possible for this "river" to create carnage. Some towns have been devastated by the amount of rain so our poor old snowpack isn't really all that relevant but it still hurts :cry: Monday was the last time I got out on ski's due to weather but fingers crossed the snowpack has drained out by tomorrow and I can head back up. Glad to hear your gear held up and hope you get a few more days in x
Right?! Last weekend/Monday was some of the nicest conditions I've skied, they even had 100% of the mountain open which is rare, and now.... Hutt is unrecognisable, someone told me they apparently lost a metre of base and honestly I'd believe it, looking at the webcams :'(

Eera, hope you get a few decent days in, it's SUCH bad luck arriving just as this weather event rolled in!
 

AJM

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hutt is unrecognisable, someone told me they apparently lost a metre of base and honestly I'd believe it, looking at the webcams :'(
Did you go up today? Porters was so much fun, there was initial shock at all snow we lost but we've still got more snow than we've had the last few seasons so we just all got out there and enjoyed the rain groomed softness. Our 2 big faces ,Mama and Bluff, we're "On like Donkey Kong" and it was so good to be able to ski off piste again :ski:
 

fgor

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Did you go up today? Porters was so much fun, there was initial shock at all snow we lost but we've still got more snow than we've had the last few seasons so we just all got out there and enjoyed the rain groomed softness. Our 2 big faces ,Mama and Bluff, we're "On like Donkey Kong" and it was so good to be able to ski off piste again :ski:
Ahh I didn't in the end, my friend and I were super undecided about it on Saturday evening as the forecast didn't look good, and we were feeling ambivalent about waking up at 5am to go ski wet snow in the middle of clouds with low vis (what the forecast was suggesting), so we decided to give it a miss for once and get some extra sleep :redface: I'm glad Porters was good anyway though!! The webcams are all really shocking but at least most of the trails are still there... and we're all doing better than poor old Ruapehu :cry:
 

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