Kiwi Ski Girl
Certified Ski Diva
Here's a retrospective of my season down under in NZ. For those of you that don't know NZ we have two commercial fields in the North Island and loads in the South Island. Arguably the conditions are way better in the South Island, but I did all my skiing this season at Whakapapa and Turoa (Mt Ruapehu) in the North Island. Here's the link to their site, if you want to know more:
https://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/
Our first trip down was to Turoa on 21 June, but there was no skiing for us as there wasn't quite enough snow... They opened 2 days later. Here's what the mountain looked like then:
Our next trip was in July. There had been a couple of big storms by then and it was starting to look like it'd be a great season. Here's pic of the Pinnacles at Whakapapa:
Our best trip of the whole season was in late August. We tend to get a lot of "hard pack" and ice at our hill. It can also be quite windy, so the powder often gets blown away. But in August we had a week of snow overnight and then calm powder filled days. Amazing!
Here's another pic of the Pinnacles... people were skiing down the next day (not me though as it's double black diamond territory up there)...
In September I did a trip around to the other side of the mountain (Turoa). Perfect spring conditions and so much snow it wasn't funny! I think the base was about 4m then, which was an all time record (normally it's around 1.83m). I had a horrible wipe out on this trip and wrenched my knee and also somehow rotated my ankle (boots must have been too loose). So annoying as there was no more skiing for me the next SEVEN weeks... Here's a pic looking up the High Noon Express chair:
After 7 weeks of physio I got the green light for my last trip of the season. We stayed in Ohakune and went to both Turoa and Whakapapa. Only got 2.5 days in, as there were strong winds, as is typical of this time of year. We went up one day, only to have the lifts closed at lunch time because of gale force winds! Our last day was perfect, a bit of high cloud, but fantastic conditions. We'd had a light dusting of fresh snow the night before and it was so cold (-6 centigrade) that there was virtually no spring slush in the afternoon. I nailed a black run that I had trouble with last year and also did some new black runs, so all in all a great end to my season!
https://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/
Our first trip down was to Turoa on 21 June, but there was no skiing for us as there wasn't quite enough snow... They opened 2 days later. Here's what the mountain looked like then:
Our next trip was in July. There had been a couple of big storms by then and it was starting to look like it'd be a great season. Here's pic of the Pinnacles at Whakapapa:
Our best trip of the whole season was in late August. We tend to get a lot of "hard pack" and ice at our hill. It can also be quite windy, so the powder often gets blown away. But in August we had a week of snow overnight and then calm powder filled days. Amazing!
Here's another pic of the Pinnacles... people were skiing down the next day (not me though as it's double black diamond territory up there)...
In September I did a trip around to the other side of the mountain (Turoa). Perfect spring conditions and so much snow it wasn't funny! I think the base was about 4m then, which was an all time record (normally it's around 1.83m). I had a horrible wipe out on this trip and wrenched my knee and also somehow rotated my ankle (boots must have been too loose). So annoying as there was no more skiing for me the next SEVEN weeks... Here's a pic looking up the High Noon Express chair:
After 7 weeks of physio I got the green light for my last trip of the season. We stayed in Ohakune and went to both Turoa and Whakapapa. Only got 2.5 days in, as there were strong winds, as is typical of this time of year. We went up one day, only to have the lifts closed at lunch time because of gale force winds! Our last day was perfect, a bit of high cloud, but fantastic conditions. We'd had a light dusting of fresh snow the night before and it was so cold (-6 centigrade) that there was virtually no spring slush in the afternoon. I nailed a black run that I had trouble with last year and also did some new black runs, so all in all a great end to my season!
