New Zealand Southern Alps
Skiing with Helicopters
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Lawrie looking remarkable.
We both got up early and drove up Mount Remarkable to the ski resort. This ski resort is about a 30-minute drive from our accommodation. In New Zealand, there are no lodges or places to stay on the mountain, so every morning you must drive up a mountain to ski.
It was a very beautiful but tricky drive up the mountain, as the road was gravel-covered and icy at higher elevations. When we reached the car park, it was around 8:30 a.m. and -6°C, which made it very, very cold. We got our gear on and headed to the lifts for a day of skiing. The ski runs could have used another meter of snow to cover the grass and rocks, but there was still plenty of good skiing to be had, including some powder. It's been a poor ski season in New Zealand this year.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Lawrie looking at the Remarkables.
Lawrence and I got up early and drove to the Coronet Peak ski field. This is the second ski resort easily accessible from Queenstown. It turns out there are two ways to get to Coronet Peak from Queenstown—the long way and the short way. Of course, we took the long way due to my misguidance.
Still, we arrived at the parking lot just as the lifts were starting, and to a clear blue sky. The view from Coronet Peak of Queenstown and the Remarkables is just spectacular. That evening, Fred arrived from Australia and joined us for our New Zealand skiing expedition.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Fred joined us from Melbourne.
This was a very exciting day for Lawrence and me, as we went heliskiing! As you would imagine, this involves using a helicopter to fly to very remote mountain locations to ski with a guide on pristine powder snow.
Lawrie looking how we all felt during the avalanche briefing.
It was another beautiful sunny day, and we had a perfect day of skiing. Heliskiing is extremely challenging and fun at the same time. We were picked up by the guide and the other skiers around 9:00 a.m. After a quick 15-minute drive to the Queenstown airport, we placed all our gear in the helicopter hangar. Our guide then gave each of us an avalanche radio, which we strapped to our bodies. He instructed us on how to use them—a sobering thought!
Off we went.
He explained that we would need to use the radios if the guide, or any of us, were buried under an avalanche of snow. I couldn’t resist joking that the radios would help us find and recover the frozen body of whoever got buried—it got a nervous laugh.
What a day we had. I'm still trying to find the words to describe how amazing it was to ski the backcountry of the New Zealand Alps.
Some of the skiing was breathtaking.
"Challenging" is the first word that comes to mind, as we had to use skis we weren’t accustomed to. They were fat, long, and heavy, which made them hard to handle. "Beautiful" is another word that fits, as we were dropped on remote mountain ridges, offering spectacular views of the New Zealand Alps. The helicopter took us up five times, and we skied down five different routes, each with varying snow conditions.
Sometimes we skied on very soft powder, and other times we encountered hard, wind-blown, packed snow. Unfortunately, one young skier in our group seriously injured himself after our first run. He was going too fast and lost control.
The surviving skiers were very happy and very tired.
We stopped for lunch after the second run and ate at the bottom of one of the slopes.
The food, brought in by the helicopter, was delicious. The sun was shining, and we enjoyed our meal in one of the most stunning locations I’ve ever seen. After the day's skiing was over, we were both completely exhausted. The excitement of being dropped off on mountain ridges by helicopter, skiing on fat skis all day, and navigating extremely challenging runs finally took its toll. We slept very well that night.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Fred and Lawrie about to go down the Super Pipe.
On this day, Lawrence, Fred, and I skied at the Treble Cone ski resort. It’s a very large ski area and had the best snow coverage of all the resorts we had visited on this trip. We had a lot of fun. Fred's favorite run was called the Super Pipe.
The Super Pipe is a gully with steep walls on either side that runs for about a kilometer. In the Super Pipe, you can ski up and down the walls of the gully all the way down. By the end of the day, Lawrence and I were completely skied out. We had nothing left in our legs and found it difficult to even walk, let alone ski. Needless to say, we slept very well again that night.