Quick geography, Christchurch is ~60 miles east of a North-South range called the Southern Alps. The prevailing wind pattern is from the West. So all in all it's alot like being in a pattern like Cle Elum, though less winds because there's no low pass like Snoqualmie.
Mt Hutt is our new Home mountain, roughly 90 minutes through some of the flattest country staring right out a huge range of moutains that continually grow as you get closer. The fold of the landscape are very different from the Cascades, I'd liken them to what little I know about the Rockies.
This view is to the Northwest and the only operations in this direction are Heli Skiing.
As we neared the resort there's a parking lot for the shutte where the road conditions are posted. As we passed we saw two girls raise their arms. We hadn't noticed the thumbs. Ok, we're picking up hitchhikers in a foreign country, awesome. Turns out the two gals(lasses?) are Irish, both ski a little, and one is a PT(Physical therapist) who's lived in NZ for 8 months, the other training to be a teacher who's been around less. It was pretty funny to listen to the conversation on the way up.
Let's cover the road real quick, definitely not an American road. 14Km of no asphalt, just gravel, and ice, oh and a little bit of sluah. If clings to mountain sides, avalanche valleys(I'm not exagerating) and gains the occasional ridge top with out a second thought of guard rail. Meanwhie our 4wd(awd) Mazda Wagon has 1/2 bald tires. All while listening to the Irish girls chat with Julie about their relocation and Grey's anatomy(they love that Patrick Dempsey). Oh and driving on the other side of the road. And it's sunny. Not my Northwest ski commute to be sure.
The Mountain was stunning. It's based in one large folded valley with lots of stream valleys forming amazing contours and tons of natural half pipes. It shone in the cloudless sky. Both Julie and were instantly enamored with the mountain. Ironically the one song we heard playing in the base was American Pie by Don Mclean. It almost felt like just another day of spring skiing at a New American resort.
After a couple warm up runs we decided it was time for lunch. As we walked to the car, we noticed a metal walk-way that extended some 50 ft out from a cliff band that was the parking lot(no guardrail). Oh yeah, bungee jumping from the middle of the resort. I did not partake(too cold), but was impressed by the Kiwi's persistence in the pursuit of all that is extreme. As we
walked between the other cars, I noticed a large green bird. I'd heard of the Kea, it's a mountain parrot that resides in the Southern Alps. Somehow I thought it might go lower in the winter and that it was like a parakeet in size. This thing is big enough to eat! Apparently they'll chew on anything. Their known to drive motorcyclists nuts as they'll chew the seats, the grips, etc.. Eitherway, the bird and the bungees jumping was enough to thoroughly remind us that this wasn't back home!We packed in some great laps after lunch and called it an early day as my quads were starting to burn already from all the jumping around.
It felt great to regain our skiing legs so fast and to do it in such a cool place.
Today it's back to a few chores and tomorrow will hopefully be skiing again(weather dependant).
Conditions/terrain:
The snow was about 1 week old. Groomers were firm and fast with smoke type spray rising off. Off-piste had a break-away styrofoam texture(soft crust) 1 cm of snow-dust on top with loose dry underneath (10 cm?) that was rarely reached through riding. Aspects that received sun slightly softened, but low temps keep event the solar melting to a minimum. Terrain is a great mix of complex fall lines caused by a very folded rock. Stream cuts have further refined the contours creating constantly changing steepness and contours. Summit was wind swept. Clear, reported -2 at base at 1PM.
No comments:
Post a Comment