New Zealand!

Check out this backcountry skiing in New Zealand! As many of you know, I’m working as a ski patroller at Mt. Cheeseman, a “club ski field” in Canterbury, New Zealand. It is a fun place to work, definitely a lot different than ski areas in the States. One big difference is it’s small and mellow — thirty cars in the parking lot means we might get crowded. The place is funky in various ways, one of which is that the lodge (which is quite nice, by the way) only had 16kbs dialup for the start of the season. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to do any trip reports until I got better internet access. Luckily, one of the club members figured out how to beam broadband up here from his house, so let the TRs begin!

Mt. Cheeseman ski area itself doesn’t have very challenging terrain, although it gets tracked out at 1/100 the rate of any American ski area I have been to. Behind the ski field, however, is amazing access to super backcountry skiing. I have been able to do great skiing when I get the chance.

I had an afternoon off of work a few days after a nice dump. The avalanche danger was low, and there were almost no tracks in the Tairn Chutes, which are less than half an hour hike from the ski area boundary

Stu, a fellow Cheeseman employee, and I were able to get some amazing runs in Tairn Basin. It is amazing that 4 days after a storm, as whole faces are usually still without tracks a mere 20 minute hike from the top of a lift. I guess that is New Zealand for you, pretty mellow; just not that populous. We made one run in Tairn Chutes, and two in an area dubbed Tairn Forest, for the snow plastered rock outcrops that surround the chutes. It was all amazing powder turns, and I was back in time to do the evening sweep!