Entertaining the Variable @ Cardrona Ski Field, New Zealand

Casey Cane |

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure to visit Cardrona Ski Field for a few days. Cardrona caters to everyone and really does ‘love you’ as stated by their current tag line. From families to park skiers, off piste warriors to sidecountry enthusiasts, they really have a lot to offer. Speaking of the terrain parks, now that Snow Park NZ has shutdown, Cardrona is now THE place to visit during the North American Summer for park skiing.

With my skiing partner Miles Holden, we couldn’t have had two more different days during the trip. The first day was shut down early for insane weather, and the second day was a mix of every type of weather, light, snow condition and terrain.

DAY ONE:

The morning started in Queenstown like any other morning during my stay…long black in my cup, laptop refreshing Met Service (NZ weather site), and analyzing all the nearby webcams. However, with a large storm approaching, only one ski field had the courage to open…Cardrona.

It was looking like the storm may delay just enough to give us a decent day of skiing…

Typical access road for NZ

To the North, Wanaka was getting a nice morning tan, so things were looking up…

Gorgeous sunrise over the Cardrona Valley

After parking the car, we turned around and noticed that the storm was looking a bit more ominous…

WHOA! Dark Skies!

On our first lap on the Whitestar Express, we were greeted by some inclement weather and Mr. Holden did his best to protect his handsome face…

Storm is here

At this point, the chair screeched to a halt but the winds remained sustained…

Hurricane force winds

The views of New Zealand were stunning…

Nuking…

After safely taking the humans off the lift (which was later hit by lightning) and closing the resort, we were stoked to know that we were of a select few who actually skied in NZ that day…

Stoked!

Back in the Valley, it was a perfect time for a Kiwi breakfast at the Cardrona Hotel

Cardrona Hotel

Back in Queenstown, a late afternoon beer with an old mate rounded out the day…

Old mate Woody

DAY TWO:

After witnessing the blizzard at our exit of day one, we were excited to wake up and check the morning’s reports. Sadly, the snow levels had risen up to the moon, and everywhere received rain, thus creating a frozen solid snow pack. The saving grace was that a small, albeit windy, snow storm rolled through after the rain event bringing a much needed wintery blast.

With the morning light, it was time to explore…

Captains zone

We began our day laying down some top to bottom turns on some corduroy laden bliss…

Morning warmup

We decide to session the Arcadia Chutes zone due to some nice wind deposited pockets throughout…

Faceshot? Close enough…

The Arcadia Chutes are littered with open bowls, chutes, cliffs and rolling features…

Arcadia POV

Here’s a photo of an extreme skier getting extreme…

EXTREME!

The Burton High Fives superpipe event was going on throughout the day…and the dudes were definitely boosting.

Oh hell yes

Another lap? I didn’t travel from California to sit in the cafe…

Lines abound

It took a bit of Kodak courage but fun was obtained…

Airs over tussock

Up above the Whitestar Express, you can do a short 5-10 minute hike to some steeper terrain…

Is that powder?

It was quite surprising to find such high snow quality up there BUT I AM NOT COMPLAINING

Success!

The author tries to make a scenic carve in the tussock…

Sidecut warrior

And just like that the jet-lag finally kicked in…

He needs a beer

For a bit more detailed report…check it out on my site:

http://www.slaythegnar.com/2013/09/entertaining-the-variable-cardrona-ski-field-nz-091313/


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