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 โ€˜love youโ€™ 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 couldnโ€™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 stayโ€ฆlong 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 openโ€ฆCardrona.

It was looking like the storm may delay just enough to give us a decent day of skiingโ€ฆ

Typical access road for NZ

To the North, Wanaka was getting a nice morning tan, so things were looking upโ€ฆ

Gorgeous sunrise over the Cardrona Valley

After parking the car, we turned around and noticed that the storm was looking a bit more ominousโ€ฆ

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 faceโ€ฆ

Storm is here

At this point, the chair screeched to a halt but the winds remained sustainedโ€ฆ

Hurricane force winds

The views of New Zealand were stunningโ€ฆ

Nukingโ€ฆ

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 dayโ€ฆ

Stoked!

Back in the Valley, it was a perfect time for a Kiwi breakfast at the Cardrona Hotelโ€ฆ

Cardrona Hotel

Back in Queenstown, a late afternoon beer with an old mate rounded out the dayโ€ฆ

Old mate Woody

DAY TWO:

After witnessing the blizzard at our exit of day one, we were excited to wake up and check the morningโ€™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 exploreโ€ฆ

Captains zone

We began our day laying down some top to bottom turns on some corduroy laden blissโ€ฆ

Morning warmup

We decide to session the Arcadia Chutes zone due to some nice wind deposited pockets throughoutโ€ฆ

Faceshot? Close enoughโ€ฆ

The Arcadia Chutes are littered with open bowls, chutes, cliffs and rolling featuresโ€ฆ

Arcadia POV

Hereโ€™s a photo of an extreme skier getting extremeโ€ฆ

EXTREME!

The Burton High Fives superpipe event was going on throughout the dayโ€ฆand the dudes were definitely boosting.

Oh hell yes

Another lap? I didnโ€™t travel from California to sit in the cafeโ€ฆ

Lines abound

It took a bit of Kodak courage but fun was obtainedโ€ฆ

Airs over tussock

Up above the Whitestar Express, you can do a short 5-10 minute hike to some steeper terrainโ€ฆ

Is that powder?

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

Success!

The author tries to make a scenic carve in the tussockโ€ฆ

Sidecut warrior

And just like that the jet-lag finally kicked inโ€ฆ

He needs a beer

For a bit more detailed reportโ€ฆcheck it out on my site:

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


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